hospitality of thee
in the name of Zeus, who rewards or punishes hosts and guests, according
as they be faithful the one to the other, or no."

"Nay," said the giant; "it is but idle talk to tell me of Zeus and the
other Gods. We Cyclops take no account of gods, holding ourselves to be
much better and stronger than they. But come, tell me, where have you left
your ship?"

But I saw his thought when he asked about the ship, how he was minded to
break it, and take from us all hope of flight. Therefore I answered him
craftily,--

"Ship have we none, for that which was ours King Neptune brake, driving it
on a jutting rock on this coast, and we whom thou seest are all that are
escaped from the waves."

Polyphemus answered nothing, but without more ado caught up two of the
men, as a man might catch up the whelps of a dog, and dashed them on the
ground, and tare them limb from limb, and devoured them, with huge
draughts of milk between, leaving not a morsel, not even the very bones.
But we that were left, when we saw the dreadful deed, could only weep and
pray to Zeus for help. And when the giant had filled his maw with human
flesh and with the milk of the flocks, he lay down among his sheep and
slept.

Then I questioned much in my heart whether I should slay the monster as he
slept, for I doubted not that my good sword would pierce to the giant's
heart, mighty as he was. But my second thought kept me back, for I
remembered that, should I slay him, I and my comrades would yet perish
miserably. For who should move away the great rock that lay against the
door of the cave? So we waited till the morning, with grief in our hearts.
And the monster woke, and milked his flocks, and afterwards, seizing two
men, devoured them for his meal. Then he went to the pastures, but put the
great rock on the mouth of the cave, just as a man puts down the lid upon
his quiver.

All that day I was thinking what I might best do to save myself and my
companions, and the end of my thinking was this: there was a mighty pole
in the cave, green wood of an olive-tree, big as a ship's mast, which
Polyphemus purposed to use, when the smoke should have dried it, as a
walking-staff. Of this I cut off a fathom's length, and my comrades
sharpened it and hardened it in the fire, and then hid it away. At evening
the giant came back, and drove his sheep into the cave, nor left the rams
outside, as he had been wont to do before, but shut them in. And having