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.
- They are rovers; no man obeys another in anything.
- Do they sow Demeter’s grain, or on what do they live?
- On milk and cheese and flesh of sheep.
- Have they the drink of Bromius, the juice of the vine?
- No indeed! and thus it is a joyless land they dwell in.
- Are they hospitable and reverent towards strangers?
- Strangers, they say, supply the daintiest meat.
- What, do they delight in killing men and eating them?
- No one has ever arrived here without being butchered.
- Where is the Cyclops himself? inside his dwelling?
- He is gone hunting wild beasts with hounds on Aetna.
- Dost know then what to do, that we may be gone from the land?
- Not I, Odysseus; but I would do anything for thee.
- Sell us food, of which we are in need.
- There is nothing but flesh, as I said.
- Well, even that is a pleasant preventive of hunger.
- And there is cheese curdled with fig-juice, and the milk of kine.
- Bring them out; a man should see his purchases.
- But tell me, how much gold wilt thou give me in exchange?
- No gold bring I, but Dionysus’ drink.
- Most welcome words! I have long been wanting that.
- Yes, it was Maron, the god’s son, who gave me a draught.
- What! Maron whom once I dandled in these arms?
- The son of the Bacchic god, that thou mayst learn more certainly.
- Is it inside the ship, or hast thou it with thee?