Odyssey 10.198 · Book 10, lines 198–202
The men remember the monsters
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ὣς ἐφάμην, τοῖσιν δὲ κατεκλάσθη φίλον ἦτορ μνησαμένοις ἔργων Λαιστρυγόνος Ἀντιφάταο Κύκλωπός τε βίης μεγαλήτορος, ἀνδροφάγοιο κλαῖον δὲ λιγέως θαλερὸν κατὰ δάκρυ χέοντες· ἀλλʼ οὐ γάρ τις πρῆξις ἐγίγνετο μυρομένοισιν.
So I spoke, and the dear heart within them was broken, as they remembered the deeds of Antiphates the Laestrygonian and the violence of the great-hearted Cyclops, the man-eater. They wept shrilly, shedding swelling tears; but no use came of their mourning.
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The setting
Odysseus has finished describing the island. His men react to the news that it is inhabited.
A note on this passage
At the word of smoke the men's spirit breaks. They remember Antiphates and the Laestrygonians, and the man-eating Cyclops, and weep aloud. But weeping, the poem says flatly, got them nowhere.
The crew now carry their own history of monsters, and every new shore is read through it. Their tears are not weakness but memory; they have seen comrades speared like fish and eaten alive. Homer grants the grief its moment, then cuts it off: no use came of their mourning.
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