Cyclop
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Silenus
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O Bromius, unnumbered are the toils I bear because of thee, no less now than when I was young and hale; first, when thou wert driven mad by Hera and didst leave the mountain nymphs, thy nurses;
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next, when in battle with earth-born spearmen I stood beside thee on the right as squire, and slew Enceladus, smiting him full in the middle of his targe with my spear. Come, though, let me see; must I confess ’twas all a dream? No, by Zeus! since I really showed his spoils to the Bacchic god.
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And now am I enduring to the full a toil still worse than those. For when Hera sent forth a race of Tyrrhene pirates against thee, that thou mightest be smuggled far away, I, as soon as the news reached me, sailed in quest of thee with my children; and, taking the helm
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myself, I stood on the end of the stern and steered our trim craft; and my sons, sitting at the oars, made the grey billows froth and foam as they sought thee, my liege. But just as we had come nigh Malea in our course, an east-wind blew upon the ship
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and drove us hither to the rock of Aetna, where in lonely caverns dwell the one-eyed children of ocean’s god, the murdering Cyclopes. Captured by one of them we are slaves in his house; Polyphemus they call him whom we serve;
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and instead of Bacchic revelry we are herding a godless Cyclops’s flocks; and so it is my children, striplings as they are, tend the young thereof on the edge of the downs; while my appointed task is to stay here and fill the troughs and sweep out the cave,
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or wait upon the ungodly Cyclops at his impious feasts. His orders now compel obedience; I have to scrape out his house with the rake you see, so as to receive the Cyclops, my absent master,
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and his sheep in clean caverns.
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But already I see my children driving their browsing flocks towards me.
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What means this? is the beat of feet in the Sicinnis dance the same to you now as when ye attended the Bacchic god in his revelries
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and made your way with dainty steps to the mask of lyres to the halls of Althaea?
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Chorus
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Offspring of well-bred sires and dams, pray whither wilt thou be gone from me to the rocks? Hast thou not here a gentle breeze,
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and grass to browse, and water from the eddying stream set near the cave in troughs? and are not thy young ones bleating for thee?
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Chorus
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Pst! pst! wilt thou not browse here,
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here on the dewy slope? Ho? ho! ere long will I cast a stone at thee. Away, away! O horned one, to the fold-keeper of the Cyclops, the country-ranging shepherd.
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Chorus
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Loosen thy bursting udder; welcome to thy teats the kids, whom thou leavest in the lambkins’ pens. Those little bleating kids, asleep the livelong day, miss thee;
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wilt then leave at last the rich grass pastures on the peaks of Aetna and enter the fold?
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Chorus
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Here we have no Bromian god; no dances here, or Bacchantes thyrsus-bearing;
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no roll of drums, or drops of sparkling wine by gurgling founts; nor is it now with Nymphs in Nysa I sing a song of Bacchus, Bacchus!
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to the queen of love, in quest of whom I once sped on with Bacchantes, white of foot.
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Dear friend, dear Bacchic god, whither art roaming alone,
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waving thy auburn locks, while I, thy minister, do service to the one-eyed Cyclops, a slave and wanderer I,
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clad in this wretched goat-skin dress, severed from thy love?
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Silenus
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Hush, children! and bid our servants fold the flocks in the rock-roofed cavern.
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Chorus
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(To Servants.) Away! (To Silenus.) But prithee, why such haste, father?
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Silenus
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I see the hull of a ship from Hellas at the shore, and men, that wield the oar, on their way to this cave with some chieftain. About their necks they carry empty vessels and pitchers for water; they are in want of food. Luckless strangers!
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who can they be? They know not what manner of man our master Polyphemus is, to have set foot here in his cheerless abode and come to the jaws of the cannibal Cyclops in an evil hour. But hold ye your peace, that we may inquire
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whence they come to the peak of Sicilian Aetna.
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Odysseus
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Pray tell us, sirs, of some river-spring whence we might draw a draught to slake our thirst, or of someone willing to sell victuals to mariners in need.
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Why, what is this? We seem to have chanced upon a city of the Bromian god;
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here by the caves I see a group of Satyrs. To the eldest first I bid All hail!
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Silenus
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All hail, sir! tell me who thou art, and name thy country.
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Odysseus
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Odysseus of Ithaca, king of the Cephallenians’ land.
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Silenus
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I know him for a prating knave, one of Sisyphus’ shrewd offspring.
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Odysseus
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I am the man; abuse me not.
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Silenus
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Whence hast thou sailed hither to Sicily?
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Odysseus
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From Ilium and the toils of Troy.
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Silenus
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How was that? didst thou not know the passage to thy native land?
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Odysseus
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Tempestuous winds drove me hither against my will.
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Silenus
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God wot! thou art in the same plight as I am.
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Odysseus
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Why, wert thou too drifted hither against thy will?
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Silenus
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I was, as I pursued the pirates who carried Bromius off.
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Odysseus
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What land is this and who are its inhabitants?
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Silenus
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This is mount Aetna, the highest point in Sicily.
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Odysseus
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But where are the city-walls and ramparts?
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Silenus
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There are none; the headlands, sir, are void of men.
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Odysseus
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Who then possess the land? the race of wild creatures?
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Silenus
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The Cyclopes, who have caves, not roofed houses.
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Odysseus
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Obedient unto whom? or is the power in the people’s hands?
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Silenus
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They are rovers; no man obeys another in anything.
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Odysseus
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Do they sow Demeter’s grain, or on what do they live?
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Silenus
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On milk and cheese and flesh of sheep.
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Odysseus
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Have they the drink of Bromius, the juice of the vine?
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Silenus
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No indeed! and thus it is a joyless land they dwell in.
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Odysseus
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Are they hospitable and reverent towards strangers?
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Silenus
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Strangers, they say, supply the daintiest meat.
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Odysseus
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What, do they delight in killing men and eating them?
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Silenus
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No one has ever arrived here without being butchered.
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Odysseus
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Where is the Cyclops himself? inside his dwelling?
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Silenus
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He is gone hunting wild beasts with hounds on Aetna.
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Odysseus
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Dost know then what to do, that we may be gone from the land?
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Silenus
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Not I, Odysseus; but I would do anything for thee.
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Odysseus
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Sell us food, of which we are in need.
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Silenus
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There is nothing but flesh, as I said.
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Odysseus
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Well, even that is a pleasant preventive of hunger.
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Silenus
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And there is cheese curdled with fig-juice, and the milk of kine.
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Odysseus
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Bring them out; a man should see his purchases.
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Silenus
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But tell me, how much gold wilt thou give me in exchange?
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Odysseus
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No gold bring I, but Dionysus’ drink.
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Silenus
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Most welcome words! I have long been wanting that.
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Odysseus
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Yes, it was Maron, the god’s son, who gave me a draught.
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Silenus
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What! Maron whom once I dandled in these arms?
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Odysseus
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The son of the Bacchic god, that thou mayst learn more certainly.
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Silenus
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Is it inside the ship, or hast thou it with thee?
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Odysseus
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This, as thou seest, is the skin that holds it, old sir.
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Silenus
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Why, that would not give me so much as a mouthful.
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Odysseus
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This, and twice as much again as will run from the skin.
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Silenus
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Fair the rill thou speakest of, delicious to me.
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Odysseus
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Shall I let thee taste the wine unmixed, to start with?
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Silenus
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A reasonable offer; for of a truth a taste invites the purchase.
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Odysseus
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Well, I haul about a cup as well as the skin.
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Silenus
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Come, let it gurgle in, that I may revive my memory by a pull at it.
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Odysseus
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There then!
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Odysseus
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What! didst thou see it?
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Odysseus
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Taste it then, that thy approval may not stop at words.
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Silenus
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Zounds! Bacchus is inviting me to dance; ha! ha!
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Odysseus
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Did it not gurgle finely down thy throttle?
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Silenus
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Aye that it did, to the ends of my fingers.
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Odysseus
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Well, we will give thee money besides.
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Silenus
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Only undo the skin, and never mind the money.
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Odysseus
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Bring out the cheeses then and lambs.
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Silenus
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I will do so, with small thought of any master. For let me have a single cup of that and I would turn madman,
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giving in exchange for it the flocks of every Cyclops and then throwing myself into the sea from the Leucadian rock, once I have been well drunk and smoothed out my wrinkled brow. For if a man rejoice not in his drinking, he is mad; for in drinking there is love
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with all its frolic, and dancing withal, and oblivion of woe. Shall not I then purchase so rare a drink, bidding the senseless Cyclops and his central eye go hang? Exit Silenus.
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Chorus
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Hearken, Odysseus, let us hold some converse with thee.
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Odysseus
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Well, do so; ours is a meeting of friends.
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Chorus
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Did you take Troy and capture the famous Helen?
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Odysseus
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Aye, and we destroyed the whole family of Priam.
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Chorus
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After capturing your blooming prize,
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were all of you in turn her lovers? for she likes variety in husbands; the traitress! the sight of a man with embroidered breeches on his legs and a golden chain about his neck so fluttered her,