Κύκλωψ
Cyclops
Euripides · Satyr play · date unknown, perhaps c. 408 BC
Odysseus and his men, blown to Sicily, fall into the hands of the Cyclops Polyphemus, who keeps satyrs as slaves. Odysseus gets him drunk and puts out his eye.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Σι.Silenus
- Χο.Chorus
- Οδ.Odysseus
- Κυ.Cyclops
- Χο.αFirst Semichorus
- Χο.βSecond Semichorus
Translations
- E. P. Coleridgeprose · 1891 · aligned by line · with Diggle's Greek
- A. S. Wayverse · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Diggle's Greek
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Odysseus and his crew land in Sicily looking for water and find the satyrs and old Silenus, enslaved by the Cyclops Polyphemus and set to herding his flocks. Silenus trades the Cyclops's food for Odysseus's wine, then blames the strangers when the master returns. Polyphemus eats two of the crew. Odysseus gets him drunk, and with a heated stake, and no help from the satyrs, puts out his eye. The Greeks and the satyrs sail off together.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1887 plate of a black-figure oinochoe in the Louvre (Gazette archéologique 12, pl. 1): three of Odysseus' men, two driving a stake into the eye of the sleeping Polyphemus, one heating a stake in the fire, with ivy above; cut out and retraced.