Odyssey 9.368 · Book 9, lines 368–370
I will eat Nobody last
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ὣς ἐφάμην, ὁ δέ μʼ αὐτίκʼ ἀμείβετο νηλέι θυμῷ·
Polyphemus — Οὖτιν ἐγὼ πύματον ἔδομαι μετὰ οἷς ἑτάροισιν, τοὺς δʼ ἄλλους πρόσθεν· τὸ δέ τοι ξεινήιον ἔσται.
So I spoke, but he at once answered me with pitiless heart: Nobody I will eat last among his comrades, the others before; and that will be your guest-gift.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus has given his name as Nobody. The Cyclops, pitiless, answers with the promised guest-gift — a mockery of hospitality.
A note on this passage
The giant takes the name at face value and turns it into a joke of his own: he will do "Nobody" the favour of eating him last, after the rest. He means it as monstrous courtesy, a grim payment for the wine.
The undercurrent is that the pun has already begun to work, unseen. Polyphemus thinks he is naming a cruel gift; he is in fact rehearsing the very word that will save the man in front of him. The guest-gift he promises is death — but the name he repeats is the door out of the cave.
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