Reader

CYCLOPS What terrible treatment, father, I’ve had from that foreigner, curse him! Made me drunk and blinded me, setting on me in my sleep! POSEIDON Who dared to do that, Polyphemus? CYCLOPS At first he called himself Noman, but once he’d escaped and was out of range, he said his name was Odysseus. POSEIDON I know whom you mean—the fellow from Ithaca. He was sailing back from Troy. But how did he manage it, for he’s no hero?

CYCLOPS

When I got back from the pastures, I caught quite a few of them in my cave, obviously with designs on my flocks. For after I’d put the lid on my doorway—I’ve a huge rock for that—and had got my fire going with a tree I had with me from the mountain, I saw them, though they were trying to hide. I grabbed a few of them and ate them up, as was only natural, seeing that they were robbers. Then that out-and-out scoundrel, be his name Noman or Odysseus, gave me a drink which he’d drugged. It tasted and smelt nice, but was right treacherous and landed me in a heap of trouble. For the

moment I’d drunk it, everything seemed to whirl round and round, and the cave itself started to turn upside down, and I began to lose my bearings,

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and in the end was overcome by sleep. And he, after sharpening that stake, yes, and making it red-hot in the fire, blinded me while I was asleep, and it’s thanks to him that you’ve a blind son, Poseidon.

POSEIDON How soundly you must have slept, my son, if you didn’t jump up while he was blinding you! But how did Odysseus escape? I’m sure he couldn’t have moved the rock from the doorway. CYCLOPS No, I did that myself; I thought it’d be easier for me to catch him as he went out. I sat down by the doorway, with my hands stretched out to feel for them. It was only my sheep I let out to the pasture, and I told my ram everything he’d to do for me.

POSEIDON I see it all. They slipped out under your sheep. But you should have called in the other Cyclopes to look for him. CYCLOPS So I did, father, and they came. But when they asked the name of the fellow responsible for the trick, and I said it was Noman, they thought I was out of my mind and went off home. Thus he outwitted me by that name, curse him. But what’s annoyed me most of all, is that he taunted me with my misfortune and said, “Not even your father, Poseidon himself, will be able to cure you”. POSEIDON Cheer up, son. I’ll punish him. I’ll teach him that, though I can’t cure blindness, I do have control over the fortunes of sailors. He’s still at sea, remember.