But this, but you – small, pitiful and twiggy –
you put me down with wine, you blinded me.
Come back, Odysseus, and I'll treat you well,
praying the god of earthquake to befriend you –
his son I am, for he by his avowal
fathered me, and, if he will, he may
heal me of this black wound – he and no other
of all the happy gods or mortal men.'
Few words I shouted in reply to him:
'If I could take your life I would and take
your time away, and hurl you down to hell!
The god of earthquake could not heal you there!'
At this he stretched his hands out in his darkness
toward the sky of stars, and prayed Poseidon:
'O hear me, lord, blue girdler of the islands,
if I am thine indeed, and thou art father:
grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, never
see his home
-The Odyssey,
Homer
What motivates Cyclops to ask Poseidon to interfere with Odysseus’s journey home?
3 answers