Chorus
Best of friends, would we might see that day, escaping the godless Cyclops!
Odysseus Hear then how I will requite this vile monster and rescue you from thraldom.
Chorus Tell me how; no note of Asiatic lyre would sound more sweetly in our ears than news of the Cyclops’ death.
Odysseus Delighted with this liquor of the Bacchic god, he fain would go a-revelling with his brethren.
Chorus I understand; thy purpose is to seize and slay him in the thickets when alone, or push him down a precipice.
Odysseus Not at all; my plan is fraught with subtlety.
Chorus What then? Truly we have long heard of thy cleverness.
Odysseus 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, 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; 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 Ho! ho! how glad I feel! wild with joy at the contrivance!
Odysseus 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 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 Indeed thou must, for the brand is large, and thou must help hold it.
Chorus How lightly would I lift the load of e’en a hundred wains, if that will help us to grub out the eye of the doomed Cyclops, like a wasp’s nest.
Odysseus Hush! for now thou knowest my plot in full, and when I bid you, obey the author of it; for I am not the man to desert my friends inside the cave and save myself alone. And yet I might escape; I am clear of the cavern’s depths already; but no! to desert the friends with whom I journeyed hither and only save myself is not a righteous course.
First Half-Chorus Come, who will be the first and who the next to him upon the list to grip the handle of the brand, and, thrusting it into the Cyclops’ eye, gouge out the light thereof?
Second Half-Chorus Hush! hush! Behold the drunkard leaves his rocky home, trolling loud some hideous lay, a clumsy tuneless clown, whom tears await. Come, let us give this boor a lesson in revelry. Ere long will he be blind at any rate.
First Half-Chorus
Happy he who plays the Bacchanal amid the precious streams distilled from grapes, stretched at full length for a revel, his arm around the friend he loves, and some fair dainty damsel on his couch, his hair perfumed with nard and glossy, the while he calls, Oh! who will ope the door for me?
Cite This Text