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.
- 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.
- 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,
- reclining in thy shaggy goatskin coat.
- 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,
- which the godless Cyclops offers on Aetna’s altars, exulting in meals on strangers’ flesh!
- 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.
- ---
- (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?
- What news, Odysseus? has the Cyclops, most godless monster, been feasting on thy dear comrades?
- Aye, he singled out a pair, on whom the flesh was
- fattest and in best condition, and took them up in his hand to weigh.
- How went it with you then, poor wretch?
- When we had entered yonder rocky abode, he lighted first a fire, throwing logs of towering oak upon his spacious hearth,
- enough for three waggons to carry as their load; next, close by the blazing flame, he placed his couch of pine-boughs laid upon the floor, and filled a bowl of some ten firkins, pouring white milk thereinto, after he had milked his kine;
- and by his side he put a can of ivy-wood, whose breadth was three cubits and its depth four maybe; next he set his brazen pot a-boiling on the fire,[*](This line is clearly out of place as it stands; it has been proposed to place it either after line 385 or 395, after either of which it would be appropriate.) spits too he set beside him, fashioned of the branches of thorn, their points hardened in the fire and the rest of them trimmed with the hatchet,
- and the blood-bowls of Aetna for the axe’s edge.[*](i.e., to catch the blood as the axe strikes, but the expression is a curious one. Kirchhoff gives γνάθους, in apposition to σφαγεῖα, taking this apparently to mean slaughtering tools.) Now when that hell-cook, god-detested, had everything quite ready, he caught up a pair of my companions and proceeded deliberately to cut the throat of one of them over the yawning brazen pot;
- but the other he clutched by the tendon of his heel, and, striking him against a sharp point of rocky stone, dashed out his brains; then, after hacking the fleshy parts with glutton cleaver, he set to grilling them, but the limbs he threw into his cauldron to seethe.
- And I, poor wretch, drew near with streaming eyes and waited on the Cyclops; but the others kept cowering like frightened birds in crannies of the rock, and the blood forsook their skin.
- Anon, when he had gorged himself upon my comrades’ flesh and
- had fallen on his back, breathing heavily, there came a sudden inspiration to me. I filled a cup of this Maronian wine and offered him a draught, saying, Cyclops, son of Ocean’s god, see here what heavenly drink the grapes of Hellas yield,
- glad gift of Dionysus. He, glutted with his shameless meal, took and drained it at one draught, and, lifting up his hand, he thanked me thus, Dearest to me of all my guests! fair the drink thou givest me to crown so fair a feast.
- Now when I saw his delight, I gave him another cup, knowing the wine would make him rue it, and he would soon be paying the penalty. Then he set to singing; but I kept filling bumper after bumper and heating him with drink.