Euripides' CYCLOPS Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

44 pages - You are on Page 36

Odysseus: O Hephaestus, lord of Aetna, rid thyself for once and all
of a troublesome neighbour by burning his bright eye out. Come, Sleep,
as well, offspring of sable Night, come with all thy power on the
monster god-detested; and never after Troy's most glorious toils destroy
Odysseus and his crew by the hands of one who recketh naught of God
or man; else roust we reckon Chance a goddess, and Heaven's will inferior
to hers. (Odysseus re-enters the cave.)

Chorus: (singing) Tightly the pincers shall grip the neck of him
who feasts upon his guests; for soon will he lose the light of his
eye by fire; already the brand, a tree's huge limb, lurks amid the
embers charred. Oh! come ye then and work his doom, pluck out the
maddened Cyclops' eye, that he may rue his drinking. And I too fain
would leave the Cyclops' lonely land and see king Bromius, ivy-crowned,
the god I sorely miss. Ah! shall I ever come to that?

Odysseus: (leaving the cave cautiously) Silence, ye cattle! I adjure
you; close your lips; make not a sound I'll not let a man of you so
much as breathe or wink or clear his throat, that yon pest awake not,
until the sight in the Cyclops' eye has passed through the fiery ordeal.

Leader of the Chorus: Silent we stand with bated breath.

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