View:
By Scene
Cyclops
A light here! hold it up! what is this? what means this idleness, your Bacchic revelry? Here have we no Dionysus,
nor clash of brass, nor roll of drums. Pray, how is it with my newly-born lambs in the caves? are they at the teat, running close to the side of their dams? Is the full amount of milk for cheeses milked out in baskets of rushes?
205
How now? what say you? One of ye will soon be shedding tears from the weight of my club; look up, not down.
210
A light here! hold it up! what is this? what means this idleness, your Bacchic revelry? Here have we no Dionysus,
nor clash of brass, nor roll of drums. Pray, how is it with my newly-born lambs in the caves? are they at the teat, running close to the side of their dams? Is the full amount of milk for cheeses milked out in baskets of rushes?
205
How now? what say you? One of ye will soon be shedding tears from the weight of my club; look up, not down.
210
Chorus
There! my head is bent back till I see Zeus himself; I behold both the stars and Orion.
There! my head is bent back till I see Zeus himself; I behold both the stars and Orion.
Cyclops
Is my breakfast quite ready?
Is my breakfast quite ready?
Chorus
’Tis laid; be thy throat only ready.
215
’Tis laid; be thy throat only ready.
215
Cyclops
Are the bowls too full of milk?
Are the bowls too full of milk?
Chorus
Aye, so that thou canst swill off a whole hogshead, so it please thee.
Aye, so that thou canst swill off a whole hogshead, so it please thee.
Cyclops
Sheeps’ milk or cows’ milk or a mixture of both?
Sheeps’ milk or cows’ milk or a mixture of both?
Chorus
Whichever thou wilt; don’t swallow me, that’s all.
Whichever thou wilt; don’t swallow me, that’s all.
Cyclops
Not I; for you would start kicking in the pit of my stomach and kill me by your antics.
(Catching sight of Odysseus and his followers.) Ha! what is this crowd I see near the folds? Some pirates or robbers have put in here. Yes, I really see the lambs from my caves
220
tied up there with twisted osiers, cheese-presses scattered about, and old Silenus with his bald pate all swollen with blows.
225
Not I; for you would start kicking in the pit of my stomach and kill me by your antics.
(Catching sight of Odysseus and his followers.) Ha! what is this crowd I see near the folds? Some pirates or robbers have put in here. Yes, I really see the lambs from my caves
220
tied up there with twisted osiers, cheese-presses scattered about, and old Silenus with his bald pate all swollen with blows.
225
Silenus
Oh! oh! poor wretch that I am, pounded to a fever.
Oh! oh! poor wretch that I am, pounded to a fever.
Cyclops
By whom? who has been pounding thy head, old sirrah?
By whom? who has been pounding thy head, old sirrah?
Silenus
These are the culprits, Cyclops, all because I refused to let them plunder thee.
230
These are the culprits, Cyclops, all because I refused to let them plunder thee.
230
Cyclops
Did they not know I was a god and sprung from gods?
Did they not know I was a god and sprung from gods?
Silenus
That was what I told them, but they persisted in plundering thy goods, and, in spite of my efforts, they actually began to eat the cheese and carry off the lambs; and they said they would
tie thee in a three-cubit pillory and tear out thy bowels by force at thy navel, and flay thy back thoroughly with the scourge; and then, after binding thee, fling thy carcase down among the benches of their ship to sell to some one
235
for heaving up stones, or else throw thee into a mill.
240
That was what I told them, but they persisted in plundering thy goods, and, in spite of my efforts, they actually began to eat the cheese and carry off the lambs; and they said they would
tie thee in a three-cubit pillory and tear out thy bowels by force at thy navel, and flay thy back thoroughly with the scourge; and then, after binding thee, fling thy carcase down among the benches of their ship to sell to some one
235
for heaving up stones, or else throw thee into a mill.
240
Cyclops. Euripides. London. 1891.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by Tufts University.