"δὴ τότε τοὺς ἄλλους κελόμην ἐρίηρας ἑταίρους
αὐτοῦ πὰρ νηί τε μένειν καὶ νῆα ἔρυσθαι,
αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ κρίνας ἑτάρων δυοκαίδεκ᾽ ἀρίστους195
βῆν· ἀτὰρ αἴγεον ἀσκὸν ἔχον μέλανος οἴνοιο
ἡδέος, ὅν μοι ἔδωκε Μάρων, Εὐάνθεος υἱός,
ἱρεὺς Ἀπόλλωνος, ὃς Ἴσμαρον ἀμφιβεβήκει,
οὕνεκά μιν σὺν παιδὶ περισχόμεθ᾽ ἠδὲ γυναικὶ
ἁζόμενοι· ᾤκει γὰρ ἐν ἄλσεϊ δενδρήεντι200
Φοίβου Ἀπόλλωνος. ὁ δέ μοι πόρεν ἀγλαὰ δῶρα·
χρυσοῦ μέν μοι ἔδωκ᾽ ἐυεργέος ἑπτὰ τάλαντα,
δῶκε δέ μοι κρητῆρα πανάργυρον, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα
οἶνον ἐν ἀμφιφορεῦσι δυώδεκα πᾶσιν ἀφύσσας
ἡδὺν ἀκηράσιον, θεῖον ποτόν· οὐδέ τις αὐτὸν205
ἠείδη δμώων οὐδ᾽ ἀμφιπόλων ἐνὶ οἴκῳ,
ἀλλ᾽ αὐτὸς ἄλοχός τε φίλη ταμίη τε μί᾽ οἴη.
τὸν δ᾽ ὅτε πίνοιεν μελιηδέα οἶνον ἐρυθρόν,
ἓν δέπας ἐμπλήσας ὕδατος ἀνὰ εἴκοσι μέτρα
χεῦ᾽, ὀδμὴ δ᾽ ἡδεῖα ἀπὸ κρητῆρος ὀδώδει210
θεσπεσίη· τότ᾽ ἂν οὔ τοι ἀποσχέσθαι φίλον ἦεν.
τοῦ φέρον ἐμπλήσας ἀσκὸν μέγαν, ἐν δὲ καὶ ᾖα
κωρύκῳ· αὐτίκα γάρ μοι ὀίσατο θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ
ἄνδρ᾽ ἐπελεύσεσθαι μεγάλην ἐπιειμένον ἀλκήν,
ἄγριον, οὔτε δίκας ἐὺ εἰδότα οὔτε θέμιστας.215
καρπαλίμως δ᾽ εἰς ἄντρον ἀφικόμεθ᾽, οὐδέ μιν ἔνδον
εὕρομεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐνόμευε νομὸν κάτα πίονα μῆλα.
ἐλθόντες δ᾽ εἰς ἄντρον ἐθηεύμεσθα ἕκαστα.
ταρσοὶ μὲν τυρῶν βρῖθον, στείνοντο δὲ σηκοὶ
ἀρνῶν ἠδ᾽ ἐρίφων· διακεκριμέναι δὲ ἕκασται220
ἔρχατο, χωρὶς μὲν πρόγονοι, χωρὶς δὲ μέτασσαι,
χωρὶς δ᾽ αὖθ᾽ ἕρσαι. ναῖον δ᾽ ὀρῷ ἄγγεα πάντα,
γαυλοί τε σκαφίδες τε, τετυγμένα, τοῖς ἐνάμελγεν.
ἔνθ᾽ ἐμὲ μὲν πρώτισθ᾽ ἕταροι λίσσοντ᾽ ἐπέεσσιν
τυρῶν αἰνυμένους ἰέναι πάλιν, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα225
καρπαλίμως ἐπὶ νῆα θοὴν ἐρίφους τε καὶ ἄρνας
σηκῶν ἐξελάσαντας ἐπιπλεῖν ἁλμυρὸν ὕδωρ·
ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ οὐ πιθόμην, ἦ τ᾽ ἂν πολὺ κέρδιον ἦεν,
ὄφρ᾽ αὐτόν τε ἴδοιμι, καὶ εἴ μοι ξείνια δοίη.
οὐδ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔμελλ᾽ ἑτάροισι φανεὶς ἐρατεινὸς ἔσεσθαι.230
notes
Mooring the ship, Odysseus goes with twelve men to the Cyclops’ cave, which is described.
Odysseus yields to his curiosity and chooses twelve men to go with him to the Cyclops’s island. Before setting off, he makes sure to pack one crucial item, a goatskin sack of dark, sweet wine, a gift from Maron, a priest of Apollo. This is no ordinary vintage and is available only to the priest and his wife. The fragrance seems to preoccupy Odysseus.
Read full essay
It is ἡδύς, “sweet,” (197, 205), θεῖος, “divine,” (205), μελιηδής, “honey-sweet” (208). When poured, its effects are powerful (210–211)
Like the savor of burning cedar and sweetwood in Calypso’s cave, the wine engages the senses, its fragrance floating around; like the seductive voices of Calypso, Circe, and the Sirens, it beckons those who approach, drawing them toward danger. As we have noted, the combination of fragrance, ambrosia, and shiny things is often associated with trickery in the Odyssey. Later, as he drinks and falls victim to Odysseus’s trickery, Polyphemus himself will compare the wine to nectar and ambrosia (9.359). Odysseus has had a premonition that they will meet a wild, strong man, ignorant of laws and good customs. Now he has a weapon.
Odysseus and his chosen companions arrive at the cave to find it unoccupied for the moment. The Cyclops, it seems, is out in the pasture, tending to his flocks. They enter the monster’s home and gaze in wonder at the tidy scene within, baskets filled with cheese, pails overflowing with milk and whey, pens crowded with lambs and kids, carefully segregated according to age. We encounter again the abiding paradox of the Cyclops episode: the loutish, dangerous creature is also a methodical, attentive shepherd. The interplay of civilized and savage behavior, not confined to Polyphemus only, will run through the entire episode, part of the poem’s anthropological meditation on the complexities of human experience.
The crew begs him to plunder the Cyclops’s stores and then sail away to safety. In retrospect, this would have been better, he admits (9.228–230).
The centrifugal version of Odysseus, hungry for knowledge and experience, even at the risk of endangering himself and others, emerges here for the first time in the hero’s recounting of his adventures. In the poem’s opening verses, Homer explicitly links his hero’s desire for knowledge and the suffering he endured (1.3–4). There, the pain is said to be in the service of saving himself and his crew. But here and elsewhere, as we will see, that goal gives way to Odysseus’s restless curiosity. His rueful admission here comes, let us remember, after he has lost all of his crew. Of course, not all of the losses can be blamed on Odysseus. Their lack of self-control got his companions into trouble with the Cicones and will lead them to ignore his warnings about the bag of winds from Aeolus and the cattle of the sun. But some of the dangers they encounter might have been avoided, had they not been sacrificed to their captain’s need to “know the cities and minds of many” (1.3).
These two urges in Odysseus, to reach home and to seek new knowledge, are not always in conflict. Finding out as much as he can about the people and places he visits on his journey, while hiding his own identity, gives him leverage as he makes his way toward Ithaka. Knowledge is, in this sense, power in the poem. Yet we cannot help but feel that the alter ego Odysseus creates for himself in the false tales he spins for Athena, Eumaeus, Telemachus, and Penelope, wandering the Mediterranean in search of adventure and riches, reflects something inside him that peeks out at moments like this. And the uneasiness many, including later storytellers, have felt about the end of the poem can be attributed at least in part to the feeling that the dutiful king, husband, father, and son who finally triumphs will not be content with staying home. Likewise, the tension between these impulses in the hero finds its analog in the larger structure of the poem in the coexistence of two different worlds: the Ithaka of Athena’s return story, where the centripetal hero can reestablish his kingship with all its attendant hierarchies, and the world through which the anonymous stranger passes, teeming with possibilities, wide open to all the vagaries of ordinary human experience.
Odysseus insists on waiting in order to see Polyphemus, but also to find out if he will offer them ξείνια, “guest gifts.” We know at this point in the poem that the issue is not simply one of manners. How strangers behave when they arrive in a new place and how they are treated are important measures of moral worth in the Odyssey. Despite a wobbly start, Alcinous proves to be an excellent host for Odysseus, as do Nestor and Menelaus for Telemachus. Even the gods observe the niceties, as we see when Hermes arrives unannounced at the cave of Calypso (5.87–97). We may feel that these matters are somewhat trivial amid dangerous encounters with monsters, but the background of the Odyssey is the 9th century BCE in the Mediterranean, a time of considerable unrest, with wandering people uprooted from their homes. When night fell, there would be no anonymous hotel in which weary travelers could find rest. How one is treated by strangers could be a matter of life and death.
Is, then, the creature going to be a proper, civilized host, or a dangerous savage? So far, as we have seen, the signals have been mixed. Behind the episode lies a potent mythical paradigm. The figure of the “culture hero,” who battles against a chaos monster and by conquering it preserves civilization, is ubiquitous in stories across the Mediterranean, appearing as early as The Epic of Gilgamesh in the 2nd millennium BCE: Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeat Humbaba, monster of the Cedar Forest; Apollo slays Pytho, a giant serpent, the rotting body of which marks the site of the god’s oracle at Delphi; Zeus conquers Typhon, a Storm God, and secures the rule of the Olympian gods. The story pattern appears in the Iliad, but in a more complex form, befitting an ambiguous hero. Achilles, cutting a gory path toward Hector, throws so many dead bodies into the river Scamander that its flow is blocked by corpses and the river’s god protests. Achilles dismisses the complaint, prompting the god to make the river overflow its banks and threaten to drown the hero. Hephaestus, prompted by Hera, starts a back-fire and drives the river back into its channel (Il. 21.209–382). Achilles begins as the chaos monster, clogging the flow of nature, then, with the help of the gods, becomes the agent for restoring order.
The echoes of this story pattern are more muted in the Cyclops episode, but no less central to its ironies. Odysseus seems at first a fitting candidate for the culture hero, facing the one-eyed creature, who eats his guests instead of feeding them, as a good host should do. But as the episode unfolds, we will see that the poet blurs the outlines of the story’s logic. Polyphemus, as we have seen, is a rather tidy monster in his own way, and Odysseus will prove to be a dangerous guest.
Further Reading
Dimock, G. 1989. The Unity of the Odyssey, 117–118. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
Finley, M. 1978. The World of Odysseus. London: Harmondsworth.
Nagler, M. 1974. Spontaneity and Tradition: The Oral Art of Homer,147–162. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Pedrick, V. 1988. “The Hospitality of Noble Women in the Odyssey.” Helios 15: 85–104.
Peradotto, J. 1990. The Man in the Middle: Name and Narration in Homer’s Odyssey, 53–58. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Reinhardt, K. 1942. “The Adventures in the Odyssey.” In Schein, S. 1996. Reading the Odyssey. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 79–83.
Thalmann, W. 1992. The Odyssey: An Epic of Return, 36; 74–76. New York: Twayne Publishers.
Van Nortwick, T. 2008. The Unknown Odysseus: Alternate Worlds in Homer’s Odyssey, 30–35. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
194 ἔρυσθαι: “to draw up on shore”
195 κρίνας: “choosing,” aor. ptc. > κρίνω.
198 ὃς ... ἀμφιβεβήκει: “who used to watch over,” “protected.” Apollo used to watch over Ismaros, until Odysseus and his men sacked it, killing the men and enslaving their wives (9.39–41). In the raid they spared Maron, the priest of Apollo, and his family.
198 ἀμφιβεβήκει: plupf. > ἀμφιβαίνω, treated as an imperfect in Homer.
199 περισχόμεθ(α): “we protected”
200 ἁζόμενοι: “out of reverence”
201 πόρεν: = ἔπορε, aor. > *πόρω, “he provided”
204 δυώδεκα πᾶσιν: “twelve, all told,” or “twelve in all”
205 αὐτὸν: refers to the wine
206 ἠείδη: “knew about” = ᾔδη > οἶδα
208 τὸν: the article, with μελιηδέα οἶνον ἐρυθρόν.
208 ὅτε πίνοιεν: “whenever they drank,” past general conditional (or indefinite) relative clause, with optative in secondary sequence.
209 ὕδατος: gen., after μέτρα.
209 ἀνὰ … χεῦ’: “He poured it (the cup of wine) into twenty measures…”
209 χεῦε: aor., where an imperfect is expected.
210 ὀδμὴ: = ὀσμή, “scent.”
210 ὀδώδει: > ὄζω, plupf. with impf. sense, “was fragrant”
211 ἂν … ἦεν: “[on those occasions,] it would be…” or “it was…” An action that is usual or customary can be expressed with the imperfect and ἄν (Smyth 1894, “iterative Imperfect”).
211 φίλον: “pleasing (to),” with a complementary infinitive
212 τοῦ … ἀσκὸν μέγαν: “a large wineskin of this” (i.e., the wine). τοῦ is demonstrative.
212 φέρον: = ἔφερον.
212 ἐν: with κωρύκῳ.
212 ᾖα: “provisions” acc. pl. > ἤια -ατος, τό; object of φέρον.
213 ὀΐσατο: aor. > οἴομαι or ὀΐομαι, + future infinitive
213-214 ὀΐσατο / ἄνδρ(α) ἐπελεύσεσθαι: “suspected that (I) might encounter a man.”
214 ἐπελεύσεσθαι: fut. infin. > ἐπέρχομαι.
214 μεγάλην ἐπιειμένον ἀλκήν: “clothed in great courage,” i.e. warlike and potentially hostile. For the accusative (μεγάλην ἀλκήν) after a passive participle (ἐπιειμένον > ἐπιέννυμι), see Smyth 1628 and 1632.
217 νομὸν κάτα: = κατὰ νομόν, anaphora. In looking up νομός, notice the accent, which differentiates it from νόμος.
218 ἐθηεύμεσθα: = Att. ἐθεώμεθα > θεάομαι.
219 βρῖθον: = Att. ἔβριθον, impf.
219 στείνοντο: “were crowded with” + gen. (Smyth 1369, genitive with verbs signifying “to fill, to be full of”)
220 διακεκριμέναι: pf. mid. ptc. > διακρίνω.
220-221 διακεκριμέναι δὲ ἕκασται / ἔρχατο: "and each kind was penned separately."
220. διακεκριμέναι: pf. mid. ptc. > διακρίνω.
221 ἔρχατο: 3rd pl. plupf. > ἔργω.
222 ναῖον: “were overflowing,” = Att. ἔναιον, impf.
222 ὀρῷ: > ὀρός. Note the smooth breathing and accent when looking up this noun.
223 τοῖς: the article is used as a relative pronoun (Monro 262). The antecedents are the vessels mentioned in the first half of the line. Instrumental dative.
223 τετυγμένα: “well-made.”
223 ἐνάμελγεν: unaugmented aor.; the subject is the Cyclops.
225 τυρῶν αἰνυμένους: in indirect discourse, following λίσσοντ(ο), understand ἡμᾶς as the accusative (“…that we, taking some of the cheese, ...”).
225 τυρῶν: partitive gen. (“some of the cheese”)
225 ἰέναι πάλιν, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα: "go back, and then...," looking forward to ἐπιπλεῖν in line 227. The infinitives are part of the accusative and infinitive construction of indirect discourse introduced by λίσσοντ(ο).
227 σηκῶν ἐξελάσαντας: understand ἐκ with the genitive, as implied by ἐξελάσαντας ( > ἐξελαύνω). As in line 225, understand ἡμᾶς with the participle.
228 ἦ … ἦεν: parenthetical. The apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact conditional with the protasis implied.
229 αὐτόν: the Cyclops.
229 καὶ εἴ … δοίη: “and if he would give….” It’s easiest to take this as an indirect question introduced by ἴδοιμι: “So that I might see him, and (see) if he would give….”
229 ξείνια: supply δῶρα, “gifts of hospitality”
230 οὐδ(έ) ... ἐρατεινὸς: "not ... lovely," i.e. "very unpleasant"—an understatement.
230 ἔμελλ(ε): the subject is the Cyclops.
230 φανεὶς: “when he appeared,” temporal participle.
vocabulary
κέλομαι κελήσομαι ἐκελησάμην ἐκεκλόμην: to command, urge on, exhort, call to
ἐρίηρος –ον: faithful, devoted
ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion
αὐτοῦ: at the very place, here, there
εἰρύω/ἐρύω ἐρύσω/ἐρύω εἴρυσα/ἔρυσα/ἔρυσσα εἴρυσα/ἔρυσα/ἔρυσσα –– –– εἰρύσθην: to pull, draw, drag
ἀτάρ: but, yet
ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion
δυοκαίδεκα: twelve 195
ἀτάρ: but, yet
αἴγεος –α –ον: of goat skin
ἀσκός –οῦ ὁ: a wine-skin; leather purse
μέλας μέλαινα μέλαν: black, dark; obscure
οἶνος –ου ὁ: wine
Μάρων –ωνος ὁ: son of Euanthes, priest of Apollo in Ismarus
Εὐάνθης –ους ὁ: Euanthes, the father of Maron
ἱερεύς –έως ὁ: priest, sacrificer of victims
Ἀπόλλων –ωνος ὁ: Apollo
Ἴσμαρος –ου ὁ: Ismarus, a city of the Ciconians
ἀμφιβαίνω ἀμφιβήσομαι ἀμφέβην ἀμφιβέβηκα: to surround, go or stand over; to protect
οὕνεκα: on account of which, wherefore
μιν: (accusative singular third person pronoun) him, her, it
περιέχω/περιίσχω περιέξω/περισχήσω περιέσχον περιέσχηκα περιέσχημαι περιεσχέθην: (mid.) to surround, protect
ἠδέ: and
ἅζομαι ––– ––– ––– ––– –––: to respect, venerate, fear
ἄλσος –ους τό: a glade
δενδρήεις –εσσα –εν: woody 200
Φοῖβος –ου ὁ: Phoebus, epithet of Apollo, probably as god of light
πόρω ––– ἔπορον ––– ––– –––: to offer, furnish, supply, give; (pf. pass. 3 sing.) it is fated
ἀγλαός –ή –όν: splendid, shining, bright
δῶρον –ου τό: gift
χρυσός –οῦ ὁ: gold
εὐεργής –ές: well-wrought, well-made
τάλαντον –ου τό: a talent, a large sum of gold
κρητήρ –ῆρος ὁ: large vessel for mixing water and wine
πανάργυρος –ον: all-silver
ἀτάρ: but, yet
οἶνος –ου ὁ: wine
ἀμφιφορεύς –έως ὁ: a large jar with two handles
δυώδεκα or δώδεκα: twelve
ἀφύσσω ἀφύξω ἤφυσα: to draw (liquid from a vessel)
ἀκηράσιος –ον: unmixed
ποτόν -ου τό: a drink, esp. wine 205
δμώς –ωός ὁ: an enslaved person, especially one taken in war
ἀμφίπολος –ου ἡ: female attendant, handmaid
ἄλοχος –ου ἡ: wife
ταμία –ας ἡ: a housekeeper, housewife
οἶος –α –ον: alone
μελιηδής –ές: honey-sweet
οἶνος –ου ὁ: wine
ἐρυθρός –ά –όν: red
δέπας –αος τό: drinking cup, beaker
ἐμπίμπλημι ἐμπλήσω ἐνέπλησα ἐμπέπληκα ἐμπέπλησμαι ἐωεπλήθην: to fill
μέτρον –ου τό: a measure, proportion; rule
χέω χέω ἔχεα or ἔχευα κέχυκα κέχυμαι ἐχύθην: to pour 210
ὀσμή –ῆς ἡ: a smell, scent, odor
κρητήρ –ῆρος ὁ: large vessel for mixing water and wine
ὄζω ὀζέσω/ὀζήσω ὤζεσα/ὤζησα ὤζηκα/ὄδωδα: to emit an odor (good or bad), be fragrant
θεσπέσιος [–α] –ον: divine; prodigious, extraordinary, supernatural
τοι: let me tell you, surely
ἀπέχω ἀφέξω (or ἀποσχήσω) ἀπέσχον ἀπέσχηκα ––– –––: to keep apart; (mid.) to restrain oneself, abstain
ἐμπίμπλημι ἐμπλήσω ἐνέπλησα ἐμπέπληκα ἐμπέπλησμαι ἐωεπλήθην: fill
ἀσκός –οῦ ὁ: a wine-skin; leather purse
ἤια –ατος τό: provisions for a journey
κώρυκος –ου ὁ: a leather sack
ἀγήνωρ –ορος: manly, courageous, heroic
ἐπέρχομαι ἔπειμι ἐπῆλθον ἐπελήλυθα ––– –––: to approach, arrive; to encounter, come up against, attack
ἐπιέννυμι ἐπιέσσω ἐπίεσσα: to put on, wear
ἀλκή –ής ἡ: strength, courage
ἄγριος –α –ον: savage; wild; fierce
θέμις –ιστος ἡ: norm, custom; right, law 215
καρπάλιμος –ον: swift
ἄντρον –ου τό: a cave, cavern
μιν: (accusative singular third person pronoun) him, her, it
ἐνδογενής –ές: within, at home
νομεύω νομεύσω ἐνόμευσα: to put to graze, drive afield
νομός –ου ὁ: place assigned for grazing, pasture
πίων –ονος ὁ/ἡ: fat, plump; rich, opulent
μῆλον –ου τό: sheep or goat
ἄντρον –ου τό: a cave, cavern
θεάομαι θεάσομαι ἐθεσάμην ––– τεθέαμαι ἐθεσαμήθην: to look on, behold, view
ταρσός –οῦ ὁ: a wickerwork basket, frame, mat
τυρός –οῦ ὁ: cheese
βρίθω βρίσω ἔβρισα βέβριθα ––– –––: to be heavy
στείνω – – – – –: to contract; (mid.-pass.) to be crammed full of (+ gen.)
σηκός –οῦ ὁ: a pen, fold
ἀρήν ἀρνός ὁ: lamb 220
ἠδέ: and
ἔριφος –ου ὁ: a young goat, kid
διακρίνω διακρινῶ διέκρινα διακέκρικα διακέκριμαι διεκρίθην: to separate, distinguish, sort
ἔργνυμι/εἴργω εἴρξω/εἵρξω εἶρξα/εἷρξα ––– εἶργμαι/εἷργμαι εἴρχθην/εἵρχθην: to confine
πρόγονος –ου ὁ: (lamb) born before, more ancient
μέτασσαι -ῶν αἱ: (lambs) born after, nearing maturity
αὖτε: again
ἕρση –ης ἡ: dew; whelp, youngster
νάω or ναίω: to flow; to overflow with (+ dat.)
ὀρός –οῦ ὁ: whey, the watery or serous part of milk
ἄγγος –ους τό: a vessel
γαυλός –οῦ ὁ: a milk-pail
σκαφίς –ίδος ἡ: bowl
τεύχω τεύξω ἔτευξα τέτευχα τέτυγμαι ἐτύχθην: to do, make, build; to cause
ἐναμέλγω ἐναμέλξω ἐνήμελξα: to milk into
πρώτιστος [–η] –ον: the very first, first of the first
ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion
λίσσομαι ––– ἐλλισάμην/ἐλιτόμην ––– ––– –––: to pray; to beseech with prayer
τυρός –οῦ ὁ: cheese
αἴνυμαι – – – – –: to take, take off, take hold of 225
ἀτάρ: but, yet
καρπάλιμος –ον: swift
θοός –ή –όν: swift
ἔριφος –ου ὁ: a young goat, kid
ἀρήν ἀρνός ὁ: lamb
σηκός –οῦ ὁ: a pen, fold
ἐξελαύνω ἐξελῶ ἐξήλασα ἐξελήλακα ἐξελήλαμαι ἐξηλάθην: to drive out, lead away
ἐπιπλέω ἐπιπλευσοῦμαι/ἐπιπλεύσομαι ἐπέπλευσα ἐπιπέπλευκα: to sail through (+ acc.)
ἁλμυρός –ά –όν: salt, briny
κερδίων –ον: more profitable
ὄφρα: while; until; so that; ὄφρα … τόφρα, while … for so long
ξείνιον -ου τό: hospitality gift
ἄρα: now, then, next, thus
ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion
ἐρατεινός –ή –όν: lovely, charming 230