Odyssey 9.347 · Book 9, lines 347–352
'Cyclops, drink this wine'
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Odysseus — Κύκλωψ, τῆ, πίε οἶνον, ἐπεὶ φάγες ἀνδρόμεα κρέα, ὄφρʼ εἰδῇς οἷόν τι ποτὸν τόδε νηῦς ἐκεκεύθει ἡμετέρη. σοὶ δʼ αὖ λοιβὴν φέρον, εἴ μʼ ἐλεήσας οἴκαδε πέμψειας· σὺ δὲ μαίνεαι οὐκέτʼ ἀνεκτῶς. σχέτλιε, πῶς κέν τίς σε καὶ ὕστερον ἄλλος ἵκοιτο ἀνθρώπων πολέων, ἐπεὶ οὐ κατὰ μοῖραν ἔρεξας;
Cyclops, here, drink this wine, since you have eaten human flesh, so you may know what kind of a drink this was, that our ship was holding. And to you in turn I brought a libation, in hope that, pitying me, you might send me home; but you rage no longer bearably. Cruel one, how would any other man ever come to you of the many men, since you have not acted rightly?
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus, standing at the giant's side, speaks. He hands over the bowl and, with false courtesy, dares the Cyclops to taste what the ship was carrying — while reproaching him for eating his guests.
A note on this passage
The speech does two things at once. It presses the wine on the giant — 'here, drink' — framing it as the fine cargo of the ship and even as a libation owed to a host; and it rebukes him, for eating guests and raging past all bearing, warning that no one will ever visit him again. The politeness and the reproach are both bait.
The hinge word is 'libation.' Odysseus calls the cup a pious offering, the language of guest-friendship the Cyclops has violated by devouring men. He turns the very code his host has broken into the instrument of revenge: the drink offered 'in hope of pity' is the drink that will take the giant's eye. The reproach about acting 'rightly' is spoken by the man about to act most cunningly of all.
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