Odyssey 9.447 · Book 9, lines 447–450
Dear ram, why last?
Read the full text in our reader
Polyphemus — κριὲ πέπον, τί μοι ὧδε διὰ σπέος ἔσσυο μήλων ὕστατος; οὔ τι πάρος γε λελειμμένος ἔρχεαι οἰῶν, ἀλλὰ πολὺ πρῶτος νέμεαι τέρενʼ ἄνθεα ποίης μακρὰ βιβάς, πρῶτος δὲ ῥοὰς ποταμῶν ἀφικάνεις,
Dear ram, why do you rush through the cave like this, the last of the flock? Never before were you left behind by the sheep, but far the first you graze the tender blossoms of the grass, striding with long steps, and first you reach the streams of the rivers,
Word by word
The setting
Polyphemus speaks to his favourite ram, puzzled and tender. The animal that always led the flock — first to the pasture, first to the river — is trailing last today, and the blind giant asks it why.
A note on this passage
The monster's one gentle speech, and it is unbearable to the listener because of what he cannot see. He knows his ram's habits by heart — always first to the tender grass, first to the running streams — and cannot understand why today it comes last. The tenderness is real; Polyphemus loves this animal.
The undercurrent is that every affectionate word is aimed, unknowing, at the man beneath. 'Why do you come last?' has an answer the giant will never guess: because I am hanging under you. Homer gives the cruelest character his most human moment, and lets the audience hold both at once — the giant's genuine fondness and the enemy pressed silently against the fleece he is stroking.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.447 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 9.447 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.447/