Odyssey 9.403 · Book 9, lines 403–406
What is wrong? — the fatal question
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The other Cyclopes — τίπτε τόσον, Πολύφημʼ, ἀρημένος ὧδʼ ἐβόησας νύκτα διʼ ἀμβροσίην καὶ ἀύπνους ἄμμε τίθησθα; ἦ μή τίς σευ μῆλα βροτῶν ἀέκοντος ἐλαύνει; ἦ μή τίς σʼ αὐτὸν κτείνει δόλῳ ἠὲ βίηφιν;
Polyphemus, why so stricken have you cried out thus through the ambrosial night, and make us sleepless? Surely no one of mortals is driving off your flocks against your will? Surely no one is killing you yourself by guile or by force?
Word by word
The setting
The neighbour Cyclopes, standing outside the sealed cave, call in to Polyphemus.
A note on this passage
The neighbours ask the natural questions. Why the night-long screaming? Is someone rustling his flocks? Is someone killing him — by guile or by main force? The two options, δόλος and βίη, cunning and violence, are the poem's own standing pair, and the true answer is the first.
Their question also sets the pun's spring. They ask whether ‘not any man,’ μή τις, is killing him — and μή τις is the very sound of the name Odysseus has planted, Οὖτις. Polyphemus is about to answer with that name, and the grammar of their worry will turn his cry for help into a reason to leave.
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