Odyssey 9.522 · Book 9, lines 522–525
Odysseus refuses, and curses back
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ὣς ἔφατʼ, αὐτὰρ ἐγώ μιν ἀμειβόμενος προσέειπον·
Odysseus — αἲ γὰρ δὴ ψυχῆς τε καὶ αἰῶνός σε δυναίμην εὖνιν ποιήσας πέμψαι δόμον Ἄϊδος εἴσω, ὡς οὐκ ὀφθαλμόν γʼ ἰήσεται οὐδʼ ἐνοσίχθων.
So he spoke, but I answered him: Would that indeed I could make you bereft of life and being, and send you into the house of Hades, as surely as the Earth-shaker will not heal your eye either.
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The setting
Odysseus answers the Cyclops's offer. Far from returning, he wishes he could kill him outright — and swears that not even Poseidon will ever restore the eye.
A note on this passage
Odysseus gives the only answer his nature allows: not a step back toward the cave, but a wish that he could kill the Cyclops outright and send him down to Hades. Then he seals the wound with an oath — as certainly as he means that, so certainly not even Poseidon will ever heal the eye. Refusal and curse in a single breath.
He is right about the eye and blind about the cost. The blinding cannot be undone, and saying so is accurate. But he says it in a taunt aimed at the son of the sea-god, and the confidence that a god's healing means nothing here is the same overreach that will, a few lines on, make him shout his true name. The man who understands force perfectly still underestimates a father's grief.
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