Cyclops A light here! hold it up! what is this? what means this idleness, your Bacchic revelry? Here have we no Dionysus, nor clash of brass, nor roll of drums. Pray, how is it with my newly-born lambs in the caves? are they at the teat, running close to the side of their dams? Is the full amount of milk for cheeses milked out in baskets of rushes? How now? what say you? One of ye will soon be shedding tears from the weight of my club; look up, not down.
Chorus There! my head is bent back till I see Zeus himself; I behold both the stars and Orion.
Cyclops Is my breakfast quite ready?
Chorus ’Tis laid; be thy throat only ready.
Cyclops Are the bowls too full of milk?
Chorus Aye, so that thou canst swill off a whole hogshead, so it please thee.
Cyclops Sheeps’ milk or cows’ milk or a mixture of both?
Chorus Whichever thou wilt; don’t swallow me, that’s all.
Cyclops Not I; for you would start kicking in the pit of my stomach and kill me by your antics. Ha! what is this crowd I see near the folds? Some pirates or robbers have put in here. Yes, I really see the lambs from my caves tied up there with twisted osiers, cheese-presses scattered about, and old Silenus with his bald pate all swollen with blows.
Silenus Oh! oh! poor wretch that I am, pounded to a fever.
Cyclops By whom? who has been pounding thy head, old sirrah?
Silenus These are the culprits, Cyclops, all because I refused to let them plunder thee.
Cyclops Did they not know I was a god and sprung from gods?
Silenus That was what I told them, but they persisted in plundering thy goods, and, in spite of my efforts, they actually began to eat the cheese and carry off the lambs; and they said they would tie thee in a three-cubit pillory and tear out thy bowels by force at thy navel, and flay thy back thoroughly with the scourge; and then, after binding thee, fling thy carcase down among the benches of their ship to sell to some one for heaving up stones, or else throw thee into a mill.
Cyclops Oh, indeed! Be off then and sharpen my cleavers at once; heap high the faggots and light them; for they shall be slain forthwith and fill this maw of mine, what time I pick my feast hot from the coals, waiting not for carvers, and fish up the rest from the cauldron boiled and sodden; for I have had my fill of mountain-fare and sated myself with banquets of lions and stags, but ’tis long I have been without human flesh.
Silenus Truly, master, a change like this is all the sweeter after everyday fare; for just of late there have been no fresh arrivals of strangers at these caves.
Cite This Text