The Cyclops Aetnean is cruel and bold,
He murders the strangers
That sit on his hearth,
And dreads no avengers
To rise from the earth. 355
He roasts the men before they are cold,
He snatches them broiling from the coal,
And from the caldron pulls them whole,
And minces their flesh and gnaws their bone
With his cursèd teeth, till all be gone. 360
Farewell, foul pavilion:
Farewell, rites of dread!
The Cyclops vermilion,
With slaughter uncloying,
Now feasts on the dead, 365
In the flesh of strangers joying!
Ulysses. O Jupiter! I saw within the cave
Horrible things; deeds to be feigned in words,
But not to be believed as being done.
Chorus. What! sawest thou the impious Polypheme 370
Feasting upon your loved companions now?
Ulysses. Selecting two, the plumpest of the crowd,
He grasped them in his hands.—
Chorus. Unhappy man!
·······
Ulysses. Soon as we came into this craggy place,
Kindling a fire, he cast on the broad hearth 375
The knotty limbs of an enormous oak,
Three waggon-loads at least, and then he strewed
Upon the ground, beside the red firelight,
His couch of pine-leaves; and he milked the cows,
And pouring forth the white milk, filled a bowl 380
Three cubits wide and four in depth, as much
As would contain ten amphorae, and bound it
With ivy wreaths; then placed upon the fire
A brazen pot to boil, and made red hot
The points of spits, not sharpened with the sickle, 385
But with a fruit tree bough, and with the jaws
Of axes for Aetnean slaughterings [1].
And when this God-abandoned Cook of Hell
Had made all ready, he seized two of us
And killed them in a kind of measured manner; 390
For he flung one against the brazen rivets
Of the huge caldron, and seized the other
By the foot's tendon, and knocked out his brains
Upon the sharp edge of the craggy stone:
Then peeled his flesh with a great cooking-knife 395
And put him down to roast. The other's limbs
369 not to be believed B.; not believed 1824.
382 ten cj. Swinburne; four 1824; four cancelled for ten (possibly) B.
- ↑ I confess I do not understand this.—[Shelley's Note.]
