"‘Then,’ said they,
‘if no man is attacking you, you must be ill; when Zeus makes
people ill, there is no help for it, and you had better pray to your
father Poseidon.’
"Then they went away, and I
laughed inwardly at the success of my clever stratagem, but the
Cyclops, groaning and in an agony of pain, felt about with his hands
till he found the stone and took it from the door; then he sat in the
doorway and stretched his hands in front of it to catch anyone going
out with the sheep, for he thought I might be foolish enough to
attempt this.
"As for myself I kept on puzzling
to think how I could best save my own life
[psukhê] and those of my companions; I schemed
and schemed, as one who knows that his life depends upon it, for the
danger was very great. In the end I deemed that this plan would be
the best. The male sheep were well grown, and carried a heavy black
fleece, so I bound them noiselessly in threes together, with some of
the withies on which the wicked monster used to sleep. There was to
be a man under the middle sheep, and the two on either side were to
cover him, so that there were three sheep to each man. As for myself
there was a ram finer than any of the others, so I caught hold of him
by the back, ensconced myself in the thick wool under his belly, and
hung on patiently to his fleece, face upwards, keeping a firm hold on
it all the time.
"Thus, then, did we wait in great
fear of mind till morning came, but when the child of morning,
rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, the male sheep hurried out to feed,
while the ewes remained bleating about the pens waiting to be milked,
for their udders were full to bursting; but their master in spite of
all his pain felt the backs of all the sheep as they stood upright,
without being sharp enough to find out that the men were underneath
their bellies. As the ram was going out, last of all, heavy with its
fleece and with the weight of my crafty self; Polyphemus laid hold of
it and said:
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
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