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.
- I will have a spirit as of rock or adamant; but go inside, before my father suffers any shameful treatment; for here thou hast things ready.
- O Hephaestus, lord of Aetna, rid thyself for once and all of a troublesome neighbour
- by burning his bright eye out. Come, Sleep, as well, offspring of sable Night, come with all thy power on the monster god-detested; and never after Troy’s most glorious toils destroy Odysseus and his crew
- by the hands of one who recketh naught of God or man; else must we reckon Chance a goddess, and Heaven’s wall inferior to hers. [Odysseus re-enters the cave.
- Tightly the pincers shall grip the neck
- of him who feasts upon his guest; for soon will he lose the light of his eye by fire; already the brand, a tree’s huge limb,
- lurks amid the embers charred.
- Oh! come ye then and work his doom, pluck out the maddened Cyclops’ eye, that he may rue his drinking.
- And I too fain would leave the Cyclops’ lonely land and see king Bromius, ivy-crowned, the god I sorely miss. Ah! shall I ever come to that?
- (leaving the cave cautiously.) Silence, ye cattle! I adjure you;
- close your lips; make not a sound! I’ll not let a man of you so much as breathe or wink or clear his throat, that yon pest awake not, until the sight in the Cyclops’ eye has passed through the fiery ordeal.
- Silent we stand with ’bated breath.
- In then, and mind your fingers grip the brand, for it is splendidly red-hot.
- Thyself ordain who first must seize the blazing bar and burn the Cyclops’ eye out, that we may share alike whate’er betides.
- Standing where I am before the door, I am too far off to thrust the fire into his eye.
- I have just gone lame.
- Why, then, thou art in the same plight as I; for somehow or other I sprained my ankle, standing still.
- Sprained thy ankle, standing still?
- Yes, and my eyes are full of dust or ashes from somewhere or other.
- These are sorry fellows, worthless as allies.
- Because I feel for my back and spine, and express no wish to have my teeth