I and my comrades would yet perish miserably. For who could move
away the great rock that lay against the door of the cave? So we
waited till the morning, with grief in our hearts. And the monster
woke, and milked his flocks, and afterwards, seizing two men,
devoured them for his meal. Then he went to the pastures, but put
the great rock on the mouth of the cave, just as a man puts down
the lid upon his quiver.

"All that day I was thinking what I might best do to save myself
and my companions, and the end of my thinking was this. There was
a mighty pole in the cave, green wood of an olive tree, big as a
ship's mast, which Polyphemus purposed to use, when the smoke
should have dried it, as a walking-staff. Of this I cut off a
fathom's length, and my comrades sharpened it and hardened it in
the fire, and then hid it away. At evening the giant came back,
and drove his sheep into the cave, nor left the rams outside, as
he had been wont to do before, but shut them in. And having duly
done his shepherd's work, he took, as before, two of my comrades,
and devoured them. And when he had finished his supper, I came
forward, holding the wine-skin in my hand, and said:--

"'Drink, Cyclops, now that thou hast feasted. Drink, and see what
precious things we had in our ship. But no one hereafter will come
to thee with such, if thou dealest with strangers as cruelly as
thou hast dealt with us.'

"Then the Cyclops drank, and was mightily pleased, and said: 'Give
me again to drink, and tell me thy name, stranger, and I will give
thee a gift such as a host should give. In good truth this is a
rare liquor. We, too, have vines, but they bear not wine like