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Chorus
Hearken, Odysseus, let us hold some converse with thee.
175
Hearken, Odysseus, let us hold some converse with thee.
175
Odysseus
Well, do so; ours is a meeting of friends.
Well, do so; ours is a meeting of friends.
Chorus
Did you take Troy and capture the famous Helen?
Did you take Troy and capture the famous Helen?
Odysseus
Aye, and we destroyed the whole family of Priam.
Aye, and we destroyed the whole family of Priam.
Chorus
After capturing your blooming prize,
were all of you in turn her lovers? for she likes variety in husbands; the traitress! the sight of a man with embroidered breeches on his legs and a golden chain about his neck so fluttered her,
180
that she left Menelaus, her excellent little husband. Would there had never been a race of women born into the world at all, unless it were for me alone!
185
After capturing your blooming prize,
were all of you in turn her lovers? for she likes variety in husbands; the traitress! the sight of a man with embroidered breeches on his legs and a golden chain about his neck so fluttered her,
180
that she left Menelaus, her excellent little husband. Would there had never been a race of women born into the world at all, unless it were for me alone!
185
Silenus
(reappearing with food.) Lo! I bring you fat food from the flocks, king Odysseus, the young of bleating sheep
and cheeses of curdled milk without stint. Carry them away with you and be gone from the cave at once, after giving me a drink of merry grape-juice in exchange.
190
(reappearing with food.) Lo! I bring you fat food from the flocks, king Odysseus, the young of bleating sheep
and cheeses of curdled milk without stint. Carry them away with you and be gone from the cave at once, after giving me a drink of merry grape-juice in exchange.
190
Chorus
Alack! yonder comes the Cyclops; what shall we do?
Alack! yonder comes the Cyclops; what shall we do?
Odysseus
Then truly are we lost, old sir! whither must we fly?
Then truly are we lost, old sir! whither must we fly?
Silenus
Inside this rock, for there ye may conceal yourselves.
195
Inside this rock, for there ye may conceal yourselves.
195
Odysseus
Dangerous advice of thine, to run into the net!
Dangerous advice of thine, to run into the net!
Silenus
No danger; there are ways of escape in plenty in the rock.
No danger; there are ways of escape in plenty in the rock.
Odysseus
No, never that; for surely Troy will groan and loudly too, if we flee from a single man, when I have oft withstood
with my shield a countless host of Phrygians. Nay, if die we must, we will die a noble death; or, if we live, we will maintain our old renown at least with credit.
200
No, never that; for surely Troy will groan and loudly too, if we flee from a single man, when I have oft withstood
with my shield a countless host of Phrygians. Nay, if die we must, we will die a noble death; or, if we live, we will maintain our old renown at least with credit.
200
Cyclops. Euripides. London. 1891.
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