Odyssey 9.112 · Book 9, lines 112–115
Each a law to his own
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τοῖσιν δʼ οὔτʼ ἀγοραὶ βουληφόροι οὔτε θέμιστες, ἀλλʼ οἵ γʼ ὑψηλῶν ὀρέων ναίουσι κάρηνα ἐν σπέσσι γλαφυροῖσι, θεμιστεύει δὲ ἕκαστος παίδων ἠδʼ ἀλόχων, οὐδʼ ἀλλήλων ἀλέγουσιν.
And among them there are neither counsel-bearing assemblies nor ordinances, but they, indeed, dwell on the peaks of high mountains, in hollow caves, and each one lays down the law for his children and wives, nor do they care for one another.
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The setting
The portrait of Cyclopean life continues: no assemblies, no shared law; each lives alone with his family on the mountain heights.
A note on this passage
They have no assemblies where counsel is taken, no common ordinances. Each dwells apart in a mountain cave and lays down the law for his own wife and children alone, giving no thought to his neighbours.
This is the political core of the portrait. The Odyssey measures a people by its ἀγορή, the gathering where men deliberate together — the very thing Ithaca has lost under the suitors. The Cyclopes have never had it: each household its own kingdom, no shared word, no claim of one on another. It is the anti-city, and Polyphemus is about to show what that costs a guest.
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Odyssey 9.112 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.112/