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...Polyphemus cried out,
"No-One is killing me by some sort of trick!"
The adventurers hastened to the sea to make froth with their oars,
When they were just offshore but still within earshot,
Odysseus called out to the Cyclops - just to rub it in:
"So, Polyphemus, it turns out it wasn't a coward
Whose men you murdered and ate in your cave,
Fool! You got your just reward in the end,
You had the gall to eat my men in your own home, and you paid for it."
The Cyclops got even angrier when he heard this.
He broke off the tip of a mountain and hurled it towards our ship.
It landed just off the prow. The sea billowed up where the rock came down.
And the wave pushed them back to the mainland, like a flood tide.
The crew leaned on the oars and strove to get the ship out of there.
When they were twice as far out to sea as before, Odysseus called out to the Cyclops again,
Even though his men hung all over the man, begged him not to:
"Don't do it, man! The rock that hit the water pushed us in,
We thought we were done for. If he hears any sound from us,
He'll heave half a cliff at us and crush the ships and our skulls,
With but one throw. He can do it, you know."
They tried, but could not persuade him - he was really angry,
His heart was set. Odysseus called back to the Cyclops again:
"Polyphemus, if anyone, any mortal man
Asks you how your eye got put out,
Tell them it was not 'No-One' who did it,
But I, Odysseus the maurader,
Son of Laertes, who makes his home on Ithaca!"
The Cyclops issued a fearsome groan, and said this in response:
"...This puny, good-for-nothing runt, has put my eye out by way of a trick..."
Stretching out his arms, he prayed to starry heaven,
"Hear me, Poseidon, lord of the seas,
If you are the father you claim to be,
Grant that Odysseus, son of Laertes,
May never return to his home on Ithaca.
But should he be fated to see his family again,
And return to his home and native land,
May he come late, having lost all his friends,
In a ship not his own, and find trouble at home."
Polyphemus then broke off an even larger chunk of rock,
Pivoted, and threw it with incredible force,
Barely missing the rudder.
They were propelled forward...
...
That's totally something I would do. Favorite scene in the book.
Aestu of Bleeding Hollow... Nihilism is a copout.
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