“‘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.
“Thus we were again imprisoned for the whole day. I now conceived a plan to avenge our lost comrades and to free ourselves—I would put out his great eye with a red-hot stake! I found just the piece for the purpose. It was the giant’s own club of green olivewood, as long and as thick as a mast. I hewed off a piece from the end, my companions helped to smooth it, and I sharpened the point and hardened it in the glowing coals. When my weapon was ready I carefully concealed it under the pile of straw on the ground. Hereupon we drew lots to find out which of my companions should help me thrust the stake into the eye of the sleeping giant, and we fearfully awaited his return. At last he came, driving in his flocks, and this time he left none of the animals outside, either because he was suspicious of us or because a god had so decreed. He set up the great stone, milked his sheep and goats, ate two more of my poor companions, and put fresh wood on the fire. I now brought out the wine skin and went boldly up to him.
“‘See, Cyclops,’ said I, filling a jug; ‘here is something to drink; try it. Wine tastes good after human flesh. Take it that thou mayest see what good drink we had upon our lost vessel.’ He took the jug and drank. How delighted he was! He emptied the vessel and said, smiling: ‘Fill again from thy wine skin and tell me thy name, that I may make thee a gift. What a delicious draught! We have wine here, but compared with thine it is but water. Do but give me more.’