Epeisodion 1
Silenus
This is mount Aetna, the highest point in Sicily.
Odysseus
But where are the city-walls and ramparts?
115
Silenus
There are none; the headlands, sir, are void of men.
Odysseus
Who then possess the land? the race of wild creatures?
Silenus
The Cyclopes, who have caves, not roofed houses.
Odysseus
Obedient unto whom? or is the power in the people’s hands?
Silenus
They are rovers; no man obeys another in anything.
120
Odysseus
Do they sow Demeter’s grain, or on what do they live?
Silenus
On milk and cheese and flesh of sheep.
Odysseus
Have they the drink of Bromius, the juice of the vine?
Silenus
No indeed! and thus it is a joyless land they dwell in.
Odysseus
Are they hospitable and reverent towards strangers?
125
Silenus
Strangers, they say, supply the daintiest meat.
Odysseus
What, do they delight in killing men and eating them?
Silenus
No one has ever arrived here without being butchered.
Odysseus
Where is the Cyclops himself? inside his dwelling?
Silenus
He is gone hunting wild beasts with hounds on Aetna.
130
Odysseus
Dost know then what to do, that we may be gone from the land?
Silenus
Not I, Odysseus; but I would do anything for thee.
Odysseus
Sell us food, of which we are in need.
