tes, mighty sir, but Greeks, sailing back
from Troy, and subjects of the great King Agamemnon, whose fame is
spread from one end of heaven to the other. And we are come to beg
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 Cyclopes 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 Ulysses saw his thought when he asked about the ship, how he was
minded to break it, and take from them all hope of flight. Therefore he
answered him craftily:

"Ship have we none, for that which was ours King Poseidon 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 tore them limb from limb, and devoured them, with huge
draughts of milk between, leaving not a morsel, not even the very bones.
But the others, when they saw the dreadful deed, could only weep and
pray to Zeus for help. And when the giant had ended his foul meal, he
lay down among his sheep and slept.

Then Ulysses questioned much in his heart whether he should slay the
monster as he slept, for he doubted not that his good sword would pierce
to the giant's heart, mighty as he was. But, being very wise, he
remembered that, should he slay him, he and his comrades would yet
perish miserably. For who should move away the great rock that lay
against the door of the cave? So they waited till the morning. And the
monster woke, and milked his flocks, and afterward, 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 the wise Ulysses was thinking what he might best do to save
himself and his companions, and the end of his 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 he cut off a fathom's length,
and his comrades sharpened it and hardened it in the fire, and then hid
it away. At evening the giant came back,