The Odyssey 9.438–452
for their udders were bursting. And their master, distressed with grievous pains, felt along the backs of all the sheep as they stood up before him, but in his folly he marked not this, that my men were bound beneath the breasts of his fleecy sheep. Last of all the flock the ram went forth, burdened with the weight of his fleece and my cunning self. And mighty Polyphemus, as he felt along his back, spoke to him, saying:
“‘Good ram, why pray is it that thou goest forth thus through the cave the last of the flock? Thou hast not heretofore been wont to lag behind the sheep, but wast ever far the first to feed on the tender bloom of the grass, moving with long strides, and ever the first didst reach the streams of the river, and the first didst long to return to the fold at evening. But now thou art last of all. Surely thou art sorrowing for the eye of thy master, which an evil man blinded along with his miserable fellows, when he had overpowered my wits with wine,
καὶ τότʼ ἔπειτα νομόνδʼ ἐξέσσυτο ἄρσενα μῆλα,
θήλειαι δὲ μέμηκον ἀνήμελκτοι περὶ σηκούς·
οὔθατα γὰρ σφαραγεῦντο. ἄναξ δʼ ὀδύνῃσι κακῇσι
τειρόμενος πάντων ὀίων ἐπεμαίετο νῶτα
ὀρθῶν ἑσταότων· τὸ δὲ νήπιος οὐκ ἐνόησεν,
ὥς οἱ ὑπʼ εἰροπόκων ὀίων στέρνοισι δέδεντο.
ὕστατος ἀρνειὸς μήλων ἔστειχε θύραζε
λάχνῳ στεινόμενος καὶ ἐμοὶ πυκινὰ φρονέοντι.
τὸν δʼ ἐπιμασσάμενος προσέφη κρατερὸς Πολύφημος·
κριὲ πέπον, τί μοι ὧδε διὰ σπέος ἔσσυο
μήλων
ὕστατος; οὔ τι πάρος γε λελειμμένος ἔρχεαι οἰῶν,
ἀλλὰ πολὺ πρῶτος νέμεαι τέρενʼ ἄνθεα ποίης
μακρὰ βιβάς, πρῶτος δὲ ῥοὰς ποταμῶν ἀφικάνεις,
πρῶτος δὲ σταθμόνδε λιλαίεαι ἀπονέεσθαι
ἑσπέριος· νῦν αὖτε πανύστατος. ἦ σύ γʼ ἄνακτος