Epeisodion 2
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.
445
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 ail; my plan is fraught with subtlety.
Chorus
What then? Truly we have long heard of thy cleverness.
450
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;
455
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.
460
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.
475
Odysseus
Hush! for now thou knowest my plot in fall, 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. [Re-enters the cave.
480
