Odyssey 9.444 · Book 9, lines 444–446
Last through the door
Read the full text in our reader
ὕστατος ἀρνειὸς μήλων ἔστειχε θύραζε λάχνῳ στεινόμενος καὶ ἐμοὶ πυκινὰ φρονέοντι. τὸν δʼ ἐπιμασσάμενος προσέφη κρατερὸς Πολύφημος·
Last of the flock the ram went out to the door, weighed down with wool and with me, thinking my shrewd thoughts. And feeling him over, mighty Polyphemus spoke to him:
Word by word
The setting
The great ram comes to the mouth of the cave last of all, slowed by its own fleece and by Odysseus clinging beneath. Polyphemus, sitting at the entrance, runs his hands over it and, sensing it, begins to speak to the animal.
A note on this passage
The tension narrows to one animal at the threshold. The ram is last and slow — heavy with wool and with the man underneath 'thinking shrewd thoughts.' Polyphemus stops it with his hands, and instead of passing it through, he starts to talk to it.
The undercurrent is dramatic irony wound as tight as the poem ever winds it. The reader knows Odysseus is inches under those groping hands; the giant knows only that his favourite is lagging. That the monster pauses to address the ram tenderly — the very ram carrying his enemy out the door — sets up the cruel joke of the speech to come, where every affectionate word lands on the man he is trying to kill.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.444 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 9.444 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.444/