Odyssey 9.517 · Book 9, lines 517–521
Come back — my father will heal me
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Polyphemus — ἀλλʼ ἄγε δεῦρʼ, Ὀδυσεῦ, ἵνα τοι πὰρ ξείνια θείω πομπήν τʼ ὀτρύνω δόμεναι κλυτὸν ἐννοσίγαιον· τοῦ γὰρ ἐγὼ πάϊς εἰμί, πατὴρ δʼ ἐμὸς εὔχεται εἶναι. αὐτὸς δʼ, αἴ κʼ ἐθέλῃσʼ, ἰήσεται, οὐδέ τις ἄλλος οὔτε θεῶν μακάρων οὔτε θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων.
But come here, Odysseus, so that I may set guest-gifts beside you, and I urge the glorious Earth-shaker to grant you passage; for of him I am the son, and he claims to be my father. And he himself, if he wishes, will heal me, and no one else — neither of the blessed gods nor of mortal men.
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The setting
Still blind, Polyphemus changes tack. He calls Odysseus back with a promise of guest-gifts and safe conveyance, claiming his father Poseidon — and no one else — can undo the blinding.
A note on this passage
The Cyclops tries the language of hospitality he never once offered. Now he plays the perfect host — guest-gifts, an escort home — and offers the one thing he cannot lose by giving: a promise that his father Poseidon will heal him. He even lays out his divine parentage as a credential.
It is a trap, and Odysseus will read it as one. The invitation to "come here" is the same lure that filled the cave with dead men, dressed now in the forms of xenia. There is also a grim theology in it: the Cyclops assumes a god can simply undo a maiming, and stakes everything on a father's love. The prayer he is about to pray will show what that father actually grants — not healing, but revenge.
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