Book 9 - The Cyclops

• ‘The list of woes


  Which the gods have sent me is a long one‘ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘The whole world talks 


  of my stratagems, and my fame has reached the heavens’ [ Odysseus ]
• ’I, for one, know of

  no sweeter sight for a man’s eyes than his own country’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘I sacked this place


  and destroyed its mensfolk’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘But my fools 


  of men refused’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘They kept on drinking


  and butchering sheep’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘The Cicones went and raised 


  a cry for help among other Cicones’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘The Cicones gained the 


  upper hand and broke the Achaean ranks’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘Six of my strong-greaved


  Comrades from each ship were killed’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘With heavy hearts, grieving


  for the loss of our dear companions though rejoicing at our own escape’ [ Odysseus ]
• ’I sent some of my followers 


  inland to find out what sort of human beings might be there’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘What they did was

  give them some lotus to taste’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘I had to use force to


  bring them back to the hollow ships’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘We can to the land


  of the cyclopes, a fierce, lawless people’ [ Odysseus ]
• ’The Cyclopes have no 


  assemblies, for the making of laws, nor any established legal codes’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘And what a

  Formidable monster he was!’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘I myself picked out


  the twelve best men in the company and advanced’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘He would pour one


  cupful of wine into twenty of water‘ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘I had an instant foreboding 


  that we were going to find ourselves face to face with some barbarous being of colossal strength and ferocity, uncivilised and unprincipled’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘I wished to see the owner


  of the cave and had hopes of some friendly gifts from my host’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘Such was the monstrous 


  size of the rock with which he closed the cave’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘Is yours a trading venture;


  Or are you cruising the main on chance, like roving pirates, who risk their lives to ruin other people?’ [ Polyphemus ]
• ‘We find ourselves here as


  suppliants at your knees, in the hope that you may give us hospitality’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘He is the god of guests: guests


  are sacred to him, and he goes alongside them‘ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘We Cyclopes care nothing for


  Zeus with his aegis, nor for the rest of the blessed gods, since we are much stronger than they are’ [ Polyphemus ]
• ‘His words were designed to 


  get the better of me, but he could not outwit someone with my knowledge of the world’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘Limb by limb he tore


  them to pieces to make his meal, which he devoured like a mountain lion’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘On first thought I planned to summon my courage, drew my 


  sharp sword from the scabbard at my side, creep up to him…….. But on second thoughts I refrained’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘If you are alone and nobody


  Is assaulting you, you must be sick’ [ Polyphemus’ neighbour ]
• ‘I was cudgelling my brains for


  the best possible course, trying to hit on some way of saving my friends as well as myself’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘I thought up plan


  after plan, scheme after scheme’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘Blinded by a

  wicked man and his accursed friends’ [ Polyphemus ]
• ‘But my temper was up;


  Their words did not dissuade me, and in my rage I shouted back at him once more’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘Tell him your eye was


  put out by Odysseus, sacker of cities, the son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘And now a puny,

  feeble good-for-nothing fuddles me with wine and then puts out my eye’ [ Polyphemus ]
• ‘At this the Cyclops lifted up


  his hands to the starry heavens and prayed to the Lord Poseidon’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘Once again the Cyclops picked up


  a boulder - bigger by far this time - and hurled it with a swing’ [ Odysseus ]
• ‘Thus we left the island and sailed

  on with heavy hearts, grieving for the dear friends we had lost but glad at our own escape from death’ [ Odysseus ]