Odyssey 9.361 · Book 9, lines 361–363
The wine goes round his wits
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τρὶς μὲν ἔδωκα φέρων, τρὶς δʼ ἔκπιεν ἀφραδίῃσιν. αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ Κύκλωπα περὶ φρένας ἤλυθεν οἶνος, καὶ τότε δή μιν ἔπεσσι προσηύδων μειλιχίοισι·
Three times I brought and gave it, and three times he drank it down in his folly. But when the wine had gone round the Cyclops's wits, then indeed I addressed him with honeyed words:
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The setting
Odysseus has offered the Cyclops the dark, overpowering wine of Maron. Now he plies him with it, cup after cup, waiting for it to take hold before he speaks.
A note on this passage
Odysseus keeps refilling the bowl, and three times the giant drains it, too witless to stop. Once the wine has swum through the Cyclops's wits, Odysseus turns on the sweet talk — the trap is set.
The undercurrent is the reversal of hospitality. A guest is supposed to be given wine by his host; here the guest pours for the host, and the drink that should seal a bond is the weapon. Maron's wine, the one gift Odysseus carried into the cave, is doing the work his spear cannot.
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