Odyssey 9.526 · Book 9, lines 526–531
Polyphemus prays to Poseidon
Read the full text in our reader
ὣς ἐφάμην, ὁ δʼ ἔπειτα Ποσειδάωνι ἄνακτι εὔχετο χεῖρʼ ὀρέγων εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀστερόεντα·
Polyphemus — κλῦθι, Ποσείδαον γαιήοχε κυανοχαῖτα, εἰ ἐτεόν γε σός εἰμι, πατὴρ δʼ ἐμὸς εὔχεαι εἶναι, δὸς μὴ Ὀδυσσῆα πτολιπόρθιον οἴκαδʼ ἱκέσθαι υἱὸν Λαέρτεω, Ἰθάκῃ ἔνι οἰκίʼ ἔχοντα.
So I spoke, and he then prayed to lord Poseidon, stretching his hands to the starry heaven: Hear me, Poseidon, holder of the earth, dark-haired one, if truly indeed I am yours, and you claim to be my father, grant that Odysseus, sacker of cities, may not reach home, the son of Laertes, who keeps his home in Ithaca.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus's taunt done, the Cyclops lifts his hands to the night sky and prays to his father Poseidon by name — the prayer that will shape the rest of the Odyssey.
A note on this passage
The prayer opens with perfect form. Polyphemus lifts his hands to the starry sky and calls Poseidon by his cult titles — earth-holder, dark-haired — then names the condition, if I am truly your son, before he asks for anything. Only then comes the request: that Odysseus, sacker of cities, never reach his home in Ithaca.
This is the hinge of the whole poem. Everything the reader already knows — the years of wandering, the lost companions, the delayed return promised in the proem — is set in motion here, by a wronged monster praying correctly to a listening god. The epithet the Cyclops chooses for Odysseus is telling: not "who blinded me" but ptoliporthos, city-sacker, the war-name from Troy. He curses the hero at his proudest title.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 9.526 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 9.526 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/9.526/