’Next the Cyclops stretched himself amongst his sheep and went to sleep beside the fire.  Then I debated whether I should take my sharp sword in my hand, and feeling where his heart was, stab him there.  But second thoughts held me back from doing this.  I might be able to kill him as he slept, but not even with my companions could I roll away the great stone that closed the mouth of the cave.’

’Dawn came, and the Cyclops awakened, kindled his fire and milked his flocks.  Then he seized two others of my men and made ready for his mid-day meal.  And now he rolled away the great stone and drove his flocks out of the cave.’

[Illustration]

’I had pondered on a way of escape, and I had thought of something that might be done to baffle the Cyclops.  I had with me a great skin of sweet wine, and I thought that if I could make him drunken with wine I and my companions might be able for him.  But there were other preparations to be made first.  On the floor of the cave there was a great beam of olive wood which the Cyclops had cut to make a club when the wood should be seasoned.  It was yet green.  I and my companions went and cut off a fathom’s length of the wood, and sharpened it to a point and took it to the fire and hardened it in the glow.  Then I hid the beam in a recess of the cave.’

’The Cyclops came back in the evening, and opening up the cave drove in his flocks.  Then he closed the cave again with the stone and went and milked his ewes and his goats.  Again he seized two of my companions.  I went to the terrible creature with a bowl of wine in my hands.  He took it and drank it and cried out, “Give me another bowl of this, and tell me thy name that I may give thee gifts for bringing me this honey-tasting drink."’

’Again I spoke to him guilefully and said, “Noman is my name.  Noman my father and my mother call me."’

’"Give me more of the drink, Noman,” he shouted.  “And the gift that I shall give to thee is that I shall make thee the last of thy fellows to be eaten."’

’I gave him wine again, and when he had taken the third bowl he sank backwards with his face upturned, and sleep came upon him.  Then I, with four companions, took that beam of olive wood, now made into a hard and pointed stake, and thrust it into the ashes of the fire.  When the pointed end began to glow we drew it out of the flame.  Then I and my companions laid hold on the great stake and, dashing at the Cyclops, thrust it into his eye.  He raised a terrible cry that made the rocks ring and we dashed away into the recesses of the cave.’

His cries brought other Cyclopes to the mouth of the cave, and they, naming him as Polyphemus, called out and asked him what ailed him to cry.  “Noman,” he shrieked out, “Noman is slaying me by guile.”  They answered him saying, “If no man is slaying thee, there is nothing we can do for thee, Polyphemus.  What ails thee has been sent to thee by the gods.”  Saying this, they went away from the mouth of the cave without attempting to move away the stone.’