Odyssey 9.428 · Book 9, lines 428–431
Bound three by three
Read the full text in our reader
τῇς ἔπι Κύκλωψ εὗδε πέλωρ, ἀθεμίστια εἰδώς, σύντρεις αἰνύμενος· ὁ μὲν ἐν μέσῳ ἄνδρα φέρεσκε, τὼ δʼ ἑτέρω ἑκάτερθεν ἴτην σώοντες ἑταίρους. τρεῖς δὲ ἕκαστον φῶτʼ ὄιες φέρον· αὐτὰρ ἐγώ γε—
on which the Cyclops used to sleep, that monster, knowing lawless things, taking them three by three: the one in the middle carried a man, while the two others went on either side, keeping my comrades safe. Three sheep carried each man; but as for me—
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus explains the rig. On these same rams the lawless Cyclops used to sleep; he ties them in threes, and slings a man beneath the middle ram of each set, the two outer rams shielding him.
A note on this passage
The mechanics are laid out with an engineer's clarity: threes of rams, a man hidden under the belly of the middle one, the outer two walking guard on either side. The epithet ἀθεμίστια, 'knowing lawless things,' is dropped in almost casually, a reminder of what these fleeces are hiding the men from.
The undercurrent is the sentence's own break. It runs smoothly through the arrangement for the crew, then snaps off at 'but as for me—' and stops. The dash is Odysseus the storyteller pausing on himself: the others are safely stowed, but his own escape needed a different animal and a different nerve, and he holds the audience on that cliff before going on.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.428 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 9.428 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.428/