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.
- (To Servants.) Away! (To Silenus.) But prithee, why such haste, father?
- I see the hull of a ship from Hellas at the shore, and men, that wield the oar, on their way to this cave with some chieftain. About their necks they carry empty vessels and pitchers for water; they are in want of food. Luckless strangers!
- who can they be? They know not what manner of man our master Polyphemus is, to have set foot here in his cheerless abode and come to the jaws of the cannibal Cyclops in an evil hour. But hold ye your peace, that we may inquire
- whence they come to the peak of Sicilian Aetna.
- Pray tell us, sirs, of some river-spring whence we might draw a draught to slake our thirst, or of someone willing to sell victuals to mariners in need.
- Why, what is this? We seem to have chanced upon a city of the Bromian god;
- here by the caves I see a group of Satyrs. To the eldest first I bid All hail!
- All hail, sir! tell me who thou art, and name thy country.
- Odysseus of Ithaca, king of the Cephallenians’ land.
- I know him for a prating knave, one of Sisyphus’ shrewd offspring.
- I am the man; abuse me not.
- Whence hast thou sailed hither to Sicily?
- From Ilium and the toils of Troy.
- How was that? didst thou not know the passage to thy native land?
- Tempestuous winds drove me hither against my will.
- God wot! thou art in the same plight as I am.
- Why, wert thou too drifted hither against thy will?
- I was, as I pursued the pirates who carried Bromius off.
- What land is this and who are its inhabitants?
- This is mount Aetna, the highest point in Sicily.
- But where are the city-walls and ramparts?
- There are none; the headlands, sir, are void of men.
- Who then possess the land? the race of wild creatures?
- The Cyclopes, who have caves, not roofed houses.
- Obedient unto whom? or is the power in the people’s hands?