H’m! how is it mixed? just let me make sure. (Takes another pull.)CyclopsPerdition! give it me at once.SilenusOh, no! I really cannot, till I see thee with a crown on, and have another taste myself.CyclopsMy cup-bearer is a cheat.SilenusNo really, but the wine is so luscious. Thou must wipe thy lips, though, to get a draught.CyclopsThere! my lips and beard are clean now.SilenusBend thine elbow gracefully, and then quaff thy cup, as thou seest me do, and as now thou seest me not. (Burying his face in his cup.)CyclopsAha! what next?SilenusI drank it off at a draught with much pleasure.CyclopsStranger, take the skin thyself and be my cup-bearer.OdysseusWell, at any rate the grape is no stranger to my hand.CyclopsCome, pour it in.OdysseusIn it goes! keep silence, that is all.CyclopsA difficult task when a man is deep in his cups.OdysseusHere, take and drink it off; leave none.CyclopsPaley supposes a line to have been lost here in which the Cyclops asked And how must I drink this?OdysseusThou must be silentσιγῶντα, but many editors follow Casaubon in reading δὲ σπῶντα drink it off. and only give in when the liquor does.CyclopsGod wot! it is a clever stock that bears the grape.OdysseusAye, and if thou but swallow plenty of it after a plentiful meal, moistening thy belly till its thirst is gone, it will throw thee into slumber; but if thou leave aught behind, the Bacchic god will parch thee for it.