《奥德修记》-19

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 arewith me escaped the jaws of death.'"The cruel wretch vouchsafed me not one word of answer, but with asudden clutch he gripped up two of my men at once and dashed them downupon the ground as though they had been puppies. Their brains wereshed upon the ground, and the earth was wet with their blood. Thenhe tore them limb from limb and supped upon them. He gobbled them uplike a lion in the wilderness, flesh, bones, marrow, and entrails,without leaving anything uneaten. As for us, we wept and lifted up ourhands to heaven on seeing such a horrid sight, for we did not knowwhat 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 weshould all certainly be lost, for we should never be able to shift thestone which the monster had put in front of the door. So we stayedsobbing and sighing where we were till morning came."When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, he againlit his fire, milked his goats and ewes, all quite rightly, and thenlet each have her own young one; as soon as he had got through withall his work, he clutched up two more of my men, and began eating themfor his morning's meal. Presently, with the utmost ease, he rolled thestone away from the door and drove out his sheep, but he at once putit back again- as easily as though he were merely clapping the lidon 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 themountain; so I was left to scheme some way of taking my revenge andcovering myself with glory."In the end I deemed it would be the best plan to do as follows. TheCyclops 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 itfor a staff as soon as it should be dry. It was so huge that wecould only compare it to the mast of a twenty-oared merchant vessel oflarge burden, and able to venture out into open sea. I went up to thisclub and cut off about six feet of it; I then gave this piece to themen and told them to fine it evenly off at one end, which theyproceeded to do, and lastly I brought it to a point myself, charringthe end in the fire to make it harder. When I had done this I hid itunder dung, which was lying about all over the cave, and told themen to cast lots which of them should venture along with myself tolift it and bore it into the monster's eye while he was asleep. Thelot fell upon the very four whom I should have chosen, and I myselfmade five. In the evening the wretch came back from shepherding, anddrove his flocks into the cave- this time driving them all inside, andnot leaving any in the yards; I suppose some fancy must have takenhim, or a god must have prompted him to do so. As soon as he had putthe stone back to its place against the door, he sat down, milkedhis ewes and his goats all quite rightly, and then let each have herown young one; when he had got through with all this work, hegripped up two more of my men, and made his supper off them. So I wentup to him with an ivy-wood bowl of black wine in my hands:"'Look here, Cyclops,' said I, you have been eating a great dealof man's flesh, so take this and drink some wine, that you may seewhat kind of liquor we had on board my ship. I was bringing it toyou as a drink-offering, in the hope that you would take compassionupon me and further me on my way home, whereas all you do is to goon ramping and raving most intolerably. You ought to be ashamedyourself; how can you expect people to come see you any more if youtreat them in this way?'"He then took the cup and drank. He was so delighted with thetaste of the wine that he begged me for another bowl full. 'Be sokind,' he said, 'as to give me some more, and tell me your name atonce. I want to make you a present that you will be glad to have. Wehave wine even in this country, for our soil grows grapes and thesun 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, whenI saw that the wine had got into his head, I said to him asplausibly as I could: 'Cyclops, you ask my name and I will tell ityou; give me, therefore, the present you promised me; my name isNoman; this is what my father and mother and my friends have alwayscalled me.'"But the cruel wretch said, 'Then I will eat all Noman's comradesbefore Noman himself, and will keep Noman for the last. This is thepresent that I will make him.'As he spoke he reeled, and fell sprawling face upwards on theground. His great neck hung heavily backwards and a deep sleep tookhold upon him. Presently he turned sick, and threw up both wine andthe gobbets of human flesh on which he had been gorging, for he wasvery drunk. Then I thrust the beam of wood far into the embers to heatit, and encouraged my men lest any of them should turnfaint-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 roundme, for heaven had filled their hearts with courage. We drove thesharp end of the beam into the monster's eye, and bearing upon it withall my weight I kept turning it round and round as though I wereboring a hole in a ship's plank with an auger, which two men with awheel and strap can keep on turning as long as they choose. Eventhus did we bore the red hot beam into his eye, till the boiling bloodbubbled all over it as we worked it round and round, so that the steamfrom the burning eyeball scalded his eyelids and eyebrows, and theroots of the eye sputtered in the fire. As a blacksmith plunges an axeor hatchet into cold water to temper it- for it is this that givesstrength to the iron- and it makes a great hiss as he does so, eventhus did the Cyclops' eye hiss round the beam of olive wood, and hishideous yells made the cave ring again. We ran away in a fright, buthe plucked the beam all besmirched with gore from his eye, andhurled it from him in a frenzy of rage and pain, shouting as he did soto the other Cyclopes who lived on the bleak headlands near him; sothey gathered from all quarters round his cave when they heard himcrying, and asked what was the matter with him."'What ails you, Polyphemus,' said they, 'that you make such anoise, breaking the stillness of the night, and preventing us frombeing 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 iskilling me by fraud! Noman 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 hadbetter pray to your father Neptune.'"Then they went away, and I laughed inwardly at the success of myclever 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 thedoor; then he sat in the doorway and stretched his hands in front ofit to catch anyone going out with the sheep, for he thought I might befoolish enough to attempt this."As for myself I kept on puzzling to think how I could best savemy own life and those of my companions; I schemed and schemed, asone who knows that his life depends upon it, for the danger was verygreat. In the end I deemed that this plan would be the best. Themale sheep were well grown, and carried a heavy black fleece, so Ibound them noiselessly in threes together, with some of the withies onwhich the wicked monster used to sleep. There was to be a man underthe middle sheep, and the two on either side were to cover him, sothat there were three sheep to each man. As for myself there was a ramfiner than any of the others, so I caught hold of him by the back,esconced myself in the thick wool under his belly, and flung onpatiently to his fleece, face upwards, keeping a firm hold on it allthe time."Thus, then, did we wait in great fear of mind till morning came,but when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, themale sheep hurried out to feed, while the ewes remained bleating aboutthe 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 thesheep as they stood upright, without being sharp enough to find outthat the men were underneath their bellies. As the ram was goingout, last of all, heavy with its fleece and with the weight of mycrafty self; Polyphemus laid hold of it and said:"'My good ram, what is it that makes you the last to leave my cavethis morning? You are not wont to let the ewes go before you, but leadthe mob with a run whether to flowery mead or bubbling fountain, andare the first to come home again at night; but now you lag last ofall. Is it because you know your master has lost his eye, and aresorry because that wicked Noman and his horrid crew have got himdown in his drink and blinded him? But I will have his life yet. Ifyou could understand and talk, you would tell me where the wretch ishiding, and I would dash his brains upon the ground till they flew allover the cave. I should thus have some satisfaction for the harm athis no-good Noman has done me.'"As spoke he drove the ram outside, but when we were a little wayout 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 todrive them down to the ship. The crew rejoiced greatly at seeing thoseof us who had escaped death, but wept for the others whom theCyclops had killed. However, I made signs to them by nodding andfrowning that they were to hush their crying, and told them to get allthe 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 jeerat the Cyclops."'Cyclops,' said I, 'you should have taken better measure of yourman before eating up his comrades in your cave. You wretch, eat upyour visitors in your own house? You might have known that your sinwould find you out, and now Jove and the other gods have punishedyou.'"He got more and more furious as he heard me, so he tore the topfrom off a high mountain, and flung it just in front of my ship sothat it was within a little of hitting the end of the rudder. Thesea quaked as the rock fell into it, and the wash of the wave itraised carried us back towards the mainland, and forced us towards theshore. But I snatched up a long pole and kept the ship off, makingsigns to my men by nodding my head, that they must row for theirlives, whereon they laid out with a will. When we had got twice as faras we were before, I was for jeering at the Cyclops again, but the menbegged and prayed of me to hold my tongue."'Do not,' they exclaimed, 'be mad enough to provoke this savagecreature further; he has thrown one rock at us already which droveus back again to the mainland, and we made sure it had been thedeath of us; if he had then heard any further sound of voices he wouldhave pounded our heads and our ship's timbers into a jelly with therugged rocks he would have heaved at us, for he can throw them along way.'"But I would not listen to them, and shouted out to him in myrage, 'Cyclops, if any one asks you who it was that put your eye outand spoiled your beauty, say it was the valiant warrior Ulysses, sonof Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.'"On this he groaned, and cried out, 'Alas, alas, then the oldprophecy about me is coming true. There was a prophet here, at one