The Cyclops
A SATYRIC DRAMA TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF EURIPIDES.
SILENUS.ULYSSES.CHORUS OF SATYRS.THE CYCLOPS.
SILENUS:O Bacchus, what a world of toil, both nowAnd ere these limbs were overworn with age,Have I endured for thee! First, when thou fled'stThe mountain-nymphs who nursed thee, driven afarBy the strange madness Juno sent upon thee;Then in the battle of the Sons of Earth,When I stood foot by foot close to thy side,No unpropitious fellow-combatant,And, driving through his shield my winged spear,Slew vast Enceladus. Consider now,Is it a dream of which I speak to thee?By Jove it is not, for you have the trophies!And now I suffer more than all before.For when I heard that Juno had devisedA tedious voyage for you, I put to seaWith all my children quaint in search of you,And I myself stood on the beaked prowAnd fixed the naked mast; and all my boysLeaning upon their oars, with splash and strainMade white with foam the green and purple sea,--And so we sought you, king. We were sailingNear Malea, when an eastern wind arose,And drove us to this waste Aetnean rock;The one-eyed children of the Ocean God,The man-destroying Cyclopses, inhabit,On this wild shore, their solitary caves,And one of these, named Polypheme. has caught usTo be his slaves; and so, for all delightOf Bacchic sports, sweet dance and melody,We keep this lawless giant's wandering flocks.My sons indeed on far declivities,Young things themselves, tend on the youngling sheep,But I remain to fill the water-casks,Or sweeping the hard floor, or ministeringSome impious and abominable mealTo the fell Cyclops. I am wearied of it!And now I must scrape up the littered floorWith this great iron rake, so to receiveMy absent master and his evening sheepIn a cave neat and clean. Even now I seeMy children tending the flocks hitherward.Ha! what is this? are your Sicinnian measuresEven now the same, as when with dance and songYou brought young Bacchus to Althaea's halls?
CHORUS OF SATYRS:
STROPHE:Where has he of race divineWandered in the winding rocks?Here the air is calm and fineFor the father of the flocks;--Here the grass is soft and sweet,And the river-eddies meetIn the trough beside the cave,Bright as in their fountain wave.--Neither here, nor on the dewOf the lawny uplands feeding?Oh, you come!--a stone at youWill I throw to mend your breeding;--Get along, you horned thing,Wild, seditious, rambling!
EPODE:An Iacchic melodyTo the golden AphroditeWill I lift, as erst did ISeeking her and her delightWith the Maenads, whose white feetTo the music glance and fleet.Bacchus, O beloved, where,Shaking wide thy yellow hair,Wanderest thou alone, afar?To the one-eyed Cyclops, we,Who by right thy servants are,Minister in misery,In these wretched goat-skins clad,Far from thy delights and thee.
SILENUS:Be silent, sons; command the slaves to driveThe gathered flocks into the rock-roofed cave.
CHORUS:Go! But what needs this serious haste, O father?
SILENUS:I see a Grecian vessel on the coast,And thence the rowers with some generalApproaching to this cave.--About their necksHang empty vessels, as they wanted food,And water-flasks.--Oh, miserable strangers!Whence come they, that they know not what and whoMy master is, approaching in ill hourThe inhospitable roof of Polypheme,And the Cyclopian jaw-bone, man-destroying?Be silent, Satyrs, while I ask and hearWhence coming, they arrive the Aetnean hill.
ULYSSES:Friends, can you show me some clear water-spring,The remedy of our thirst? Will any oneFurnish with food seamen in want of it?Ha! what is this? We seem to be arrivedAt the blithe court of Bacchus. I observeThis sportive band of Satyrs near the caves.First let me greet the elder.--Hail!
SILENUS:Hail thou,O Stranger! tell thy country and thy race.
ULYSSES:The Ithacan Ulysses and the kingOf Cephalonia.
SILENUS:Oh! I know the man,Wordy and shrewd, the son of Sisyphus.
ULYSSES:I am the same, but do not rail upon me.--
SILENUS:Whence sailing do you come to Sicily?
ULYSSES:From Ilion, and from the Trojan toils.
SILENUS:How, touched you not at your paternal shore?
ULYSSES:The strength of tempests bore me here by force.
SILENUS:The self-same accident occurred to me.
ULYSSES:Were you then driven here by stress of weather?
SILENUS:Following the Pirates who had kidnapped Bacchus.
ULYSSES:What land is this, and who inhabit it?--
SILENUS:Aetna, the loftiest peak in Sicily.
ULYSSES:And are there walls, and tower-surrounded towns?
SILENUS:There are not.--These lone rocks are bare of men.
ULYSSES:And who possess the land? the race of beasts?
SILENUS:Cyclops, who live in caverns, not in houses.
ULYSSES:Obeying whom? Or is the state popular?
SILENUS:Shepherds: no one obeys any in aught.
ULYSSES:How live they? do they sow the corn of Ceres?
SILENUS:On milk and cheese, and on the flesh of sheep.
ULYSSES:Have they the Bromian drink from the vine's stream?
SILENUS:Ah! no; they live in an ungracious land.
ULYSSES:And are they just to strangers?--hospitable?
SILENUS:They think the sweetest thing a stranger bringsIs his own flesh.
ULYSSES:What! do they eat man's flesh?
SILENUS:No one comes here who is not eaten up.
ULYSSES:The Cyclops now--where is he? Not at home?
SILENUS:Absent on Aetna, hunting with his dogs.
ULYSSES:Know'st thou what thou must do to aid us hence?
SILENUS:I know not: we will help you all we can.
ULYSSES:Provide us food, of which we are in want.
SILENUS:Here is not anything, as I said, but meat.
ULYSSES:But meat is a sweet remedy for hunger.
SILENUS:Cow's milk there is, and store of curdled cheese.
ULYSSES:Bring out:--I would see all before I bargain.
SILENUS:But how much gold will you engage to give?
ULYSSES:I bring no gold, but Bacchic juice.
SILENUS:Oh, joy!Tis long since these dry lips were wet with wine.
ULYSSES:Maron, the son of the God, gave it me.
SILENUS:Whom I have nursed a baby in my arms.
ULYSSES:The son of Bacchus, for your clearer knowledge.
SILENUS:Have you it now?--or is it in the ship?
ULYSSES:Old man, this skin contains it, which you see.
SILENUS:Why, this would hardly be a mouthful for me.
ULYSSES:Nay, twice as much as you can draw from thence.
SILENUS:You speak of a fair fountain, sweet to me.
ULYSSES:Would you first taste of the unmingled wine?
SILENUS:'Tis just--tasting invites the purchaser.
ULYSSES:Here is the cup, together with the skin.
SILENUS:Pour: that the draught may fillip my remembrance.
ULYSSES:See!
SILENUS:Papaiapax! what a sweet smell it has!
ULYSSES:You see it then?--
SILENUS:By Jove, no! but I smell it.
ULYSSES:Taste, that you may not praise it in words only.
SILENUS:Babai! Great Bacchus calls me forth to dance!Joy! joy!
ULYSSES:Did it flow sweetly down your throat?
SILENUS:So that it tingled to my very nails.
ULYSSES:And in addition I will give you gold.
SILENUS:Let gold alone! only unlock the cask.
ULYSSES:Bring out some cheeses now, or a young goat.
SILENUS:That will I do, despising any master.Yes, let me drink one cup, and I will giveAll that the Cyclops feed upon their mountains.
...
CHORUS:Ye have taken Troy and laid your hands on Helen?
ULYSSES:And utterly destroyed the race of Priam.
...
SILENUS:The wanton wretch! she was bewitched to seeThe many-coloured anklets and the chainOf woven gold which girt the neck of Paris,And so she left that good man Menelaus.There should be no more women in the worldBut such as are reserved for me alone.--See, here are sheep, and here are goats, Ulysses,Here are unsparing cheeses of pressed milk;Take them; depart with what good speed ye may;First leaving my reward, the Bacchic dewOf joy-inspiring grapes.
ULYSSES:Ah me! Alas!What shall we do? the Cyclops is at hand!Old man, we perish! whither can we fly?
SILENUS:Hide yourselves quick within that hollow rock.
ULYSSES:'Twere perilous to fly into the net.
SILENUS:The cavern has recesses numberless;Hide yourselves quick.
ULYSSES:That will I never do!The mighty Troy would be indeed disgracedIf I should fly one man. How many timesHave I withstood, with shield immovable.Ten thousand Phrygians!--if I needs must die,Yet will I die with glory;--if I live,The praise which I have gained will yet remain.
SILENUS:What, ho! assistance, comrades, haste, assistance!
[THE CYCLOPS, SILENUS, ULYSSES; CHORUS.]
CYCLOPS:What is this tumult? Bacchus is not here,Nor tympanies nor brazen castanets.How are my young lambs in the cavern? MilkingTheir dams or playing by their sides? And isThe new cheese pressed into the bulrush baskets?Speak! I'll beat some of you till you rain tears--Look up, not downwards when I speak to you.
SILENUS:See! I now gape at Jupiter himself;I stare upon Orion and the stars.
CYCLOPS:Well, is the dinner fitly cooked and laid?
SILENUS:All ready, if your throat is ready too.
CYCLOPS:Are the bowls full of milk besides?
SILENUS:O'er-brimming;So you may drink a tunful if you will.
CYCLOPS:Is it ewe's milk or cow's milk, or both mixed?--
SILENUS:Both, either; only pray don't swallow me.
CYCLOPS:By no means.--...What is this crowd I see beside the stalls?Outlaws or thieves? for near my cavern-homeI see my young lambs coupled two by twoWith willow bands; mixed with my cheeses lieTheir implements; and this old fellow hereHas his bald head broken with stripes.
SILENUS:Ah me!I have been beaten till I burn with fever.
CYCLOPS:By whom? Who laid his fist upon your head?
SILENUS:Those men, because I would not suffer themTo steal your goods.
CYCLOPS:Did not the rascals knowI am a God, sprung from the race of Heaven?
SILENUS:I told them so, but they bore off your things,And ate the cheese in spite of all I said,And carried out the lambs--and said, moreover,They'd pin you down with a three-cubit collar,And pull your vitals out through your one eye,Furrow your back with stripes, then, binding you,Throw you as ballast into the ship's hold,And then deliver you, a slave, to moveEnormous rocks, or found a vestibule.
CYCLOPS:In truth? Nay, haste, and place in order quicklyThe cooking-knives, and heap upon the hearth,And kindle it, a great faggot of wood.--As soon as they are slaughtered, they shall fillMy belly, broiling warm from the live coals,Or boiled and seethed within the bubbling caldron.I am quite sick of the wild mountain game;Of stags and lions I have gorged enough,And I grow hungry for the flesh of men.
SILENUS:Nay, master, something new is very pleasantAfter one thing forever, and of lateVery few strangers have approached our cave.
ULYSSES:Hear, Cyclops, a plain tale on the other side.We, wanting to buy food, came from our shipInto the neighbourhood of your cave, and hereThis old Silenus gave us in exchangeThese lambs for wine, the which he took and drank,And all by mutual compact, without force.There is no word of truth in what he says,For slyly he was selling all your store.
SILENUS:I? May you perish, wretch--
ULYSSES:If I speak false!
SILENUS:Cyclops, I swear by Neptune who begot thee,By mighty Triton and by Nereus old,Calypso and the glaucous Ocean Nymphs,The sacred waves and all the race of fishes--Be these the witnesses, my dear sweet master,My darling little Cyclops, that I neverGave any of your stores to these false strangers;--If I speak false may those whom most I love,My children, perish wretchedly!
CHORUS:There stop!I saw him giving these things to the strangers.If I speak false, then may my father perish,But do not thou wrong hospitality.
CYCLOPS:You lie! I swear that he is juster farThan Rhadamanthus--I trust more in him.But let me ask, whence have ye sailed, O strangers?Who are you? And what city nourished ye?
ULYSSES:Our race is Ithacan--having destroyedThe town of Troy, the tempests of the seaHave driven us on thy land, O Polypheme.
CYCLOPS:What, have ye shared in the unenvied spoilOf the false Helen, near Scamander's stream?
ULYSSES:The same, having endured a woful toil.
CYCLOPS:Oh, basest expedition! sailed ye notFrom Greece to Phrygia for one woman's sake?
ULYSSES:'Twas the Gods' work--no mortal was in fault.But, O great Offspring of the Ocean-King,We pray thee and admonish thee with freedom,That thou dost spare thy friends who visit thee,And place no impious food within thy jaws.For in the depths of Greece we have uprearedTemples to thy great Father, which are allHis homes. The sacred bay of TaenarusRemains inviolate, and each dim recessScooped high on the Malean promontory,And aery Sunium's silver-veined crag,Which divine Pallas keeps unprofaned ever,The Gerastian asylums, and whate'erWithin wide Greece our enterprise has keptFrom Phrygian contumely; and in whichYou have a common care, for you inhabitThe skirts of Grecian land, under the rootsOf Aetna and its crags, spotted with fire.Turn then to converse under human laws,Receive us shipwrecked suppliants, and provideFood, clothes, and fire, and hospitable gifts;Nor fixing upon oxen-piercing spitsOur limbs, so fill your belly and your jaws.Priam's wide land has widowed Greece enough;And weapon-winged murder leaped togetherEnough of dead, and wives are husbandless,And ancient women and gray fathers wailTheir childless age;--if you should roast the rest--And 'tis a bitter feast that you prepare--Where then would any turn? Yet be persuaded;Forgo the lust of your jaw-bone; preferPious humanity to wicked will:Many have bought too dear their evil joys.
SILENUS:Let me advise you, do not spare a morselOf all his flesh. If you should eat his tongueYou would become most eloquent, O Cyclops.
CYCLOPS:Wealth, my good fellow, is the wise man's God,All other things are a pretence and boast.What are my father's ocean promontories,The sacred rocks whereon he dwells, to me?Stranger, I laugh to scorn Jove's thunderbolt,I know not that his strength is more than mine.As to the rest I care not.--When he poursRain from above, I have a close pavilionUnder this rock, in which I lie supine,Feasting on a roast calf or some wild beast,And drinking pans of milk, and gloriouslyEmulating the thunder of high Heaven.And when the Thracian wind pours down the snow,I wrap my body in the skins of beasts,Kindle a fire, and bid the snow whirl on.The earth, by force, whether it will or no,Bringing forth grass, fattens my flocks and herds,Which, to what other God but to myselfAnd this great belly, first of deities,Should I be bound to sacrifice? I well knowThe wise man's only Jupiter is this,To eat and drink during his little day,And give himself no care. And as for thoseWho complicate with laws the life of man,I freely give them tears for their reward.I will not cheat my soul of its delight,Or hesitate in dining upon you:--And that I may be quit of all demands,These are my hospitable gifts;--fierce fireAnd yon ancestral caldron, which o'er-bubblingShall finely cook your miserable flesh.Creep in!--
...
ULYSSES:Ai! ai! I have escaped the Trojan toils,I have escaped the sea, and now I fallUnder the cruel grasp of one impious man.O Pallas, Mistress, Goddess, sprung from Jove,Now, now, assist me! Mightier toils than TroyAre these;--I totter on the chasms of peril;--And thou who inhabitest the thronesOf the bright stars, look, hospitable Jove,Upon this outrage of thy deity,Otherwise be considered as no God!
CHORUS (ALONE):For your gaping gulf and your gullet wide,The ravin is ready on every side,The limbs of the strangers are cooked and done;There is boiled meat, and roast meat, and meat from the coal,You may chop it, and tear it, and gnash it for fun,An hairy goat's-skin contains the whole.Let me but escape, and ferry me o'erThe stream of your wrath to a safer shore.The Cyclops Aetnean is cruel and bold,He murders the strangersThat sit on his hearth,And dreads no avengersTo rise from the earth.He roasts the men before they are cold,He snatches them broiling from the coal,And from the caldron pulls them whole,And minces their flesh and gnaws their boneWith his cursed teeth, till all be gone.Farewell, foul pavilion:Farewell, rites of dread!The Cyclops vermilion,With slaughter uncloying,Now feasts on the dead,In the flesh of strangers joying!
ULYSSES:O Jupiter! I saw within the caveHorrible things; deeds to be feigned in words,But not to be believed as being done.
CHORUS:What! sawest thou the impious PolyphemeFeasting upon your loved companions now?
ULYSSES:Selecting two, the plumpest of the crowd,He grasped them in his hands.--
CHORUS:Unhappy man!
...
ULYSSES:Soon as we came into this craggy place,Kindling a fire, he cast on the broad hearthThe knotty limbs of an enormous oak,Three waggon-loads at least, and then he strewedUpon the ground, beside the red firelight,His couch of pine-leaves; and he milked the cows,And pouring forth the white milk, filled a bowlThree cubits wide and four in depth, as muchAs would contain ten amphorae, and bound itWith ivy wreaths; then placed upon the fireA brazen pot to boil, and made red hotThe points of spits, not sharpened with the sickleBut with a fruit tree bough, and with the jawsOf axes for Aetnean slaughterings.And when this God-abandoned Cook of HellHad made all ready, he seized two of usAnd killed them in a kind of measured manner;For he flung one against the brazen rivetsOf the huge caldron, and seized the otherBy the foot's tendon, and knocked out his brainsUpon the sharp edge of the craggy stone:Then peeled his flesh with a great cooking-knifeAnd put him down to roast. The other's limbsHe chopped into the caldron to be boiled.And I, with the tears raining from my eyes,Stood near the Cyclops, ministering to him;The rest, in the recesses of the cave,Clung to the rock like bats, bloodless with fear.When he was filled with my companions' flesh,He threw himself upon the ground and sentA loathsome exhalation from his maw.Then a divine thought came to me. I filledThe cup of Maron, and I offered himTo taste, and said:--'Child of the Ocean God,Behold what drink the vines of Greece produce,The exultation and the joy of Bacchus.'He, satiated with his unnatural food,Received it, and at one draught drank it off,And taking my hand, praised me:--'Thou hast givenA sweet draught after a sweet meal, dear guest.'And I, perceiving that it pleased him, filledAnother cup, well knowing that the wineWould wound him soon and take a sure revenge.And the charm fascinated him, and IPlied him cup after cup, until the drinkHad warmed his entrails, and he sang aloudIn concert with my wailing fellow-seamenA hideous discord--and the cavern rung.I have stolen out, so that if you willYou may achieve my safety and your own.But say, do you desire, or not, to flyThis uncompanionable man, and dwellAs was your wont among the Grecian NymphsWithin the fanes of your beloved God?Your father there within agrees to it,But he is weak and overcome with wine,And caught as if with bird-lime by the cup,He claps his wings and crows in doting joy.You who are young escape with me, and findBacchus your ancient friend; unsuited heTo this rude Cyclops.
CHORUS:Oh my dearest friend,That I could see that day, and leave for everThe impious Cyclops.
...
ULYSSES:Listen then what a punishment I haveFor this fell monster, how secure a flightFrom your hard servitude.
CHORUS:O sweeter farThan is the music of an Asian lyreWould be the news of Polypheme destroyed.
ULYSSES:Delighted with the Bacchic drink he goesTo call his brother Cyclops--who inhabitA village upon Aetna not far off.
CHORUS:I understand, catching him when aloneYou think by some measure to dispatch him,Or thrust him from the precipice.
ULYSSES:Oh no;Nothing of that kind; my device is subtle.
CHORUS:How then? I heard of old that thou wert wise.
ULYSSES:I will dissuade him from this plan, by sayingIt were unwise to give the CyclopsesThis precious drink, which if enjoyed aloneWould make life sweeter for a longer time.When, vanquished by the Bacchic power, he sleeps,There is a trunk of olive wood within,Whose point having made sharp with this good swordI will conceal in fire, and when I seeIt is alight, will fix it, burning yet,Within the socket of the Cyclops' eyeAnd melt it out with fire--as when a manTurns by its handle a great auger round,Fitting the framework of a ship with beams,So will I, in the Cyclops' fiery eyeTurn round the brand and dry the pupil up.
CHORUS:Joy! I am mad with joy at your device.
ULYSSES:And then with you, my friends, and the old man,We'll load the hollow depth of our black ship,And row with double strokes from this dread shore.
CHORUS:May I, as in libations to a God,Share in the blinding him with the red brand?I would have some communion in his death.
ULYSSES:Doubtless: the brand is a great brand to hold.
CHORUS:Oh! I would lift an hundred waggon-loads,If like a wasp's nest I could scoop the eye outOf the detested Cyclops.
ULYSSES:Silence now!Ye know the close device--and when I call,Look ye obey the masters of the craft.I will not save myself and leave behindMy comrades in the cave: I might escape,Having got clear from that obscure recess,But 'twere unjust to leave in jeopardyThe dear companions who sailed here with me.
CHORUS:Come! who is first, that with his handWill urge down the burning brandThrough the lids, and quench and pierceThe Cyclops' eye so fiery fierce?
SEMICHORUS 1 [SONG WITHIN]:Listen! listen! he is coming,A most hideous discord humming.Drunken, museless, awkward, yelling,Far along his rocky dwelling;Let us with some comic spellTeach the yet unteachable.By all means he must be blinded,If my counsel be but minded.
SEMICHORUS 2:Happy thou made odorousWith the dew which sweet grapes weep,To the village hastening thus,Seek the vines that soothe to sleep;Having first embraced thy friend,Thou in luxury without end,With the strings of yellow hair,Of thy voluptuous leman fair,Shalt sit playing on a bed!--Speak! what door is opened?
CYCLOPS:Ha! ha! ha! I'm full of wine,Heavy with the joy divine,With the young feast oversated;Like a merchant's vessel freightedTo the water's edge, my cropIs laden to the gullet's top.The fresh meadow grass of springTempts me forth thus wanderingTo my brothers on the mountains,Who shall share the wine's sweet fountains.Bring the cask, O stranger, bring!
CHORUS:One with eyes the fairestCometh from his dwelling;Some one loves thee, rarestBright beyond my telling.In thy grace thou shinestLike some nymph divinestIn her caverns dewy:--All delights pursue thee,Soon pied flowers, sweet-breathing,Shall thy head be wreathing.
ULYSSES:Listen, O Cyclops, for I am well skilledIn Bacchus, whom I gave thee of to drink.
CYCLOPS:What sort of God is Bacchus then accounted?
ULYSSES:The greatest among men for joy of life.
CYCLOPS:I gulped him down with very great delight.
ULYSSES:This is a God who never injures men.
CYCLOPS:How does the God like living in a skin?
ULYSSES:He is content wherever he is put.
CYCLOPS:Gods should not have their body in a skin.
ULYSSES:If he gives joy, what is his skin to you?
CYCLOPS:I hate the skin, but love the wine within.
ULYSSES:Stay here now: drink, and make your spirit glad.
CYCLOPS:Should I not share this liquor with my brothers?
ULYSSES:Keep it yourself, and be more honoured so.
CYCLOPS:I were more useful, giving to my friends.
ULYSSES:But village mirth breeds contests, broils, and blows.
CYCLOPS:When I am drunk none shall lay hands on me.--
ULYSSES:A drunken man is better within doors.
CYCLOPS:He is a fool, who drinking, loves not mirth.
ULYSSES:But he is wise, who drunk, remains at home.
CYCLOPS:What shall I do, Silenus? Shall I stay?
SILENUS:Stay--for what need have you of pot companions?
CYCLOPS:Indeed this place is closely carpetedWith flowers and grass.
SILENUS:And in the sun-warm noon'Tis sweet to drink. Lie down beside me now,Placing your mighty sides upon the ground.
CYCLOPS:What do you put the cup behind me for?
SILENUS:That no one here may touch it.
CYCLOPS:Thievish One!You want to drink;--here place it in the midst.And thou, O stranger, tell how art thou called?
ULYSSES:My name is Nobody. What favour nowShall I receive to praise you at your hands?
CYCLOPS:I'll feast on you the last of your companions.
ULYSSES:You grant your guest a fair reward, O Cyclops.
CYCLOPS:Ha! what is this? Stealing the wine, you rogue!
SILENUS:It was this stranger kissing me becauseI looked so beautiful.
CYCLOPS:You shall repentFor kissing the coy wine that loves you not.
SILENUS:By Jupiter! you said that I am fair.
CYCLOPS:Pour out, and only give me the cup full.
SILENUS:How is it mixed? let me observe.
CYCLOPS:Curse you!Give it me so.
SILENUS:Not till I see you wearThat coronal, and taste the cup to you.
CYCLOPS:Thou wily traitor!
SILENUS:But the wine is sweet.Ay, you will roar if you are caught in drinking.
CYCLOPS:See now, my lip is clean and all my beard.
SILENUS:Now put your elbow right and drink again.As you see me drink--...
CYCLOPS:How now?
SILENUS:Ye Gods, what a delicious gulp!
CYCLOPS:Guest, take it;--you pour out the wine for me.
ULYSSES:The wine is well accustomed to my hand.
CYCLOPS:Pour out the wine!
ULYSSES:I pour; only be silent.
CYCLOPS:Silence is a hard task to him who drinks.
ULYSSES:Take it and drink it off; leave not a dreg.Oh that the drinker died with his own draught!
CYCLOPS:Papai! the vine must be a sapient plant.
ULYSSES:If you drink much after a mighty feast,Moistening your thirsty maw, you will sleep well;If you leave aught, Bacchus will dry you up.
CYCLOPS:Ho! ho! I can scarce rise. What pure delight!The heavens and earth appear to whirl aboutConfusedly. I see the throne of JoveAnd the clear congregation of the Gods.Now if the Graces tempted me to kissI would not--for the loveliest of them allI would not leave this Ganymede.
SILENUS:Polypheme,I am the Ganymede of Jupiter.
CYCLOPS:By Jove, you are; I bore you off from Dardanus.
...
[ULYSSES AND THE CHORUS.]
ULYSSES:Come, boys of Bacchus, children of high race,This man within is folded up in sleep,And soon will vomit flesh from his fell maw;The brand under the shed thrusts out its smoke,No preparation needs, but to burn outThe monster's eye;--but bear yourselves like men.
CHORUS:We will have courage like the adamant rock,All things are ready for you here; go in,Before our father shall perceive the noise.
ULYSSES:Vulcan, Aetnean king! burn out with fireThe shining eye of this thy neighbouring monster!And thou, O Sleep, nursling of gloomy Night,Descend unmixed on this God-hated beast,And suffer not Ulysses and his comrades,Returning from their famous Trojan toils,To perish by this man, who cares not eitherFor God or mortal; or I needs must thinkThat Chance is a supreme divinity,And things divine are subject to her power.
CHORUS:Soon a crab the throat will seizeOf him who feeds upon his guest,Fire will burn his lamp-like eyesIn revenge of such a feast!A great oak stump now is lyingIn the ashes yet undying.Come, Maron, come!Raging let him fix the doom,Let him tear the eyelid upOf the Cyclops--that his cupMay be evil!Oh! I long to dance and revelWith sweet Bromian, long desired,In loved ivy wreaths attired;Leaving this abandoned home--Will the moment ever come?
ULYSSES:Be silent, ye wild things! Nay, hold your peace,And keep your lips quite close; dare not to breathe,Or spit, or e'en wink, lest ye wake the monster,Until his eye be tortured out with fire.
CHORUS:Nay, we are silent, and we chaw the air.
ULYSSES:Come now, and lend a hand to the great stakeWithin--it is delightfully red hot.
CHORUS:You then command who first should seize the stakeTo burn the Cyclops' eye, that all may shareIn the great enterprise.
SEMICHORUS 1:We are too far;We cannot at this distance from the doorThrust fire into his eye.
SEMICHORUS 2:And we just nowHave become lame! cannot move hand or foot.
CHORUS:The same thing has occurred to us,--our anklesAre sprained with standing here, I know not how.
ULYSSES:What, sprained with standing still?
CHORUS:And there is dustOr ashes in our eyes, I know not whence.
ULYSSES:Cowardly dogs! ye will not aid me then?
CHORUS:With pitying my own back and my back-bone,And with not wishing all my teeth knocked out,This cowardice comes of itself--but stay,I know a famous Orphic incantationTo make the brand stick of its own accordInto the skull of this one-eyed son of Earth.
ULYSSES:Of old I knew ye thus by nature; nowI know ye better.--I will use the aidOf my own comrades. Yet though weak of handSpeak cheerfully, that so ye may awakenThe courage of my friends with your blithe words.
CHORUS:This I will do with peril of my life,And blind you with my exhortations, Cyclops.Hasten and thrust,And parch up to dust,The eye of the beastWho feeds on his guest.Burn and blindThe Aetnean hind!Scoop and draw,But beware lest he clawYour limbs near his maw.
CYCLOPS:Ah me! my eyesight is parched up to cinders.
CHORUS:What a sweet paean! sing me that again!
CYCLOPS:Ah me! indeed, what woe has fallen upon me!But, wretched nothings, think ye not to fleeOut of this rock; I, standing at the outlet,Will bar the way and catch you as you pass.
CHORUS:What are you roaring out, Cyclops?
CYCLOPS:I perish!
CHORUS:For you are wicked.
CYCLOPS:And besides miserable.
CHORUS:What, did you fall into the fire when drunk?
CYCLOPS:'Twas Nobody destroyed me.
CHORUS:Why then no oneCan be to blame.
CYCLOPS:I say 'twas NobodyWho blinded me.
CHORUS:Why then you are not blind.
CYCLOPS:I wish you were as blind as I am.
CHORUS:Nay,It cannot be that no one made you blind.
CYCLOPS:You jeer me; where, I ask, is Nobody?
CHORUS:Nowhere, O Cyclops.
CYCLOPS:It was that stranger ruined me:--the wretchFirst gave me wine and then burned out my eye,For wine is strong and hard to struggle with.Have they escaped, or are they yet within?
CHORUS:They stand under the darkness of the rockAnd cling to it.
CYCLOPS:At my right hand or left?
CHORUS:Close on your right.
CYCLOPS:Where?
CHORUS:Near the rock itself.You have them.
CYCLOPS:Oh, misfortune on misfortune!I've cracked my skull.
CHORUS:Now they escape you--there.
CYCLOPS:Not there, although you say so.
CHORUS:Not on that side.
CYCLOPS:Where then?
CHORUS:They creep about you on your left.
CYCLOPS:Ah! I am mocked! They jeer me in my ills.
CHORUS:Not there! he is a little there beyond you.
CYCLOPS:Detested wretch! where are you?
ULYSSES:Far from youI keep with care this body of Ulysses.
CYCLOPS:What do you say? You proffer a new name.
ULYSSES:My father named me so; and I have takenA full revenge for your unnatural feast;I should have done ill to have burned down TroyAnd not revenged the murder of my comrades.
CYCLOPS:Ai! ai! the ancient oracle is accomplished;It said that I should have my eyesight blindedBy your coming from Troy, yet it foretoldThat you should pay the penalty for thisBy wandering long over the homeless sea.
ULYSSES:I bid thee weep--consider what I say;I go towards the shore to drive my shipTo mine own land, o'er the Sicilian wave.
CYCLOPS:Not so, if, whelming you with this huge stone,I can crush you and all your men together;I will descend upon the shore, though blind,Groping my way adown the steep ravine.
CHORUS:And we, the shipmates of Ulysses now,Will serve our Bacchus all our happy lives.
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