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. So there he is singing discordantly amid the weeping of my fellow-sailors, and the cave re-echoes; but I have made my way out quietly and would fain save thee and myself, if thou wilt. Tell me then, is it your wish, or is it not, to fly from this unsocial wretch
  2. and take up your abode with Naiad nymphs in the halls of the Bacchic god? Thy father within approves this scheme; but there! he is powerless, getting all he can out of his liquor; his wings are snared by the cup as if he had flown against bird-lime, and he is fuddled; but thou art young and lusty;
  3. so save thyself with my help and regain thy old friend Dionysus, so little like the Cyclops.
Chorus
  1. Best of friends, would we might see that day, escaping the godless Cyclops! for ’tis long
  2. we have been without the joys of men, unable to escape him.[*](Perhaps οὐκ ἔχοντε καταφυγεῖν might be read, to give some meaning to these worthless lines; but, as Paley points out, there are so many reasons for deciding them to be spurious that it is scarcely worth examining them very closely.)
Odysseus
  1. Hear then how I will requite this vile monster and rescue you from thraldom.
Chorus
  1. Tell me how; no note of Asiatic lyre would sound
    more sweetly in our ears than news of the Cyclops’ death.
Odysseus
  1. Delighted with this liquor of the Bacchic god, he fain would go a-revelling with his brethren.
Chorus
  1. I understand; thy purpose is to seize and slay him in the thickets when alone, or push him down a precipice.
Odysseus
  1. Not at ail; my plan is fraught with subtlety.
Chorus
  1. What then? Truly we have long heard of thy cleverness.
Odysseus
  1. I mean to keep him from this revel, saying he must not give this drink to his brethren but keep it for himself alone and lead a happy life. Then when he falls asleep, o’ermastered by the Bacchic god,
  2. I will put a point with this sword of mine to an olive-branch I saw lying in the cave, and will set it on fire; and when I see it well alight, I will lift the heated brand, and, thrusting it full in the Cyclops’ eye, melt out his sight with its blaze;
  3. and, as when a man in fitting the timbers of a ship makes his auger spin to and fro with a double strap, so will I make the brand revolve in the eye that gives the Cyclops light and will scorch up the pupil thereof.
Chorus
  1. Ho! ho! how glad I feel! wild with joy at the contrivance!
Odysseus
  1. That done, I will embark thee and those thou lovest with old Silenus in the deep hold of my black ship, my ship with double banks of oars, and carry you away from this land.
Chorus
  1. Well, can I too lay hold of the blinding brand, as though the god’s libation had been poured? for I would fain have a share in this offering of blood.
Odysseus
  1. Indeed thou must, for the brand is large, and thou must help hold it.
Chorus
  1. How lightly would I lift the load of e’en a hundred wains, if that will help us to grub out
  2. the eye of the doomed Cyclops, like a wasp’s nest.