“Our knees trembled at the sound of the monster’s voice. However, I quickly recovered myself and answered boldly: ‘We are Greeks returning from Troy, cast upon this coast by storms. As we have been overtaken by misfortune we beseech thee to shelter us and to please the gods by sending us on our way with gifts. Honor the gods, excellent sir, for Jupiter is the avenger of all wrongs committed against the traveller.’ “‘Oho! Thou foolish stranger,’ roared the Cyclops. ‘Thou seemest to know the Cyclops ill. Nobody here honors the gods, and we know naught of thy Jupiter, for we ourselves are much greater. But tell me, where didst thou land with thy vessel?’ “I perceived his cunning and determined that he should not outwit me. ‘My ship,’ said I aloud. ‘Ah, had we it still we should not be here. The waves destroyed it, and had we not been able to swim, we should all have perished.’ “Instead of answering, the cruel Cyclops stretched out both his arms, seized two of my companions, and dashed them upon the ground so that blood and brains spattered in all directions. He tore them apart and ate them. We shrieked aloud when we saw this horrid deed and prayed to Jupiter. But our lamentations did not affect the Cyclops. He drank a tub of milk and stretched himself out to sleep. “‘What shall I do?’ I said to myself when the monster began to snore. ‘Shall I plunge my sword into his heart before he awakens. But no! if I kill him, who shall open the door for us?’ No one but the giant himself would be able to move away the mighty stone. We should only be preparing for ourselves a miserable death by slow starvation. We needed to invent some better plan, and so we awaited the break of day in fear and uncertainty. “With the dawn the Cyclops awoke and went about his usual business. He put fresh wood on the fire, milked his herd, and put the nurslings to suck. Then he again seized two of my dear companions and killed and ate them as he had done the others. Next, he pushed back the stone, drove out the flocks, and deftly rolled the great rock back in its place.