Odyssey 9.353 · Book 9, lines 353–354
The giant drains it and wants more
Read the full text in our reader
ὣς ἐφάμην, ὁ δʼ ἔδεκτο καὶ ἔκπιεν· ἥσατο δʼ αἰνῶς ἡδὺ ποτὸν πίνων καὶ μʼ ᾔτεε δεύτερον αὖτις·
So I spoke, and he took it and drank it off; and was terribly pleased, drinking the sweet drink, and asked me for a second draught again:
Word by word
The setting
The Cyclops takes the cup and swallows the powerful, undiluted wine in one draught — and, delighted by its sweetness, immediately demands a second.
A note on this passage
The trap springs by the giant's own appetite. He drinks the strong wine straight down, is 'terribly pleased' by a sweetness he has never met, and at once asks for more. Odysseus has to do nothing but pour; the Cyclops's greed does the rest.
The detail that the wine is drained undiluted is the quiet horror and the quiet plan. Greeks drank wine cut with water; to gulp it neat, cup after cup, is to be a creature outside the human measure — and it is exactly what Odysseus is counting on to bring the giant down.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.353 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 9.353 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.353/