A Pirate in a Shepherd’s Cave
Wily Odysseus, the lord of lies, answered,
“My lord Alcinous, great king, it is a splendid thing to hear a poet
as talented as this. His voice is godlike.
I think that there can be no greater pleasure than when the whole community enjoys
a banquet, as we sit inside the house, and listen to the singer, and the tables
are heaped with bread and meat; the wine boy ladles drink from the bowl and pours it into cups. 10
To me this seems ideal, a thing of beauty. Now something prompted you to ask about my own sad story. I will tell you, though the memory increases my despair.
Where shall I start? Where can I end? The gods have given me so much to cry about.
First I will tell my name, so we will be acquainted and if I survive, you can
be my guest in my distant home one day. I am Odysseus, Laertes’ son, 20
known for my many clever tricks and lies.
My fame extends to heaven, but I live in Ithaca, where shaking forest hides
Mount Neriton. Close by are other islands:
Dulichium, and wooded Zacynthus
and Same. All the others face the dawn; my Ithaca is set apart, most distant, facing the dark. It is a rugged land,
but good at raising children. To my eyes
no country could be sweeter. As you know, 30
divine Calpyso held me in her cave, wanting to marry me; and likewise Circe, the trickster, trapped me, and she wanted me to be her husband. But she never swayed
my heart, since when a man is far from home, living abroad, there is no sweeter thing
than his own native land and family. Now let me tell you all the trouble Zeus
has caused me on my journey home from Troy.
A blast of wind pushed me off course towards 40
the Cicones in Ismarus. I sacked
the town and killed the men. We took their wives and shared their riches equally among us.
Then I said we must run away. Those fools refused to listen. They were drinking wine excessively, and killing sheep and cattle along the beach. The Cicones called out
to neighbors on the mainland, who were strong and numerous, and skilled at horseback fighting,
and if need be, on foot. They came like leaves 50
and blossoms in the spring at dawn. Then Zeus gave us bad luck. Poor us! The enemy
assembled round the ships and fought with swords of bronze. And while the holy morning light
was bright and strong, we held them off, though they outnumbered us. But when the sun turned round
and dipped, the hour when oxen are released, the Cicones began to overpower
us Greeks. Six well-armed members of my crew
died from each ship. The rest of us survived, 60
and we escaped the danger. We prepared to sail away with heavy hearts, relieved to be alive, but grieving for our friends.
Before we launched the ships, we called aloud three times to each of our poor lost companions, slaughtered at the hands of the Cicones.
The Cloud Lord Zeus hurled North Wind at our ships, a terrible typhoon, and covered up
the sea and earth with fog. Night fell from heaven
and seized us and our ships keeled over sideways; 70
the sails were ripped three times by blasting wind. Scared for our lives, we hoisted down the sails and rowed with all our might towards the shore.
We stayed there for two days and nights, exhausted, eating our hearts with pain. When bright-haired Dawn brought the third morning, we set up our masts, unfurled the shining sails, and climbed aboard.
The wind blew straight, the pilots steered, and I would have come safely home, to my own land, but as I rounded Malea, a current 80
and blast of wind pushed me off course, away from Cythera. For nine days I was swept
by stormy winds across the fish-filled sea.
On the tenth day, I landed on the island
of those who live on food from lotus flowers.
We gathered water, and my crew prepared a meal. We picnicked by the ships, then I
chose two men, and one slave to make the third, to go and scout. We needed to find out
what kind of people lived there on that island. 90
The scouts encountered humans, Lotus-Eaters, who did not hurt them. They just shared with them their sweet delicious fruit. But as they ate it,
they lost the will to come back and bring news to me. They wanted only to stay there,
feeding on lotus with the Lotus-Eaters.
They had forgotten home. I dragged them back in tears, forced them on board the hollow ships, pushed them below the decks, and tied them up. I told the other men, the loyal ones, 100
to get back in the ships, so no one else would taste the lotus and forget about our destination. They embarked and sat
along the rowing benches, side by side,
and struck the grayish water with their oars.
With heavy hearts we sailed along and reached the country of high-minded Cyclopes,
the mavericks. They put their trust in gods,
and do not plant their food from seed, nor plow,
and yet the barley, grain, and clustering wine-grapes 110
all flourish there, increased by rain from Zeus. They hold no councils, have no common laws, but live in caves on lofty mountaintops,
and each makes laws for his own wife and children, without concern for what the others think.
A distance from this island is another, across the water, slantways from the harbor, level and thickly wooded. Countless goats live there but people never visit it.
No hunters labor through its woods to scale 120
its hilly peaks. There are no flocks of sheep, no fields of plowland—it is all untilled, unsown and uninhabited by humans.
Only the bleating goats live there and graze.
Cyclopic people have no red-cheeked ships
and no shipwright among them who could build boats, to enable them to row across
to other cities, as most people do, crossing the sea to visit one another.
With boats they could have turned this island into 130
a fertile colony, with proper harvests.
By the gray shore there lie well-watered meadows, where vines would never fail. There is flat land
for plowing, and abundant crops would grow in the autumn; there is richness underground.
The harbor has good anchorage; there is
no need of anchor stones or ropes or cables. The ships that come to shore there can remain beached safely till the sailors wish to leave
and fair winds blow. Up by the harbor head 140
freshwater gushes down beneath the caves. The poplars grow around it. There we sailed:
the gods were guiding us all through the darkness. Thick fog wrapped round our ships and in the sky the moon was dark and clothed in clouds, so we saw nothing of the island. None of us
could see the great waves rolling in towards the land, until we rowed right to the beach.
We lowered all the sails and disembarked
onto the shore, and there we fell asleep. 150
When early Dawn shone forth with rosy fingers, we roamed around that island full of wonders.
The daughters of the great King Zeus, the nymphs, drove out the mountain goats so that my crew could eat. On seeing them, we dashed to fetch
our javelins and bows from on board ship. We split into three groups, took aim and shot.
Some god gave us good hunting. All twelve crews had nine goats each, and ten for mine. We sat there
all day till sunset, eating meat and drinking 160
our strong red wine. The ships’ supply of that had not run out; when we had sacked the holy citadel of the Cicones, we all
took gallons of it, poured in great big pitchers.
We looked across the narrow strip of water at the Cyclopic island, saw their smoke,
and heard the baaing of their sheep and goats. The sun went down and in the hours of darkness we lay and slept on shore beside the sea.
But when the rosy hands of Dawn appeared, 170
I called my men together and addressed them.
‘My loyal friends! Stay here, the rest of you, while with my boat and crew I go to check who those men are, find out if they are wild, lawless aggressors, or the type to welcome strangers, and fear the gods.’
With that, I climbed on board and told my crew to come with me
and then untie the cables of the ship. Quickly they did so, sat along the benches,
and struck the whitening water with their oars. 180
The journey was not long. Upon arrival, right at the edge of land, beside the sea, we saw a high cave overhung with laurel,
the home of several herds of sheep and goats. Around that cave was built a lofty courtyard, of deep-set stones, with tall pines rising up, and leafy oaks. There lived a massive man who shepherded his flocks all by himself.
He did not go to visit other people,
but kept apart, and did not know the ways 190
of custom. In his build he was a wonder, a giant, not like men who live on bread, but like a wooded peak in airy mountains, rising alone above the rest.
I told my loyal crew to guard the ship, while I
would go with just twelve chosen men, my favorites.
I took a goatskin full of dark sweet wine that I was given by Apollo’s priest,
Maron the son of Euanthes, who lived
inside the shady grove on Ismarus. 200
In reverence to the god, I came to help him, and save his wife and son. He gave me gifts: a silver bowl and seven pounds of gold,
well wrought, and siphoned off some sweet strong wine, and filled twelve jars for me—a godlike drink.
The slaves knew nothing of this wine; it was known just to him, his wife, and one house girl.
Whenever he was drinking it, he poured a single shot into a cup, and added
twenty of water, and a marvelous smell 210
rose from the bowl, and all would long to taste it. I filled a big skin up with it, and packed provisions in a bag—my heart suspected
that I might meet a man of courage, wild,
and lacking knowledge of the normal customs.
We soon were at the cave, but did not find the Cyclops; he was pasturing his flocks. We went inside and looked at everything.
We saw his crates weighed down with cheese, and pens crammed full of lambs divided up by age: 220
the newborns, middlings, and those just weaned. There were well-crafted bowls and pails for milking, all full of whey. My crew begged, ‘Let us grab
some cheese and quickly drive the kids and lambs out of their pens and down to our swift ships,
and sail away across the salty water!’
That would have been the better choice. But I refused. I hoped to see him, and find out
if he would give us gifts. In fact he brought
no joy to my companions. Then we lit 230
a fire, and made a sacrifice, and ate
some cheese, and sat to wait inside the cave until he brought his flocks back home. He came at dinnertime, and brought a load of wood
to make a fire. He hurled it noisily
into the cave. We were afraid, and cowered towards the back. He drove his ewes and nannies inside to milk them, but he left the rams
and he-goats in the spacious yard outside.
He lifted up the heavy stone and set it 240
to block the entrance of the cave. It was a rock so huge and massive, twenty-two
strong carts could not have dragged it from the threshold.
He sat, and all in order milked his ewes and she-goats, then he set the lambs to suck
beside each bleating mother. Then he curdled half of the fresh white milk, set that aside
in wicker baskets, and the rest he stored
in pails so he could drink it with his dinner.
When he had carefully performed his chores, 250
he lit a fire, then looked around and saw us.
‘Strangers! Who are you? Where did you come from across the watery depths? Are you on business,
or roaming round without a goal, like pirates, who risk their lives at sea to bring disaster
to other people?’
So he spoke. His voice, so deep and booming, and his giant size, made our hearts sink in terror. Even so,
I answered,
‘We are Greeks, come here from Troy.
The winds have swept us off in all directions 260
across the vast expanse of sea, off course
from our planned route back home. Zeus willed it so. We are proud to be the men of Agamemnon,
the son of Atreus, whose fame is greatest under the sky, for sacking that vast city and killing many people. Now we beg you, here at your knees, to grant a gift, as is
the norm for hosts and guests. Please sir, my lord: respect the gods. We are your suppliants,
and Zeus is on our side, since he takes care 270
of visitors, guest-friends, and those in need.’
Unmoved he said, ‘Well, foreigner, you are a fool, or from some very distant country.
You order me to fear the gods! My people think nothing of that Zeus with his big scepter, nor any god; our strength is more than theirs. If I spare you or spare your friends, it will not be out of fear of Zeus. I do the bidding
of my own heart. But are you going far
in that fine ship of yours, or somewhere near?’ 280
He spoke to test me, but I saw right through him. I know how these things work. I answered him deceitfully.
‘Poseidon, the Earth-Shaker, shipwrecked me at the far end of your island. He pushed us in; wind dashed us on the rocks. We barely managed to survive.’
But he made no reply and showed no mercy. Leaping up high, he reached his hands towards my men,
seized two, and knocked them hard against the ground
like puppies, and the floor was wet with brains. 290
He ripped them limb by limb to make his meal, then ate them like a lion on the mountains, devouring flesh, entrails, and marrow bones, and leaving nothing. Watching this disaster,
we wept and lifted up our hands in prayer
to Zeus. We felt so helpless. When the Cyclops had filled his massive belly with his meal
of human meat and unmixed milk, he lay stretched out among his flocks. Then thinking like a military man, I thought I should 300
get out my sword, go up to him and thrust right through his torso, feeling for his liver.
That would have doomed us all. On second thoughts,
I realized we were too weak to move
the mighty stone he set in the high doorway. So we stayed there in misery till dawn.
Early the Dawn appeared, pink fingers blooming, and then he lit his fire and milked his ewes
in turn, and set a lamb by every one.
When he had diligently done his chores, 310
he grabbed two men and made a meal of them. After he ate, he drove his fat flock out.
He rolled the boulder out and back with ease, as one would set the lid upon a quiver.
Then whistling merrily, the Cyclops drove his fat flocks to the mountain. I was left,
scheming to take revenge on him and hurt him, and gain the glory, if Athena let me.
I made my plan. Beside the pen there stood
a great big club, green olive wood, which he 320
had cut to dry, to be his walking stick.
It was so massive that it looked to us
like a ship’s mast, a twenty-oared black freighter that sails across the vast sea full of cargo.
I went and cut from it about a fathom, and gave it to the men, and ordered them
to scrape it down. They made it smooth and I stood by and sharpened up the tip, and made it hard in the blazing flame. The cave was full
of dung; I hid the club beneath a pile. 330
Then I gave orders that the men cast lots
for who would lift the stake with me and press it into his eye, when sweet sleep overtook him.
The lots fell on the men I would have chosen: four men, and I was fifth among their number.
At evening he drove back his woolly flocks into the spacious cave, both male and female, and left none in the yard outside—perhaps suspecting something, or perhaps a god
told him to do it. He picked up and placed 340
the stone to form a door, and sat to milk
the sheep and bleating goats in turn, then put the little ones to suck. His chores were done; he grabbed two men for dinner. I approached and offered him a cup of ivy wood,
filled full of wine. I said,
‘Here, Cyclops! You have eaten human meat; now drink some wine, sample the merchandise our ship contains.
I brought it as a holy offering,
so you might pity me and send me home. 350
But you are in a cruel rage, beyond what anyone could bear. Do you expect
more guests, when you have treated us so rudely?’
He took and drank the sweet delicious wine; he loved it, and demanded more.
‘Another! And now tell me your name, so I can give you a present as my guest, one you will like.
My people do have wine; grape clusters grow from our rich earth, fed well by rain from Zeus. But this is nectar, god food!’
So I gave him 360
another cup of wine, and then two more. He drank them all, unwisely. With the wine gone to his head, I told him, all politeness,
‘Cyclops, you asked my name. I will reveal it; then you must give the gift you promised me, of hospitality. My name is Noman.
My family and friends all call me Noman.’
He answered with no pity in his heart, ‘I will eat Noman last; first I will eat
the other men. That is my gift to you.’ 370
Then he collapsed, fell on his back, and lay there, his massive neck askew. All-conquering sleep took him. In drunken heaviness, he spewed
wine from his throat, and chunks of human flesh.
And then I drove the spear into the embers to heat it up, and told my men, ‘Be brave!’ I wanted none of them to shrink in fear.
The fire soon seized the olive spear,
green though it was, and terribly it glowed.
I quickly snatched it from the fire. My crew 380
stood firm: some god was breathing courage in us. They took the olive spear, its tip all sharp,
and shoved it in his eye. I leaned on top and twisted it, as when a man drills wood for shipbuilding. Below, the workers spin
the drill with straps, stretched out from either end. So round and round it goes, and so we whirled the fire-sharp weapon in his eye. His blood poured out around the stake, and blazing fire
sizzled his lids and brows, and fried the roots. 390
As when a blacksmith dips an axe or adze to temper it in ice-cold water; loudly
it shrieks. From this, the iron takes on its power. So did his eyeball crackle on the spear.
Horribly then he howled, the rocks resounded, and we shrank back in fear. He tugged the spear out of his eye, all soaked with gushing blood.
Desperately with both hands he hurled it from him, and shouted to the Cyclopes who lived
in caves high up on windy cliffs around. 400
They heard and came from every side, and stood near to the cave, and called out, ‘Polyphemus!
What is the matter? Are you badly hurt?
Why are you screaming through the holy night
and keeping us awake? Is someone stealing your herds, or trying to kill you, by some trick or force?’
Strong Polyphemus from inside replied, ‘My friends! Noman is killing me by tricks, not force.’
Their words flew back to him: ‘If no one hurts you, you are all alone: 410
Great Zeus has made you sick; no help for that. Pray to your father, mighty Lord Poseidon.’
Then off they went, and I laughed to myself,
at how my name, the ‘no man’ maneuver, tricked him. The Cyclops groaned and labored in his pain,
felt with blind hands and took the door-stone out, and sat there at the entrance, arms outstretched, to catch whoever went out with the sheep.
Maybe he thought I was a total fool.
But I was strategizing, hatching plans, 420
so that my men and I could all survive.
I wove all kinds of wiles and cunning schemes; danger was near and it was life or death.
The best idea I formed was this: there were
those well-fed sturdy rams with good thick fleece, wool as dark as violets—all fine big creatures.
So silently I tied them with the rope used by the giant Cyclops as a bed.
I bound the rams in sets of three and set
a man beneath each middle sheep, with one 430
on either side, and so my men were saved. One ram was best of all the flock; I grabbed his back and curled myself up underneath his furry belly, clinging to his fleece;
by force of will I kept on hanging there. And then we waited miserably for day.
When early Dawn revealed her rose-red hands, the rams jumped up, all eager for the grass.
The ewes were bleating in their pens, unmilked,
their udders full to bursting. Though their master 440
was weak and worn with pain, he felt the back of each ram as he lined them up—but missed the men tied up beneath their woolly bellies.
Last of them all, the big ram went outside, heavy with wool and me—the clever trickster.
Strong Polyphemus stroked his back and asked him,
‘Sweet ram, why are you last today to leave the cave? You are not normally so slow.
You are the first to eat the tender flowers,
leaping across the meadow, first to drink, 450
and first to want to go back to the sheepfold at evening time. But now you are the last.
You grieve for Master’s eye; that wicked man, helped by his nasty henchmen, got me drunk and blinded me. Noman will not escape!
If only you could talk like me, and tell me where he is skulking in his fear of me.
Then I would dash his brains out on the rocks, and make them spatter all across the cave,
to ease the pain that no-good Noman brought.’ 460
With that, he nudged the ram away outside. We rode a short way from the cave, then I first freed myself and then untied my men. We stole his nice fat animals, and ran, constantly glancing all around and back until we reached the ship. The other men were glad to see us, their surviving friends, but wept for those who died. I ordered them to stop their crying, scowling hard at each.
I made them shove the fleecy flock on board, 470
and row the boat out into salty water.
So they embarked, sat on their rowing benches, and struck their oar blades in the whitening sea. When I had gone as far as shouts can carry,
I jeered back,
‘Hey, you, Cyclops! Idiot!
The crew trapped in your cave did not belong
to some poor weakling. Well, you had it coming! You had no shame at eating your own guests!
So Zeus and other gods have paid you back.’
My taunting made him angrier. He ripped 480
a rock out of the hill and hurled it at us. It landed right in front of our dark prow,
and almost crushed the tip of the steering oar. The stone sank in the water; waves surged up. The backflow all at once propelled the ship landwards; the swollen water pushed us with it. I grabbed a big long pole, and shoved us off.
I told my men, ‘Row fast, to save your lives!’ and gestured with my head to make them hurry.
They bent down to their oars and started rowing. 490
We got out twice as far across the sea, and then I called to him again. My crew begged me to stop, and pleaded with me.
‘Please!
Calm down! Why are you being so insistent
and taunting this wild man? He hurled that stone and drove our ship right back to land. We thought that we were going to die. If he had heard us,
he would have hurled a jagged rock and crushed our heads and wooden ship. He throws so hard!
But my tough heart was not convinced; I was 500
still furious, and shouted back again,
‘Cyclops! If any mortal asks you how your eye was mutilated and made blind, say that Odysseus, the city-sacker, Laertes’ son, who lives in Ithaca, destroyed your sight.’
He groaned, ‘The prophecy!
It has come true at last! There was a tall and handsome man named Telemus, the son of Eurymus, who lived among my people;
he spent his life here, soothsaying for us. 510
He told me that Odysseus’ hands
would make me lose my sight. I always thought a tall and handsome man would visit me,
endowed with strength and courage. But this weakling, this little nobody, has blinded me;
by wine he got the best of me. Come on, Odysseus, and let me give you gifts,
and ask Poseidon’s help to get you home.
I am his son; the god is proud to be
my father. He will heal me, if he wants, 520
though no one else, not god nor man, can do it.’
After he said these words, I answered him, ‘If only I could steal your life from you, and send you down to Hades’ house below, as sure as nobody will ever heal you,
even the god of earthquakes.’
But he prayed holding his arms towards the starry sky,
‘Listen, Earth-Shaker, Blue-Haired Lord Poseidon: acknowledge me your son, and be my father.
Grant that Odysseus, the city-sacker, 530
will never go back home. Or if it is fated that he will see his family,
then let him get there late and with no honor, in pain and lacking ships, and having caused the death of all his men, and let him find more trouble in his own house.’
Blue Poseidon granted his son’s prayer. Polyphemus raised
a rock far bigger than the last, and swung, then hurled it with immeasurable force.
It fell a little short, beside our rudder, 540
and splashed into the sea; the waves surged up, and pushed the boat ahead, to the other shore.
We reached the island where our ships were docked. The men were sitting waiting for us, weeping.
We beached our ship and disembarked, then took the sheep that we had stolen from the Cyclops out of the ship’s hold, and we shared them out fairly, so all the men got equal portions.
But in dividing up the flock, my crew
gave me alone the ram, the Cyclops’ favorite. 550
There on the shore, I slaughtered him for Zeus, the son of Cronus, god of Dark Clouds, Lord of all the world. I burned the thighs. The god ignored my offering, and planned to ruin
all of my ships and all my loyal men.
So all day long till sunset we were sitting, feasting on meat and drinking sweet strong wine. But when the sun went down and darkness fell, we went to sleep beside the breaking waves.
Then when rose-fingered Dawn came, bright and early, 560
I roused my men and told them to embark and loose the cables. Quickly they obeyed, sat at their rowing benches, all in order,
and struck the gray saltwater with their oars. So we sailed on, with sorrow in our hearts, glad to survive, but grieving for our friends.”
