His bow escaping from his hands. His comrades seized him

And carried him away to Troy on Hektor’s chariot,

Hardly drawing breath and groaning in his pain.

Nor were his weapons left without their master; they too

Were gathered from the plain and brought back to the prince.

Ajax shouted after him in his vexation:

“You dog, you have evaded the heavy hand of death

Today, but very soon your final hour shall come,

Either at another Argive’s hands or at mine.

Now a different matter weighs on my mind, to rescue

Achilles’ body for the Danaans from this slaughter.”

THE CYCLOPS

Odyssey, Book IX

Homer

Translated by Samuel Butler, 1900

Odysseus, who fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War, was renowned for his cleverness. It was his idea to build an enormous wooden horse to carry the Greeks into Troy so that they could finally sack the citadel (see Story 48). Unfortunately, he was the last of the men to return home after the war. Odysseus’ travels, described in Homer’s Odyssey, took him over many seas and to many lands, including that of the Cyclopes – one-eyed monsters with a disgusting appetite for human flesh. This famous story is told by Odysseus himself to his hosts on a magical island named Scheria. In Story 3, Priam likened Odysseus to a ram. In this story, a ram saves his life. This lively and highly intelligent translation is by the great novelist Samuel Butler who, in 1897, reached the bold conclusion that the author of the Odyssey was a woman. The full title of this edition of his translation is perhaps rather patronising for modern tastes: ‘The Odyssey: Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original’.

“Now the Cyclopes neither plant nor plough, but trust in providence, and live on such wheat, barley, and grapes as grow wild without any kind of tillage, and their wild grapes yield them wine as the sun and the rain may grow them. They have no laws nor assemblies of the people, but live in caves on the tops of high mountains; each is lord and master in his family, and they take no account of their neighbours.