Odyssey 9.231 · Book 9, lines 231–235
Waiting; the Cyclops returns
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ἔνθα δὲ πῦρ κήαντες ἐθύσαμεν ἠδὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ τυρῶν αἰνύμενοι φάγομεν, μένομέν τέ μιν ἔνδον ἥμενοι, ἧος ἐπῆλθε νέμων. φέρε δʼ ὄβριμον ἄχθος ὕλης ἀζαλέης, ἵνα οἱ ποτιδόρπιον εἴη, ἔντοσθεν δʼ ἄντροιο βαλὼν ὀρυμαγδὸν ἔθηκεν·
There we kindled a fire and made an offering, and we ourselves, taking of the cheeses, ate; and we waited for him within, sitting, until he came back herding. He bore a heavy load of dry wood, so it would be there for his supper, and flinging it down inside the cave he raised a crash.
Word by word
The setting
The men make themselves at home — a fire, an offering, a meal of the stolen cheese — and settle down to wait. Then the Cyclops comes back with an enormous load of firewood for his supper.
A note on this passage
The waiting is domestic and calm: fire, sacrifice, a meal, sitting. Then the mood breaks in a single line — the giant arrives, drops a mountain of firewood, and the cave fills with a crash. The word ὀρυμαγδός is pure noise, the first sound of the ogre's presence.
The undercurrent is the reversal of guest and host. The men have lit the fire and eaten in another's house, doing what guests do; now the true master enters, and everything they have taken becomes theft in his eyes. The offering they made to the gods sits beside the meal they stole — piety and trespass in one breath — and the noise of the wood announces that the rules of the cave will be set by someone who acknowledges none.
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