Cyclops

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.

  1. feasting on roast calf’s flesh or some wild game and moistening well my upturned paunch with deep draughts from a tub of milk, I rival the thunderclaps of Zeus with my artillery; and when the north-wind blows from Thrace and sheddeth snow,
  2. I wrap my carcase in the hides of beasts and light a fire, and what care I for snow? The earth perforce, whether she like it or not, produces grass and fattens my flocks, which I sacrifice to no one save myself
  3. and this belly, the greatest of deities; but to the gods, not I! For surely to eat and drink one’s fill from day to day and give oneself no grief at all, this is the king of gods for your wise man, but lawgivers go hang, chequering, as they do, the life of man!
  4. And so I will not cease from 
    indulging myself by devouring thee; and thou shalt receive this stranger’s gift, that I may be free of blame,—fire and my father’s element yonder, and a cauldron to hold thy flesh and boil it nicely in collops.
  5. So in with you, that ye may feast me well, standing round the altar to honour the cavern’s god. [Enters his cave.
Odysseus
  1. Alas! escaped from the troubles of Troy and the sea, my barque now strands upon the whim and forbidding heart of this savage.
  2. O Pallas, mistress mine, goddess-daughter of Zeus, help me, help me now; for I am come to toils and depths of peril worse than all at Ilium; and thou, O Zeus, the stranger’s god, who hast thy dwelling ’mid the radiant stars, behold these things;
  3. for, if thou regard them not, in vain art thou esteemed the great god Zeus, though but a thing of naught. [Follows the Cyclops reluctantly.
Chorus
  1. Ope wide the portal of thy gaping throat, Cyclops; for strangers’ limbs, both boiled and grilled, are ready from off the coals for thee to gnaw and tear and mince up small,
  2. reclining in thy shaggy goatskin coat.
Chorus
  1. Relinquish not thy meal for me; keep that boat for thyself alone.[*](According to Hermann, whose explanation is here followed, ll. 362-3 are spoken ironically, pray do not consider my feelings; go on with your feast, as long as I am not asked to join it.) Avaunt this cave! avaunt the burnt-offerings,
  2. which the godless Cyclops offers on Aetna’s altars, exulting in meals on strangers’ flesh!
Chorus
  1. Oh! the ruthless monster! to sacrifice his guests at his own hearth, the suppliants of his halls, cleaving and tearing and serving up to his loathsome teeth a feast of human flesh, hot from the coals.
Chorus
  1. ---
Odysseus
  1. (reappearing with a look of horror.) O Zeus! what can I say after the hideous sights I have seen inside the cave, things past belief, resembling more the tales men tell than aught they do?
Chorus
  1. What news, Odysseus? has the Cyclops, most godless monster, been feasting on thy dear comrades?
Odysseus
  1. Aye, he singled out a pair, on whom the flesh was
  2. fattest and in best condition, and took them up in his hand to weigh.
Chorus
  1. How went it with you then, poor wretch?
Odysseus
  1. When we had entered yonder rocky abode, he lighted first a fire, throwing logs of towering oak upon his spacious hearth,