Diggle (1984) · Coleridge (1891)

Scene. — Mount Aetna in Sicily, before the cave of the Cyclops.

1 Σι.Ὦ Βρόμιε, διὰ σὲ μυρίους ἔχω πόνους

νῦν χὤτ' ἐν ἥβηι τοὐμὸν εὐσθένει δέμας·

πρῶτον μὲν ἡνίκ' ἐμμανὴς Ἥρας ὕπο

Νύμφας ὀρείας ἐκλιπὼν ὤιχου τροφούς·

5 ἔπειτά γ' ἀμφὶ γηγενῆ μάχην δορὸς

ἐνδέξιος σῶι ποδὶ παρασπιστὴς βεβὼς

Ἐγκέλαδον ἰτέαν ἐς μέσην θενὼν δορὶ

ἔκτεινα—φέρ' ἴδω, τοῦτ' ἰδὼν ὄναρ λέγω;

οὐ μὰ Δί', ἐπεὶ καὶ σκῦλ' ἔδειξα Βακχίωι.

10 καὶ νῦν ἐκείνων μείζον' ἐξαντλῶ πόνον.

ἐπεὶ γὰρ Ἥρα σοι γένος Τυρσηνικὸν

ληιστῶν ἐπῶρσεν, ὡς ὁδηθείης μακράν,

⟨ἐγὼ⟩ πυθόμενος σὺν τέκνοισι ναυστολῶ

σέθεν κατὰ ζήτησιν. ἐν πρύμνηι δ' ἄκραι

15 αὐτὸς λαβὼν ηὔθυνον ἀμφῆρες δόρυ,

παῖδες δ' ⟨ἐπ'⟩ ἐρετμοῖς ἥμενοι γλαυκὴν ἅλα

ῥοθίοισι λευκαίνοντες ἐζήτουν σ', ἄναξ.

ἤδη δὲ Μαλέας πλησίον πεπλευκότας

ἀπηλιώτης ἄνεμος ἐμπνεύσας δορὶ

20 ἐξέβαλεν ἡμᾶς τήνδ' ἐς Αἰτναίαν πέτραν,

ἵν' οἱ μονῶπες ποντίου παῖδες θεοῦ

Κύκλωπες οἰκοῦσ' ἄντρ' ἔρημ' ἀνδροκτόνοι.

τούτων ἑνὸς ληφθέντες ἐσμὲν ἐν δόμοις

δοῦλοι· καλοῦσι δ' αὐτὸν ὧι λατρεύομεν

25 Πολύφημον· ἀντὶ δ' εὐίων βακχευμάτων

ποίμνας Κύκλωπος ἀνοσίου ποιμαίνομεν.

παῖδες μὲν οὖν μοι κλειτύων ἐν ἐσχάτοις

νέμουσι μῆλα νέα νέοι πεφυκότες,

ἐγὼ δὲ πληροῦν πίστρα καὶ σαίρειν στέγας

30 μένων τέταγμαι τάσδε, τῶιδε δυσσεβεῖ

Κύκλωπι δείπνων ἀνοσίων διάκονος.

καὶ νῦν, τὰ προσταχθέντ', ἀναγκαίως ἔχει

σαίρειν σιδηρᾶι τῆιδέ μ' ἁρπάγηι δόμους,

ὡς τόν τ' ἀπόντα δεσπότην Κύκλωπ' ἐμὸν

35 καθαροῖσιν ἄντροις μῆλά τ' ἐσδεχώμεθα.

ἤδη δὲ παῖδας προσνέμοντας εἰσορῶ

ποίμνας. τί ταῦτα; μῶν κρότος σικινίδων

ὁμοῖος ὑμῖν νῦν τε χὤτε Βακχίωι

κῶμος συνασπίζοντες Ἀλθαίας δόμους

40 προσῆιτ' ἀοιδαῖς βαρβίτων σαυλούμενοι;

SilenusO Bromius, unnumbered are the toils I bear because of thee, no less now than when I was young and hale; first, when thou wert driven mad by Hera and didst leave the mountain nymphs, thy nurses; next, when in battle with earth-born spearmen I stood beside thee on the right as squire, and slew Enceladus, smiting him full in the middle of his targe with my spear. Come, though, let me see; must I confess ’twas all a dream? No, by Zeus! since I really showed his spoils to the Bacchic god. And now am I enduring to the full a toil still worse than those. For when Hera sent forth a race of Tyrrhene pirates against thee, that thou mightest be smuggled far away, I, as soon as the news reached me, sailed in quest of thee with my children; and, taking the helm myself, I stood on the end of the stern and steered our trim craft; and my sons, sitting at the oars, made the grey billows froth and foam as they sought thee, my liege. But just as we had come nigh Malea in our course, an east-wind blew upon the ship and drove us hither to the rock of Aetna, where in lonely caverns dwell the one-eyed children of ocean’s god, the murdering Cyclopes. Captured by one of them we are slaves in his house; Polyphemus they call him whom we serve; and instead of Bacchic revelry we are herding a godless Cyclops’s flocks; and so it is my children, striplings as they are, tend the young thereof on the edge of the downs; while my appointed task is to stay here and fill the troughs and sweep out the cave, or wait upon the ungodly Cyclops at his impious feasts. His orders now compel obedience; I have to scrape out his house with the rake you see, so as to receive the Cyclops, my absent master, and his sheep in clean caverns. But already I see my children driving their browsing flocks towards me. What means this? is the beat of feet in the Sicinnis dance the same to you now as when ye attended the Bacchic god in his revelries and made your way with dainty steps to the mask of lyres to the halls of Althaea?

Χο.παῖ γενναίων μὲν πατέρων

γενναίων δ' ἐκ τοκάδων,

πᾶι δή μοι νίσηι σκοπέλους;

οὐ τᾶιδ' ὑπήνεμος αὔρα

45 καὶ ποιηρὰ βοτάνα,

δινᾶέν θ' ὕδωρ ποταμῶν

ἐν πίστραις κεῖται πέλας ἄντρων,

οὗ σοι βλαχαὶ τεκέων;

ψύττ'· οὐ τᾶιδ', οὔ;

50 οὐ τᾶιδε νεμῆι κλειτὺν δροσεράν;

ὠή, ῥίψω πέτρον τάχα σου·

ὕπαγ' ὦ ὕπαγ' ὦ κεράστα

⟨πρὸς⟩ μηλοβότα στασιωρὸν

Κύκλωπος ἀγροβάτα.

55 σπαργῶντας μαστοὺς χάλασον·

δέξαι θηλὰς πορίσασ'

οὓς λείπεις ἀρνῶν θαλάμοις.

ποθοῦσί σ' ἁμερόκοιτοι

βλαχαὶ σμικρῶν τεκέων.

60 εἰς αὐλὰν πότ' †ἀμφιβαίνεις†

ποιηροὺς λιποῦσα νομοὺς

Αἰτναίων εἴσω σκοπελῶν;

οὐ τάδε Βρόμιος, οὐ τάδε χοροὶ

Βάκχαι τε θυρσοφόροι,

65 οὐ τυμπάνων ἀλαλαγμοί,

οὐκ οἴνου χλωραὶ σταγόνες

66 κρήναις παρ' ὑδροχύτοις·

68 οὐδ' ἐν Νύσαι μετὰ Νυμφᾶν

ἴακχον ἴακχον ὠιδὰν

70 μέλπω πρὸς τὰν Ἀφροδίταν,

ἃν θηρεύων πετόμαν

Βάκχαις σὺν λευκόποσιν.

†ὦ φίλος ὦ φίλε Βακχεῖε

ποῖ οἰοπολεῖς

75 ξανθὰν χαίταν σείεις;†

ἐγὼ δ' ὁ σὸς πρόπολος

Κύκλωπι θητεύω

τῶι μονοδέρκται δοῦλος ἀλαίνων

80 σὺν τᾶιδε τράγου χλαίναι μελέαι

σᾶς χωρὶς φιλίας.

ChorusOffspring of well-bred sires and dams, pray whither wilt thou be gone from me to the rocks? Hast thou not here a gentle breeze, and grass to browse, and water from the eddying stream set near the cave in troughs? and are not thy young ones bleating for thee?

Pst! pst! wilt thou not browse here, here on the dewy slope? Ho? ho! ere long will I cast a stone at thee. Away, away! O horned one, to the fold-keeper of the Cyclops, the country-ranging shepherd.

Loosen thy bursting udder; welcome to thy teats the kids, whom thou leavest in the lambkins’ pens. Those little bleating kids, asleep the livelong day, miss thee; wilt then leave at last the rich grass pastures on the peaks of Aetna and enter the fold?

Here we have no Bromian god; no dances here, or Bacchantes thyrsus-bearing; no roll of drums, or drops of sparkling wine by gurgling founts; nor is it now with Nymphs in Nysa I sing a song of Bacchus, Bacchus! to the queen of love, in quest of whom I once sped on with Bacchantes, white of foot. Dear friend, dear Bacchic god, whither art roaming alone, waving thy auburn locks, while I, thy minister, do service to the one-eyed Cyclops, a slave and wanderer I, clad in this wretched goat-skin dress, severed from thy love?

Euripides, Cyclops — Greek text with English translation