The Odyssey

  through the murky night, for there was no light to see by:

  a deep mist lay round the ships, nor did the moon

  shed any light from heaven, but was obscured by clouds.

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  None got a glimpse of that island, nor could we see

  the long breakers rolling in on the shore, until

  we beached all our well-benched vessels, and, that done,

  lowered the sails on each one of them, and ourselves

  then disembarked on the seashore, and lay down

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  to sleep, and awaited the coming of dawn and brightness.

  "When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,

  we went exploring the island, in amazement at it,

  and the nymphs, the daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus,

  sent out the mountain goats, to give my comrades dinner.

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  At once we took from the ships curved bows and long-socketed

  goat-spears, and forming ourselves into three groups

  went hunting, and right off some god provided us

  with a most satisfactory bag. Twelve ships came with me,

  and each got nine goats by lot; for me alone they chose ten.

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  "So then for the rest of the day until the sun went down

  we sat eating abundant meat and drinking the sweet wine,

  for not yet was all the red wine in our ships consumed,

  but some remained; each crew had drawn off a great deal

  in jars, when we sacked the Kikones' sacred citadel.

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  Now we were looking across at the nearby Kyklopes' country--

  saw smoke, heard their voices, the bleat of their sheep and goats.

  But when the sun had set and darkness came on,

  then we lay down and slept along the line of the shore.

  "When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,

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  I called an assembly and declared before them all:

  'The rest of you stay here now, my trusty comrades:

  I with my own ship and my own crew will go over

  and find out about these men--who they may be,

  whether they're violent creatures, savage, and lawless,

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  or hospitable people, men with god-fearing minds.'

  "That said, I boarded my vessel, ordered my companions

  to embark themselves, and to cast off the stern warps.

  They came aboard quickly, seated themselves at the rowlocks,

  and sitting in order struck the grey salt deep with their oars.

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  But when we got to the place, quite near at hand, there at

  the land's edge, close to the sea, we saw a cave,

  high, overgrown with laurels, where abundant flocks

  of sheep and goats spent the night. Around it a high

  wall had been built, with stones sunk deep in the ground,

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  and long timbers of pine and lofty-crested oak.

  There a monstrous man had his dwelling, who all alone

  herded his flocks far off, consorted with no others,

  but lived by himself, mind bred in lawlessness:

  a monstrous wonder, resembling not so much

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  any bread-eating mortal, but rather the wooded peak

  of some lofty mountain, standing out apart from the rest.

  "Then I ordered the rest of my trusty comrades to stay there,

  where they were, by the ship, and to stand guard over it;

  but I, having chosen the twelve best among my comrades,

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  went on, taking a goatskin full of the sweet dark wine

  that Maro gave me--Maro, Euanthes' son and priest

  of Apollo, the guardian of Ismaros--because we had

  protected him, together with his wife and his child,

  out of reverence: his dwelling was in a wooded grove

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  of Phoibos Apollo, and he gave me splendid gifts:

  of fine-wrought gold he bestowed on me seven talents,

  with a mixing bowl all of silver, besides the wine,

  with which he filled a dozen large jars in all,

  sweet and unmixed, a heavenly drink: not one

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  of his house servants or handmaids had knowledge of it,

  only himself, and his wife, and one woman, their housekeeper;

  and whenever they drank this honey-sweet red wine

  he'd mix one cup of wine with twenty measures of water,

  and from the bowl would rise an aroma of marvelous

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  sweetness--then indeed to abstain would be no pleasure!

  With this wine I filled and took with me a sizable goatskin,

  and a leather bag packed with food, for my sharp mind sensed

  that the man we were going to encounter, clad in huge strength,

  was wild, with no knowledge of justice or civil rights.

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  "So we quickly came to the cave, but did not find him

  inside: he was out, tending his fat flocks at pasture.

  Then we entered the cave, amazed by all we saw there:

  baskets loaded with cheeses, pens full of lambs

  and kids. Each age-group was sorted out separately--

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  the older ones by themselves, the middlers likewise,

  the newborn too. All the pans were brimming with whey,

  the buckets and bowls, well wrought, that he used for milking.

  Right off, my comrades spoke up, implored me to take

  some of the cheeses and leave, then quickly to drive

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  kids and lambs from the pens back to our swift ship,

  and sail away over the deep salt sea. But I would not

  listen--far better indeed had I done so!--for I wanted

  to meet this man, find out if he'd treat me as a guest.

  No joy was he to my comrades when he did appear!

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  "So we lit a fire, and made sacrifice, and ourselves

  took some of the cheeses and ate them, sat there inside

  waiting, till he returned with his flock, hefting a great

  load of dry firewood to serve him at suppertime,

  and dumped it down with a crash as he came inside.

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  We shrank back, terrified, into the back of the cave,

  while he drove his fat flocks into the roomy cavern--

  all, that is, that he milked; the males he left outside,

  he-goats and rams, there in the deep yard. Then

  he lifted and put in place a huge and massive

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  door stone: not twenty-two four-wheeled wagons,

  strong ones, would have sufficed to raise it off the threshold,

  such a towering mass of rock he set in the doorway!

  Then down he sat and milked the ewes and bleating she-goats,

  all in turn, and set each lamb and kid to its mother.

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  Next, once he'd curdled half the white milk, he collected

  the curds in wicker baskets and put them aside.

  The remaining half he left in the pails, so it would be handy

  to take and drink, and be ready for him at supper.

  But after he'd busied himself with these tasks, he rekindled

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  the fire, and caught sight of us, and questioned us, saying:

  'So, strangers, who are you? From where was it you sailed here

  over the watery ways? On business? Or do you rove at random,

  cruising the sea like pirates, who, at risk of their own lives,

  go around making trouble for men from other lands?'

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  "So he spoke, and we succumbed to panic in our hearts,

  terrified by his deep voice and his monstrous person;

 
yet even so I responded, and addressed him, saying:

  'We are, if you please, Achaians, driven wandering from Troy

  by all the winds, across the great gulf of the sea,

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  seeking our homes, but blown on a different route,

  the wrong paths: Zeus, I guess, must have planned it thus.

  We are, we claim, men serving Atreus' son Agamemnon--

  whose fame now is unsurpassed under heaven, so great

  a city he sacked, so many people he slew! But we

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  who come to you now are suppliants, clasp your knees,

  hoping you'll treat us as guests, or in some other way

  give us some kind of present, as is proper with strangers.

  Kind sir, revere the gods! We are here as your suppliants,

  and Zeus is the protector of suppliants and strangers,

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  the strangers' god, who looks after respectful guests.'

  "So I spoke. And he with pitiless heart responded:

  'You're a fool, stranger, or you must come from far away,

  telling me either to fear or to steer clear of the gods!

  The Kyklopes pay no attention to Zeus of the aegis,

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  nor to the blessed gods--we're far mightier than they!

  Nor would I, to avoid the wrath of Zeus, spare either

  you or your comrades, unless the spirit so moved me!

  But where, coming here, did you leave your well-built ship?

  Far off was it, or nearby? Tell me: I'd like to know.'

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  "So he spoke, testing me; but I knew too much to be tricked,

  and when I replied it was with guile of my own:

  'My ship was broken up by Poseidon the Earth-Shaker,

  who cast it upon the rocks at the frontier of your country:

  close to the headland he drove it: the wind brought it ashore.

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  But I, and these men here, eluded sheer destruction.'

  "So I spoke. He, with ruthless heart, made me no answer,

  but sprang up, laid hands on my comrades, grappled two,

  and down on the ground, as though they were mere puppies,

  dashed them: their brains spilled earthwards, wetted the floor.

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  Then limb from limb he tore them to prepare his supper,

  and devoured them like a mountain-bred lion, leaving nothing--

  innards and flesh, bones with the marrow in them,

  while we, lamenting, reached out our hands to Zeus

  at the sight of such bestial deeds. Helplessness overmastered

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  our hearts. When the Kyklops had glutted his vast belly

  by gobbling human flesh, washed down with unmixed milk,

  he settled to sleep in the cave, stretched out among his sheep.

  So I planned an attack on him in my great-hearted spirit:

  I'd steal up close, draw the sharp sword from beside my thigh,

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  and drive it into his breast, where the midriff cups the liver,

  finding the spot with my hand. But a second thought stopped me--

  we too would have perished there, faced sheer destruction,

  for we could never have thrust back from the lofty

  entrance with our bare hands the huge stone he'd set there,

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  and so, lamenting, we lay there, awaiting the bright Dawn.

  "As soon as Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,

  he rekindled the fire, and began milking his fine flocks,

  all in turn, and set each lamb and kid to its mother.

  Then after he'd briskly accomplished his various tasks

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  he again grabbed two men together, and readied his meal.

  When he'd eaten, he drove his fat flocks out of the cave,

  easily shifting the enormous door-stone, and afterwards

  setting it back in place, like the lid on a quiver.

  Then, whistling loudly, the Kyklops steered his fat flocks

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  uphill, and I was left there, planning mischief deep in my heart--

  to get back at him, have Athene let me boast of what I'd done!

  "Now this was the plan that seemed, to my mind, the likeliest:

  The Kyklops had left a great club beside a sheep pen,

  of green olive wood, that he'd cut to carry with him

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  when it had dried out. Eyeing this, we compared it

  in size to the mast of a black ship of twenty oars,

  a broad-beamed merchantman, one that crosses the great

  sea gulf--so huge did its length and breadth look to us.

  I went and chopped off a piece about a fathom long:

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  handed this to my comrades, told them to scrape it down,

  and they made it smooth, while I stood there and sharpened

  its point, then took and hardened it in the blazing fire,

  and stowed it out of sight, hiding it under the dung

  that was strewn throughout the cave in heaped-up piles.

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  I ordered the others to cast lots to decide

  which ones would dare, with me, to hoist up this stake

  and ram it into his eye, when sweet sleep overcame him.

  The lot picked out the same ones whom I'd have chosen,

  four of them; with these, as the fifth, I picked myself.

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  "In the evening back he came, herding his fine-fleeced flocks,

  and straightway drove his fat flocks into the wide cave--

  all of them, left none outside in the deep enclosure:

  some idea of his own, perhaps--or a god's command?2

  He lifted and put in place the huge and massive door-stone,

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  then sat down and milked the ewes and bleating she-goats,

  all in turn, and set each lamb and kid to its mother.

  Then after he'd briskly accomplished his various tasks

  he again grabbed two men together, and readied his meal.

  It was now that I spoke to the Kyklops, going and standing

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  beside him, in my hands an ivy-wood bowl of dark wine:

  'Here, Kyklops, drink this wine, now you've fed on human flesh,

  and learn what fine wine it is that's stowed aboard our ship:

  I was bringing it as a libation, hoping you'd feel pity

  for me, and send me on homeward; but your mad fury

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  is not to be borne! Cruel wretch, how in future will any man

  in the world come near you? What you've done is an outrage.'

  "So I spoke. He took the wine, drained it, was vastly pleased

  as he swilled the sweet stuff, demanded a second bowlful:

  'Quick, give me some more--and also tell me your name,

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  now, at once! I want to give you a guest-gift you'll enjoy!

  For the Kyklopes too the grain-giving earth bears vines

  with rich clusters of grapes, and Zeus' rain makes them grow;

  but this--this is a match for ambrosia and nectar!'

  "So he spoke; and I once more brought him the bright wine.

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  Three bowlfuls I fetched and gave him, three times in his folly

  he drained them. Then, when the wine had fuddled his wits,

  I addressed him with honey-sweet words, saying: 'Kyklops,

  do you ask me my famous name? Very well, I will tell you--

  and then you give me that guest-gift, just as you promised!

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  Nobody is my name, Nobody's what I'm called by

  my mother and father and all my comrades.'

  "So I spoke,

  and at once he with pitiless heart responded: 'Nobody

  I shall eat last of all, when I've had all his companions,
r />   and the others first: so, that will be your guest-gift.'

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  "So saying, he swayed and fell on his back, lay sprawling

  with his thick neck twisted sideways: overmastering sleep