In the hollow dens of the rocks, and each the law gives out

  To his own wives and his children, and they heed each other nought

  “Know now, that there lieth an island off the land where we were brought,

  And the haven of the Cyclops, betwixt near and far away;

  Woody it is, and the wild goats thereon unnumbered play,

  For no beaten path of menfolk there is the beasts to scare,

  Nor yet do the hunters haunt it who toilsome troubles bear

  As they wend their ways through the thickets and toil o’er the hill-tops high:

  But neither by herds is it holden, nor beneath the plough doth lie,

  And every day of the year unsown it is and untilled,

  And void of men; but its pastures by the bleating goats are filled.

  For no ships have the folk of the Cyclops with cheeks of cinnabar,

  Nor yet among them ever ship-making wrights there are

  The well-decked ships to fashion, their business to fulfil,

  And to flit them to cities of menfolk; as many a man hath will

  To the burgs of other people in ships to cross the sea.

  Yet might they fashion that island well-habited to be,

  For the land is nothing evil, but would bear all things in tide;

  And therein are soft watery meadows adown by the grey sea’s side,

  And every year unfailing would the vine her increase bear;

  And plain is the place for ploughing, and a deep crop every year

  Should men harvest in due season, for fat beneath is the soih

  And therein is a handy haven, where nought needeth the mooring toil,

  Neither the casting of hawsers, nor making the ship’s prow fast,

  But to beach the keel and be biding till the will to depart at the last

  Egg on the shipman to sailing, and the wind ariseth to blow.

  Withal at the head of the haven doth a lovely water flow,

  A well coming up from a cavern, and about it the poplars stand

  “So thitherward were we sailing, and some God led us on to the land

  Amid the dark of the night-tide and nought could be seen about,

  For thick was the mist round the ships,and no moon from theheavens shone

  But there as then was she hidden amongst the clouds on high. [out,

  So none there was of our fellows who beheld the isle anigh,

  Nor saw we the long billows roll on against the land

  Before our ships the well-decked were beached upon the strand.

  And so when beached were our keels, then all the sails struck we,

  And forth from the ships we wended adown on the shore of the sea,

  And there we slept and slumbered and the holy Dawn abode.

  “But when the Mother of Morning, Rose-fingered Day-dawn, showed,

  At the isle we wondered, and traversed about and along it there.

  But the Daughters of Zeus the Shielded, the Nymphs now needs must stir

  Thegoatsthat dwell in the mountains that our folk on their flesh might dine.

  So the crooked bows were we taking and the goat-spears long of tyne

  From the ships, and therewith our fellows by threes did we array;

  And we shot, and the God straight gave us our souls’ desire of prey.

  Twelve ships my leading followed, and to each did they allot

  Nine goats, but for me alone it was ten for my share that I got

  So there daylong we feasted till adown the great sun sank,

  And abundant flesh were we eating, and we sat and the sweet wine drank.

  For indeed the wine, the ruddy, from our ships lacked not as yet

  Since into our pitchers we poured, and good store did each one get

  When the holy burg of the Cicons we sacked a while ago.

  “So we looked on the land of the Cyclops so near as we were thereto,

  And we saw the smoke, and we hearkened men’s voices, and goats and sheep.

  But when the sun sank under and dusk did over us creep,

  There did we sleep and slumber the salt sea-beach upon.

  “But when the Mother of Morning, Rose-fingered Day-dawn, shone,

  Then a Meeting of Men I ‘stablished, and to all spake out my mind:

  ‘ Lo ye, my trusty fellows! do the others stay behind

  While I with the ship that I sail in and the shipmen under me

  Will go and of these make trial, what manner of men they may be;

  Whether they be folk o’erweening, wild men unright of mood,

  Or of minds that turn them Godward, guest-loving folk and good.’

  “So saying I went a-shipboard, and my fellows furthermore

  I bade them go a-shipboard and cast off from the shore.

  And straight they went up on the ship, and sat down on the thwarts a-low,

  And beat the grey sea with the oar-blades as they sat along and a-row.

  But when we came to that country, and hard at hand were we,

  We espied on the uttermost bent a cavern anigh to the sea,

  High, and with bay-trees covered, and flocks were there good store,

  Both sheep and goats a-slumbering; and a great garth furthermore

  Was built all round about it, with many a deep-set stone

  And many a pine long-shafted, and oaks of lofty crown.

  But thereby lay a man most mighty, who all those flocks of sheep

  Alone and apart was herding, and no fellowship did keep

  With others, and lonely dwelling of no law his mind did deem.

  Huge, marvellous was he of fashion; nor like to a man did he seem

  Who lives by the eating of bread, but e’en as a crag o’ergrown

  With wood, that amidst of the mountains stands stark and all alone.

  “So I bade our other fellows, the trusty and the bold,

  Down there by the ship to be biding, and watch and ward to hold,

  While I with twelve men chosen, the best of those men of mine,

  Set forth. And I had a goat-skin of the honey-sweet black wine,

  The gift of Maron the son of Euanthes, and priest of the Lord

  Apollo, who goeth about his Ismarus to ward.

  For the man and his wife and his child had we cherished and held good

  In our worship, because he was dwelling in the thicket and the wood

  Of Phoebus Apollo; whereby he bestowed on me gifts right great;

  For of well-wrought gold he gave me up to seven talents weight;

  And he gave me a bowl for mixing all silver, and furthermore

  The drink of the Gods, unblended sweet wine, for me did he pour

  Into twelve fulfilled pitchers; and thereof did no one know

  Of all the thralls and handmaids that about his house did go:

  But his wife she knew, and one good-wife that to him was lief and dear.

  But when of this honey-sweet wine he would drink, the ruddy clear,

  Unto twenty measures of water would he pour one cup to be blent;

  And wondrous then was the fragrance from the mixing-bowl that went,

  And as then to refrain from drinking had no one nigh been glad.

  “So thereof a great goat-skin I bore, and meal in a wallet I had,

  For the soul that was great within me that day was deeming aright

  That a man should come upon me endued with monstrous might,

  A wild man knowing no dooms and no setting forth of the law.

  “So swiftly we came to the den, nor him within it we saw,

  For his fat flocks was he herding in the pasture-land as then;

  So we wended us in, and noted all things about the den.

  The baskets were heavy with cheeses, and thronged was every fold

  With lambs and with kids, and sorted each kind there did he hold.

  Apart there were the firstlings, and apart the mid-born were;

  And the younglings apart; and all vessels with whey were swimming there,

  The pails and the bowls and all things wherein he milked withal.

  “Now thereat my fellows besought me with words, that first of all

  We should take of the cheeses and go, and then, if so it should be,

  The lambs and the kids from the folds to drive down speedily

  To the fleeting ship, and therewith o’er the salt sea-water to sail.

  But thereto I did not hearken (or better had been the tale)

  Until the man I had looked on and the guest-gift of him won.

  Forsooth, he became to my fellows nought lovely to look upon.

  “So we kindled a fire and we offered, and ourselves of the cheeses we ate,

  And there abiding his coming within the den we sat.

  Till at last he came herding his sheep, and a mighty burden withal

  He bore; dry wood for the firing, when his supper-time should befal:

  So he cast it adown with a clatter withinwards there and then,

  And we feared and gat us away to a cranny of the den.

  Then into the rocky hollow his fatted flock he drave,

  All such as were his milch-beasts, but withoutward did he have

  The males, both the rams and the he-goats, the deep-walled garth within.

  Then he lifted and set a great door-stone, a monstrous weight to win;

  Scarce might waggons two-and-twenty, each one four-wheeled and good,

  Have stirred that mass so mighty from the floor whereon it stood;

  Such a stone, as high as a mountain, he set in the door of his hall.

  Then he sat unto milking his ewes and his bleating goats withal,

  Doing all in orderly fashion, and ‘neath each her suckling he set

  Then the white milk, half he curdled, and the curds together did get,

  And in the wicker presses he laid all that to stand:

  But the half he stood in the vessels all ready to his hand,

  That thereof he might be drinking when supper-time should be.

  But when this work he had speeded and laboured carefully,

  Then he kindled a fire and saw us, and began to ask us and say:

  “‘ What are ye then, O strangers? from whence o’er the watery way?

  Are ye about some business, or as wantons do ye fare,

  As the strong thieves over the waters, who wander here and there,

  Of their own souls recking nothing, bearing bale to alien men?’

  “So he spake, and the hearts within us were burned up there and then,

  For we feared his voice so deep-set, and the man’s most monstrous make;

  Yet even so with speech-words I answered again and spake:

  “‘ Forsooth we men are Achaeans: thrust thwart from Troy are we

  O’er the mighty gulf of the sea-flood by all the winds that be,

  As homeward we seek: but alien hath our road been and our ways;

  For the will of Zeus almighty such weird upon us lays.

  We are folk of King Agamemnon, the son of Atreus’ name,

  Who of all folk under the heavens hath won the fairest fame,

  So mighty a burg hath he wasted; such a folk and so many as these

  Hath he slain. But we, we are come as suppliants to thy knees,

  If some guest-cheer thou wilt make us, or in other wise indeed

  Thou wilt give us the gift that of guest folk is the very lawful meed.

  But fear thou the Gods, thou most mighty, since we are bedesmen of thee,

  And avenger of guests and of bedesmen shall Zeus the Guester be;

  And guests that are worthy pity Zeus’ help encompasseth.’

  “Thus I; but from pitiless heart he answereth thus and saith:

  ‘ A fool thou art, O Stranger, if indeed from afar ye fare,

  That the Gods thou wouldst have me to worship, and of them to have a

  Forsooth of Zeus the Shielded we Cyclops have no heed, [fear:

  Nor yet of the Gods the Happy: for we are the better at need.

  Nor for Zeus’ sake and his anger would I spare thee any whit,

  Neither thee northese thy fellows, save my soul were fain of it.

  But where left ye your ship well-fashioned, when hitherward ye would go?

  By the outermost ness, or near by? Speak out that I may know.’

  “So he spake, but his snare to catch me escaped not me that knew;

  A id in turn in words that were guileful I answered thereunto:

  ‘ Poseidon, the Shaker of Earth, brake up our ship with his hand;

  For against the crags he cast it at the limits of your land,

  Whenhe brought us anigh to the nesses, and the wind from the seadraveon;

  But I and these men only the bitter bale did we shun.’

  “So I spake, but never an answer from his ruthless mind he made:

  But forthwith rushing onward his hands on my fellows he laid,

  And clutching two together he dashed them on the ground

  Like whelps; and forth flowed the brains and red wet was the earth around.

  And then he shredded them limb-meal and both for his supper dight,

  And e’en as a hill-bred lion he ate them up outright,

  And neither flesh nor inwards, nor marrow-bones left he.

  But to Zeus our hands we lifted all weeping wofully,

  For all we were helpless and witless when such foul deeds we saw.

  “But now whenas the Cyclops had filled his mighty maw,

  The flesh of men devouring and of mere milk drinking deep,

  Then adown in the den he laid him stretched out amidst his sheep.

  Then indeed I fell to counsel with my great heart, whether I [thigh

  Should come forth from amidst, and drawing my whetted sword from the

  Should thrust through his breast where the midriff the liver doth enfold,

  Having groped with my hand: but again the mind did the hand withhold;

  For so should all we have perished by sharp and bitter bale,

  Because from the lofty doorway our hands might nought avail

  To move the mighty door-stone which he thereto had drawn,

  So there amid weeping and wailing we bode the Holy Dawn.

  “But when the Mother of Morning, Rose-fingered Dawn, shone clear,

  Then he kindled up the fire and milked his flocks the fair,

  With all things done all duly, and ‘neath each her suckling laid.

  But when he had toiled and hastened and an end of his work had made,

  Then he clutched two more of our fellows and dight them for eating again.

  And when his fast he had broken his fat sheep he drave from the den,

  The great stone easily stirring, wherewith the door he hid

  Once more, as on a quiver one shutteth down the lid.

  Loud whooping then the Cyclops turned his fat flock toward the hill,

  And there was I left in the rock-den in my heart devising ill,

  What wise I might avenge me if Athene my glory should speed,

  And unto my heart should be shown what best might be my rede.

  “Now a mighty club of the Cyclops against the fold did lie,

  Of olive green; he had cut it to bear it when ’twas dry:

  So huge, that when we saw it it seemed to us as the mast

  Of a broad black ship of burden that oft hath overpassed

  The mighty gulf of ocean with twenty oars at play;

  So huge about was its bigness, and so far along it lay.

  So I drew anigh and of it a fathom’s length did I shear,

  And gave it unto my fellows that they the same might pare; [end.

  And they made it smooth as I bade them, and I came and sharpened the

  Which then in the bright hot fire about and about did I wend;

  And I stored it up thereafter, mid the dung I hid it then,

  Whereof a great abundance was strawed about the den;

  And thereafter I bade the others to cast the lot to see

  Which one should have heart and daring to raise that bar with me,

  And into his eye to bore it when sweet sleep on him should fall.

  And the lot chose those four fellows whom I should have chosen of all,

  And I for the fifth was chosen with them to do the thing.

  “So came the eve, and he with it his fair flocks shepherding

  But all the beasts now drave he into the den wide-spread.

  Nor without in the garth the deep-walled did he leave one single head,

  Whether somewhat he was foreboding or the God so bade him do.

  Then withal the mighty door-stone once more to its place he drew,

  And so to the milking his milch-ewes and his bleating goats he sat,

  And all things done in order, and ‘neath each her suckling he gat:

  But when he had hastened and done whatso there was to do,

  Once more he clutched and dighted for supper another two.

  “Now therewith I spake to the Cyclops, and anigh him took my stand,

  And black wine in an ivy cup as I stood I held in my hand:

  ‘ Since ye eat man’s flesh, O Cyclops, now take and drink the wine,

  That ye may know what liquor was stored in that ship of mine;

  But I bring thee this drink-offering to win thy ruth thereby,

  And that hence thou send me homeward, though thou rage so grievously.

  O cruel! and how shall any midst all the many men,

  Because of thy deeds unrighteous, hereafter seek to thy den?’

  “So I spake, and he took it and drank, and became exceeding fain

  Of that sweet drink that I gave him, and besought me of drink again:

  ‘ Come, give me the drink and be blythe, and straightway tell me thy name,

  That a guest-gift I may give thee to gladden thine heart with the same,

  Since verily for the Cyclops the corn-kind earth doth shed

  The wine in plenteous bunches by the rain of Zeus full-fed:

  But this indeed is handsel of the meat and drink divine.’

  “So he spake, and again I gave him of the dark-red glowing wine,

  And thrice I bore and gave it, and the fool thrice drank it out.

  But when the heart of the Cyclops the wine had encompassed about

  Then honied words I uttered, and to speaking thus befel:

  ‘ Cyclops, my name renowned thou askest, the which I will tell,

  But the guest-gift thou wouldst give me, now give me it me I pray.

  My name is Noman: Noman they called me on a day,

  My father and my mother, and all my folk of old.’

 

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