First Episode - Cyclops Polyphemus
(as told by Odysseus in Book IX)

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To the first draft



Odysseus
Companio ns
Polyphemus
The Cyclopes




This is a revision of the first draft of the text.

Text added to the original is in blue.
Text to be erase d from the original is in grey.



Zeus
is typing on the computer screen

On the screen app ears
(16) I shall tell you my name first,
(19) I am Odysseus, son of Laertes,

(37) come, let me tell you of the much-troubled return
(38) That Zeus put upon me when I went away from Troy.
(39) The wind bearing me from Ilion brought me near the Cicones,
(40) To Ismaros

(105) Then we sailed further on
(106)
to the land of the Cyclopes
(142) And some god guided us
(143) Through the murky night.
(152) And when the early-born, rosy-fingered dawn appeared
(154) The nymphs, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeu s, roused up
(155) Mountain goats, so that my companions might nave dinner.
(161) So then for the whole day till the setting of the sun
(162) We sat dining on the endless meat and sweet wine,


Odysseus
(161) So then for the whole day till the setting of the sun
(162) We sat dining on the endless meat and sweet wine,

(171) called an ass embly and spoke out to them all:
(173) I will go myself with my ship and companions;
(174) To inquire about these men, whoever they may be,


On the screen appears
(195) I myself pic ked 12 of my best companions
(216) Speedily we came to the cave and did not find him
(217) Within
(218) my companions besought me with speeches
(219) To go back again, when we had picked some cheeses and then
(220) When we had h astily driven the kids and lambs out of the pens
(221) On board the swift ship, to set sail upon the salt water.
(222) But I did not listen - that would have been far better -
(230) But when he appeared, he was not to be joyful to my companion s.

Cyclops Polyphemus

Cyclops Polyphemus enters

On the screen appea rs
(240) He put a great doorstone on, raising it aloft
(244) He sat down and milked the sheep and the bleating goats,
(245) All in due order, and set each young one to his mother;

Cyclops Polyphemus
(355) Tell me your name

On the screen appears
(246) And at once when he had curdled half the w hite milk,
(247) He skimmed it off and put it up in wicker baskets,
(248) And half of it he stood in pails so he would have it
(249) To drink when he reached for it, to have it for supper.

C yclops Polyphemus
(355) Tell me your name


On the screen appears
(250) And when he had hurried at attending to all his tasks,
(251) He kindled a fire
{... see 308 ff., 341 ff.]

Cyclops Polyphemus
(252) Strangers, who are you?

Odysseus
(259) We are Achaians coming from Troy, driven off course
(260) By all kinds of winds over the great gulf of the sea;
(261) Wanting to go h omeward, we came by other passages,
(262) By another way.
(266) And so we have arrived here and come up to your knees
(267) To see if you may provide some guest gift ...
(269) We are your suppliants.
(270) Z eus is the protector of suppliants and guest friends,

Cyclops Polyphemus
(273) You are a fool, stranger, or have come from afar
(275) Cyclop es have no regard for aegis-bearing Zeus.

On the screen appears
(288) He leaped up, stretched his hands to my companions,
(289) Snatched up two together, and dashed them like whelps to the earth.
(290) Their brains flowed out onto the ground and wet the earth.
(291) Then he tore them limb from limb and made his meal.


On the screen appears
(307) And when the early-born, rosy-fingered dawn appeared,
(308) He kindled a fire and milked his glorious flocks,
(309) All in due order, and set each young one to his mother;
(310) And when he had hurried at tending to all his tasks
(311) He again snatched two men together and made them his meal

DESCRIPTION OF THE OLIVE WOOD
(319) In the fold a great club of the Cyclops was lying,
(320) A g reen one of olive wood.
(325) I stood by and cut off a piece the size of a fathom
(326) Gave it to my companions and told them to plain it;
(327) They made it smooth, and I stood by and sharpened it to a point.
(328) I took it at once and brought it to a glow in the blazing fire;
(329) Then I hid it well,
(331) I ordered the others to cast lots for a choice
(332) Of the one who would dare to raise the pole with me
(333) And bore it in his eye when sweet sleep had come upon him.

(336) He came at evening driving the flocks
(340) Then he put the great doorstone on,
(341) And he sat down and milked the sheep and the bleating goats,
(342) All in due order, and set each young one to his mother.
(343) And when he had hurried attending to all his tasks
(344) He again snatched two men together and made them his meal

Odysseus
(347) Here, Cyclops, drink wine, now you have eaten human flesh,

Cyclops Polyphemus
(355) Kindly grant me som ething more and tell me your name

Odysseus
(364) Cyclops, do you ask me my famous name? Well, I
(365) Will tell you. Then give me the guest gift you promis ed.
(366) Noman is my own name. Noman do they call me,

Cyclops Polyphemus
(369) Noman I shall eat last among his companions
(370) And th e others first. This will be my guest gift to you.


On the screen appears
(371) he leaned over And then
(373) Sleep seized him. Wine poured out of his gullet,

DESCRIPTION OF EYE
(375) I drove the pole up under a mass of ashes
(376) Until it should heat.
(380) My companions
(382) lifted the olive pole that was sharp at its tip
(383) and thrust it in his eye;
(387) So we held the fire-sharpened pole in his eye
(388) And twirled it. The blood flowed around it.
(389) The fire singed his eyebrows and eyelids all around
(390) From the burning eye.

Cyclops Polyphemus
(395) He wailed a great terrible wail; the rock resounded
(399) [lets] out a great roar for the Cyclopes
< BR> Cyclops Polyphemus
(408) Friends, Noman is murdering me by craft, not by force.

Other Cyclops The Cyclopes
(410) If no one is compelling you when you are alone,
(411) There is no way to escape a sickness from great Zeus.

ODYSSEUS AND COMPANIONS ESCAPE FROM THE CAVE
(415) The Cyclops, though, was in pain as he groaned
(416) Groping with his hands he took the stone from the entrance
(417) An d sat in the entrance himself, stretching out his hands
(418) To see if he could catch someone going outdorrs with the sheep

(425) The males of the sheep were well nourished and shaggy coated,
(429) I bound them in threes, and the middle one would carry a man.
(431) As for myself,
(432) There was a lead ram, by far the finest of all the sheep,
(433) Whose back i grasped and lay under his shaggy belly
(434) Curled up.
(437) And when the early-born, rosy-fingered dawn ap peared,
(438) he drove the male flocks to pasture.

Polyphemus
(446) adressed him [the ram]
(408) if you could sympathise and become able to speak,
(457) To say in what place that man is evading my rage,
(458) Then once he were struck, his brains should be dashed through the cave
(459) And then my heart
(460) Should be relieved of the ills worthless Noman brought me.

on the screen appears (462) When I had gone a short way away from the cave and the yard,
(463) I first got loose from the ram and then freed my companions.

(473) And when [...he] was far off as a man's shout wou ld carry

Odysseus
(473) And when [...he] was far off as a man's shout would carry
(502) Cyclops, if some one among mortal men should inquire
(503) Of you about the unseemly blindness in your eye,
(504) Say that Odysseus, sacker of cities, blinded it.

Polyph emus
(528) Hear me, earth-holding Poseidon
(530) Grant that the city-sacker Odysseus not go homeward,
(532) But if it is his fate to see his dear ones,
(534) May he come late and ill , having lost all his companions,
(535) On someone else's ship, and find troubles at home.



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