Odyssey 9.272 · Book 9, lines 272–276
You are a fool, stranger
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ὣς ἐφάμην, ὁ δέ μʼ αὐτίκʼ ἀμείβετο νηλέι θυμῷ·
Polyphemus — νήπιός εἰς, ὦ ξεῖνʼ, ἢ τηλόθεν εἰλήλουθας, ὅς με θεοὺς κέλεαι ἢ δειδίμεν ἢ ἀλέασθαι· οὐ γὰρ Κύκλωπες Διὸς αἰγιόχου ἀλέγουσιν οὐδὲ θεῶν μακάρων, ἐπεὶ ἦ πολὺ φέρτεροί εἰμεν·
So I spoke, but at once he answered me with pitiless heart: You are a fool, stranger, or you have come from far off, you who bid me either to fear or to shun the gods; for the Cyclopes care nothing for aegis-bearing Zeus, nor for the blessed gods, since truly we are far mightier.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus has finished; the Cyclops answers. Polyphemus scorns the appeal to the gods — the Cyclopes, he says, care nothing for Zeus, since they are far stronger than the blessed ones.
A note on this passage
The Cyclops's creed, laid out plainly. He calls Odysseus naive for even naming the gods, and states the Cyclopean position: they do not fear Zeus or the blessed ones, because they reckon themselves stronger. It is not that Polyphemus disbelieves in the gods — he simply owes them nothing.
The undercurrent is that this is the exact inversion of the poem's world. Everywhere else, the fear of Zeus of guests is what makes a host a host. Here strength has replaced reverence as the only law. The giant is not lawless by accident; he has a philosophy, and it is might.
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