Odyssey 9.475 · Book 9, lines 475–479
The taunt
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Odysseus — Κύκλωψ, οὐκ ἄρʼ ἔμελλες ἀνάλκιδος ἀνδρὸς ἑταίρους ἔδμεναι ἐν σπῆι γλαφυρῷ κρατερῆφι βίηφι. καὶ λίην σέ γʼ ἔμελλε κιχήσεσθαι κακὰ ἔργα, σχέτλιʼ, ἐπεὶ ξείνους οὐχ ἅζεο σῷ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ ἐσθέμεναι· τῷ σε Ζεὺς τίσατο καὶ θεοὶ ἄλλοι.
Cyclops, after all you were not destined to eat the companions of a feeble man in the hollow cave by mighty force. Full surely your evil deeds were bound to overtake you, cruel one, since you did not shrink from eating guests in your own house; therefore Zeus and the other gods have punished you.
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The setting
Odysseus shouts his mockery across the water: the Cyclops's crime — devouring helpless guests in his own cave — has rightly caught up with him, and Zeus and the other gods have paid him back.
A note on this passage
The taunt is also an indictment. You were not, he calls, meant to eat a weak man's crew and escape it; your evil deeds have overtaken you, because you broke the guest-law in your own house, and so the gods have punished you.
Odysseus speaks as though he were the arm of Zeus Xenios, the god of guests the Cyclops flouted. He is not wrong about the crime — but the self-righteous shout is itself the error. Naming justice feels safe; within a few lines the same pride will make him name himself, and hand Polyphemus the one thing the giant's curse still needs.
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