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Homer
Greek Poet
800?-750? B.C. A selection from THE ODYSSEY
Narrated by Dick Hill
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running time is 26 minutes
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When we got to the land, which was not far, there,
on the face of a cliff near the sea, we saw a great cave
overhung with laurels. It was a station for a great many sheep
and goats, and outside there was a large yard, with a high wall
round it made of stones built into the ground and of trees both
pine and oak. This was the abode of a huge monster who was then
away from home shepherding his flocks. He would have nothing to
do with other people, but led the life of an outlaw. He was a
horrid creature, not like a human being at all, but resembling
rather some crag that stands out boldly against the sky on the
top of a high mountain.
"I told my men to draw the ship ashore, and stay where they
were, all but the twelve best among them, who were to go along
with myself. I also took a goatskin of sweet black wine which
had been given me by Maron, son of Euanthes, who was priest of
Apollo the patron god of Ismarus, and lived within the wooded
precincts of the temple. When we were sacking the city we
respected him, and spared his life, as also his wife and child;
so he made me some presents of great value—seven talents of
fine gold, and a bowl of silver, with twelve jars of sweet wine,
unblended, and of the most exquisite flavour. Not a man nor maid
in the house knew about it, but only himself, his wife, and one
housekeeper: when he drank it he mixed twenty parts of water to
one of wine, and yet the fragrance from the mixing-bowl was so
exquisite that it was impossible to refrain from drinking. I
filled a large skin with this wine, and took a wallet full of
provisions with me, for my mind misgave me that I might have to
deal with some savage who would be of great strength, and would
respect neither right nor law.
"We soon reached his cave, but he was out shepherding, so we
went inside and took stock of all that we could see. His
cheese-racks were loaded with cheeses, and he had more lambs and
kids than his pens could hold. They were kept in separate
flocks; first there were the hoggets, then the oldest of the
younger lambs and lastly the very young ones all kept apart
from one another; as for his dairy, all the vessels, bowls, and
milk pails into which he milked, were swimming with whey. When
they saw all this, my men begged me to let them first steal some
cheeses, and make off with them to the ship; they would then
return, drive down the lambs and kids, put them on board and
sail away with them. It would have been indeed better if we had
done so but I would not listen to them, for I wanted to see the
owner himself, in the hope that he might give me a present.
When, however, we saw him my poor men found him ill to deal
with.
"We lit a fire, offered some of the cheeses in sacrifice, ate
others of them, and then sat waiting till the Cyclops should
come in with his sheep. When he came, he brought in with him a
huge load of dry firewood to light the fire for his supper, and
this he flung with such a noise on to the floor of his cave that
we hid ourselves for fear at the far end of the cavern.
Meanwhile he drove all the ewes inside, as well as the she-goats
that he was going to milk, leaving the males, both rams and
he-goats, outside in the yards. Then he rolled a huge stone to
the mouth of the cave—so huge that two and twenty strong
four-wheeled waggons would not be enough to draw it from its
place against the doorway. When he had so done he sat down and
milked his ewes and goats, all in due course, and then let each
of them have her own young. He curdled half the milk and set it
aside in wicker strainers, but the other half he poured into
bowls that he might drink it for his supper. When he had got
through with all his work, he lit the fire, and then caught
sight of us, whereon he said:
"'Strangers, who are you? Where do sail from? Are you traders,
or do you sail the sea as rovers, with your hands against every
man, and every man's hand against you?'
"We were frightened out of our senses by his loud voice and
monstrous form, but I managed to say, 'We are Achaeans on our
way home from Troy, but by the will of Jove, and stress of
weather, we have been driven far out of our course. We are the
people of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, who has won infinite renown
throughout the whole world, by sacking so great a city and
killing so many people. We therefore humbly pray you to show us
some hospitality, and otherwise make us such presents as
visitors may reasonably expect. May your excellency fear the
wrath of heaven, for we are your suppliants, and Jove takes all
respectable travellers under his protection, for he is the
avenger of all suppliants and foreigners in distress.'
"To this he gave me but a pitiless answer, 'Stranger,' said he,
'you are a fool, or else you know nothing of this country. Talk
to me, indeed, about fearing the gods or shunning their anger?
We Cyclopes do not care about Jove or any of your blessed gods,
for we are ever so much stronger than they. I shall not spare
either yourself or your companions out of any regard for Jove,
unless I am in the humour for doing so. And now tell me where
you made your ship fast when you came on shore. Was it round the
point, or is she lying straight off the land?'
"He said this to draw me out, but I was too cunning to be caught
in that way, so I answered with a lie; 'Neptune,' said I, 'sent
my ship on to the rocks at the far end of your country, and
wrecked it. We were driven on to them from the open sea, but I
and those who are with me escaped the jaws of death.'
"The cruel wretch vouchsafed me not one word of answer, but with
a sudden clutch he gripped up two of my men at once and dashed
them down upon the ground as though they had been puppies. Their
brains were shed upon the ground, and the earth was wet with
their blood. Then he tore them limb from limb and supped upon
them. He gobbled them up like a lion in the wilderness, flesh,
bones, marrow, and entrails, without leaving anything uneaten.
As for us, we wept and lifted up our hands to heaven on seeing
such a horrid sight, for we did not know what else to do; but
when the Cyclops had filled his huge paunch, and had washed down
his meal of human flesh with a drink of neat milk, he stretched
himself full length upon the ground among his sheep, and went to
sleep. I was at first inclined to seize my sword, draw it, and
drive it into his vitals, but I reflected that if I did we
should all certainly be lost, for we should never be able to
shift the stone which the monster had put in front of the door.
So we stayed sobbing and sighing where we were till morning
came.
"When the child of morning, rosy-fingered dawn, appeared, he
again lit his fire, milked his goats and ewes, all quite
rightly, and then let each have her own young one; as soon as he
had got through with all his work, he clutched up two more of my
men, and began eating them for his morning's meal. Presently,
with the utmost ease, he rolled the stone away from the door and
drove out his sheep, but he at once put it back again—as easily
as though he were merely clapping the lid on to a quiver full of
arrows. As soon as he had done so he shouted, and cried 'Shoo,
shoo,' after his sheep to drive them on to the mountain; so I
was left to scheme some way of taking my revenge and covering
myself with glory.
"In the end I deemed it would be the best plan to do as follows:
The Cyclops had a great club which was lying near one of the
sheep pens; it was of green olive wood, and he had cut it
intending to use it for a staff as soon as it should be dry. It
was so huge that we could only compare it to the mast of a
twenty-oared merchant vessel of large burden, and able to
venture out into open sea. I went up to this club and cut off
about six feet of it; I then gave this piece to the men and told
them to fine it evenly off at one end, which they proceeded to
do, and lastly I brought it to a point myself, charring the end
in the fire to make it harder. When I had done this I hid it
under dung, which was lying about all over the cave, and told
the men to cast lots which of them should venture along with
myself to lift it and bore it into the monster's eye while he
was asleep. The lot fell upon the very four whom I should have
chosen, and I myself made five. In the evening the wretch came
back from shepherding, and drove his flocks into the cave—this
time driving them all inside, and not leaving any in the yards;
I suppose some fancy must have taken him, or a god must have
prompted him to do so. As soon as he had put the stone back to
its place against the door, he sat down, milked his ewes and his
goats all quite rightly, and then let each have her own young
one; when he had got through with all this work, he gripped up
two more of my men, and made his supper off them. So I went up
to him with an ivy-wood bowl of black wine in my hands:
"'Look here, Cyclops,' said I, you have been eating a great deal
of man's flesh, so take this and drink some wine, that you may
see what kind of liquor we had on board my ship. I was bringing
it to you as a drink-offering, in the hope that you would take
compassion upon me and further me on my way home, whereas all
you do is to go on ramping and raving most intolerably. You
ought to be ashamed of yourself; how can you expect people to
come see you any more if you treat them in this way?'
"He then took the cup and drank. He was so delighted with the
taste of the wine that he begged me for another bowl full. 'Be
so kind,' he said, 'as to give me some more, and tell me your
name at once. I want to make you a present that you will be glad
to have. We have wine even in this country, for our soil grows
grapes and the sun ripens them, but this drinks like Nectar and
Ambrosia all in one.'
"I then gave him some more; three times did I fill the bowl for
him, and three times did he drain it without thought or heed;
then, when I saw that the wine had got into his head, I said to
him as plausibly as I could: 'Cyclops, you ask my name and I
will tell it you; give me, therefore, the present you promised
me; my name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my
friends have always called me.'
"But the cruel wretch said, 'Then I will eat all Noman's
comrades before Noman himself, and will keep Noman for the last.
This is the present that I will make him.'
"As he spoke he reeled, and fell sprawling face upwards on the
ground. His great neck hung heavily backwards and a deep sleep
took hold upon him. Presently he turned sick, and threw up both
wine and the gobbets of human flesh on which he had been
gorging, for he was very drunk. Then I thrust the beam of wood
far into the embers to heat it, and encouraged my men lest any
of them should turn faint-hearted. When the wood, green though
it was, was about to blaze, I drew it out of the fire glowing
with heat, and my men gathered round me, for heaven had filled
their hearts with courage. We drove the sharp end of the beam
into the monster's eye, and bearing upon it with all my weight I
kept turning it round and round as though I were boring a hole
in a ship's plank with an auger, which two men with a wheel and
strap can keep on turning as long as they choose. Even thus did
we bore the red hot beam into his eye, till the boiling blood
bubbled all over it as we worked it round and round, so that the
steam from the burning eyeball scalded his eyelids and eyebrows,
and the roots of the eye sputtered in the fire. As a blacksmith
plunges an axe or hatchet into cold water to temper it—for it
is this that gives strength to the iron—and it makes a great
hiss as he does so, even thus did the Cyclops' eye hiss round
the beam of olive wood, and his hideous yells made the cave ring
again. We ran away in a fright, but he plucked the beam all
besmirched with gore from his eye, and hurled it from him in a
frenzy of rage and pain, shouting as he did so to the other
Cyclopes who lived on the bleak headlands near him; so they
gathered from all quarters round his cave when they heard him
crying, and asked what was the matter with him.
"'What ails you, Polyphemus,' said they, 'that you make such a
noise, breaking the stillness of the night, and preventing us
from being able to sleep? Surely no man is carrying off your
sheep? Surely no man is trying to kill you either by fraud or by
force?'
"But Polyphemus shouted to them from inside the cave, 'Noman is
killing me by fraud; no man is killing me by force.'
"'Then,' said they, 'if no man is attacking you, you must be
ill; when Jove makes people ill, there is no help for it, and
you had better pray to your father Neptune.'
"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 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, esconced 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:
"'My good ram, what is it that makes you the last to leave my
cave this morning? You are not wont to let the ewes go before
you, but lead the mob with a run whether to flowery mead or
bubbling fountain, and are the first to come home again at
night; but now you lag last of all. Is it because you know your
master has lost his eye, and are sorry because that wicked Noman
and his horrid crew has got him down in his drink and blinded
him? But I will have his life yet. If you could understand and
talk, you would tell me where the wretch is hiding, and I would
dash his brains upon the ground till they flew all over the
cave. I should thus have some satisfaction for the harm this
no-good Noman has done me.'
"As he spoke he drove the ram outside, but when we were a little
way out from the cave and yards, I first got from under the
ram's belly, and then freed my comrades; as for the sheep, which
were very fat, by constantly heading them in the right direction
we managed to drive them down to the ship. The crew rejoiced
greatly at seeing those of us who had escaped death, but wept
for the others whom the Cyclops had killed. However, I made
signs to them by nodding and frowning that they were to hush
their crying, and told them to get all the sheep on board at
once and put out to sea; so they went aboard, took their places,
and smote the grey sea with their oars. Then, when I had got as
far out as my voice would reach, I began to jeer at the Cyclops.
"'Cyclops,' said I, 'you should have taken better measure of
your man before eating up his comrades in your cave. You
wretch, eat up your visitors in your own house? You might have
known that your sin would find you out, and now Jove and the
other gods have punished you.'
"He got more and more furious as he heard me, so he tore the top
from off a high mountain, and flung it just in front of my ship
so that it was within a little of hitting the end of the rudder.
{81} The sea quaked as the rock fell into it, and the wash of
the wave it raised carried us back towards the mainland, and
forced us towards the shore. But I snatched up a long pole and
kept the ship off, making signs to my men by nodding my head,
that they must row for their lives, whereon they laid out with a
will. When we had got twice as far as we were before, I was for
jeering at the Cyclops again, but the men begged and prayed of
me to hold my tongue.
"'Do not,' they exclaimed, 'be mad enough to provoke this savage
creature further; he has thrown one rock at us already which
drove us back again to the mainland, and we made sure it had
been the death of us; if he had then heard any further sound of
voices he would have pounded our heads and our ship's timbers
into a jelly with the rugged rocks he would have heaved at us,
for he can throw them a long way.'
"But I would not listen to them, and shouted out to him in my
rage, 'Cyclops, if any one asks you who it was that put your eye
out and spoiled your beauty, say it was the valiant warrior
Ulysses, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.'
"On this he groaned, and cried out, 'Alas, alas, then the old
prophecy about me is coming true. There was a prophet here, at
one time, a man both brave and of great stature, Telemus son of
Eurymus, who was an excellent seer, and did all the prophesying
for the Cyclopes till he grew old; he told me that all this
would happen to me some day, and said I should lose my sight by
the hand of Ulysses. I have been all along expecting some one of
imposing presence and superhuman strength, whereas he turns out
to be a little insignificant weakling, who has managed to blind
my eye by taking advantage of me in my drink; come here, then,
Ulysses, that I may make you presents to show my hospitality,
and urge Neptune to help you forward on your journey—for
Neptune and I are father and son. He, if he so will, shall heal
me, which no one else neither god nor man can do.'
"Then I said, 'I wish I could be as sure of killing you outright
and sending you down to the house of Hades, as I am that it will
take more than Neptune to cure that eye of yours.'
"On this he lifted up his hands to the firmament of heaven and
prayed, saying, 'Hear me, great Neptune; if I am indeed your own
true begotten son, grant that Ulysses may never reach his home
alive; or if he must get back to his friends at last, let him do
so late and in sore plight after losing all his men {let him
reach his home in another man's ship and find trouble in his
house.'} {82}
"Thus did he pray, and Neptune heard his prayer. Then he picked
up a rock much larger than the first, swung it aloft and hurled
it with prodigious force. It fell just short of the ship, but
was within a little of hitting the end of the rudder. The sea
quaked as the rock fell into it, and the wash of the wave it
raised drove us onwards on our way towards the shore of the
island.
"When at last we got to the island where we had left the rest of
our ships, we found our comrades lamenting us, and anxiously
awaiting our return. We ran our vessel upon the sands and got
out of her on to the sea shore; we also landed the Cyclops'
sheep, and divided them equitably amongst us so that none might
have reason to complain. More information about Homer from Wikipedia
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