Odyssey 9.456 · Book 9, lines 456–460
If only you could speak
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Polyphemus — εἰ δὴ ὁμοφρονέοις ποτιφωνήεις τε γένοιο εἰπεῖν ὅππῃ κεῖνος ἐμὸν μένος ἠλασκάζει· τῷ κέ οἱ ἐγκέφαλός γε διὰ σπέος ἄλλυδις ἄλλῃ θεινομένου ῥαίοιτο πρὸς οὔδεϊ, κὰδ δέ κʼ ἐμὸν κῆρ λωφήσειε κακῶν, τά μοι οὐτιδανὸς πόρεν Οὖτις.
If only you agreed with me and could gain a voice, to tell where that man skulks from my fury; then his brain would, struck, be shattered through the cave this way and that against the ground; and my heart would find relief from the woes which worthless Nobody gave me.
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The setting
Still murmuring to the ram, Polyphemus wishes aloud that the beast could think and talk like a man and tell him where 'Nobody' is hiding — so that he might smash the man's skull on the cave floor and ease his own pain.
A note on this passage
The wish turns violent. Give the ram a mind and a voice, the giant says, and it would betray the hiding man; then he would dash his brains out on the rock, and his own heart would be lighter for it.
The word he spits is οὐτιδανός, 'worthless,' set one line from Οὖτις, 'Nobody' — the false name Odysseus gave back in the cave. The giant curses a nothing and names a nobody, and both are the same clever man. Greek hears Οὖτις and οὐτιδανός chime, and behind them μῆτις, 'cunning' — the knot English can only footnote. The pun that saved Odysseus is still doing its quiet work here (see 9.366, 9.408).
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