Odyssey 9.166 · Book 9, lines 166–169
Smoke across the water
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Κυκλώπων δʼ ἐς γαῖαν ἐλεύσσομεν ἐγγὺς ἐόντων, καπνόν τʼ αὐτῶν τε φθογγὴν ὀίων τε καὶ αἰγῶν. ἦμος δʼ ἠέλιος κατέδυ καὶ ἐπὶ κνέφας ἦλθε, δὴ τότε κοιμήθημεν ἐπὶ ῥηγμῖνι θαλάσσης.
And we gazed toward the land of the Cyclopes, that lay near by — the smoke of them, and the voice of their sheep and goats. And when the sun set and darkness came on, then we lay down to sleep on the surf of the sea.
Word by word
The setting
From the goat island the men can see the mainland of the Cyclopes close at hand. They make out signs of habitation — smoke, and the sound of flocks — before night falls and they sleep on the beach.
A note on this passage
The lines turn the crew's gaze across the strait. The Cyclopes' land is near, and the signs of life are ordinary and reassuring: hearth-smoke, the bleating of sheep and goats. Then the sun goes down and the men sleep on the shore.
The undercurrent is a false read. Smoke and flocks say ‘shepherds, a settled people’ — the marks of folk who keep herds, whom a traveller might approach for a guest-gift. Odysseus is looking at exactly the evidence that will lure him into the cave, mistaking a lone monster's household for a civilised one. The peaceful sound carries the trap.
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