eel eel elt t feel el POLYPHEMUS: Mmmm! Good drink! I'l stoke this fire so it will be well hot when I awake from a litte rest. Then, Ill roast you on a spit like a suckling pig. And now, a nap. NARRATOR I: Odysseus, seeing his opportunity, hands a stick of firewood to one of the men and instructs him to make it into a weapon. NARRATOR 2: The others keep carefull watch over the sleeping one-eyed giant. ODYSSEUS: Take this beam of olive wood and whittle away at the end. We need it good and sharp. SOLDIER 6: How is this? ODYSSEUS: Excellent. Now, let us put it in che fire and get it scorching hor. NARRATOR I: The poker burns white in the fire as the one-eyed giant sleeps. NARRATOR 2: And when it reaches the maximum heat possible before it begins to burn itself, Odysseus takes ic out of the flames, holds it over Polyphemus—and plunges the point into his one and only eye. POLYPHEMUS: Aaahh! Blinded—I've been blinded! NARRATOR 2: As he flals about in pain, he rolls the boulder aside from the cave entrance. And as his hands search frantically for the men who blinded him, he hears some neighboring Cyclopes passing by the mouth of his cave with their own herds, POLYPHEMUS: Help, help! I've been blinded! _ NARRATOR 2: And the frightened men, hoping to escape the dangerous situation, follow Odysseus’s orders and mix in with Polyphemus’s sheep to avoid his hands, searching frantically about the cave. © CYCLOPES I: What is it, Polyphemus? Why do you cry our? You disturb the sheep! CYCLOPES 2: You said blinded? Who has done this to you? POLYPHEMUS: Nobody, Nobody has hurt me. CYCLOPS |: Then stop your howling and pray to your father, Poseidon, to deliver you from your pain. NARRATOR I: Meanwhile, Odysseus and his men grasp the shaggy wool underbellies of the sheep and hold oon with all their might. NARRATOR 2: Thinking it would be easier to catch them in an empty cave, Polyphemus—still in agony—counts his sheep one by one then herds them out into the warm sunshine, unwittingly releasing his prisoners. ODYSSEUS (20 his men): When we clear this bank of trees, run for your lives to the beach. POLYPHEMUS: Where are you, trickster—thief who has stolen my sight? Who has done this damage? ‘ODYSSEUS: Run to the ship, everyone! Here I am, fool- ish one. You who dared to harm guests in your own, home have paid the price. More than anything, hos- pitality is the keystone to a civilized society. May you be cursed! NARRATOR I: Polyphemus breaks off the top of tall mountain and hurls it into the sea. NARRATOR2: A tidal wave pitches the ships violently. ODYSSEUS: I, Odysseus, King of Ithaka, am your tor- mentor. Do not forget my name. POLYPHEMUS: Poseidon, great father of the deep, hear your son. I raise my arms in supplication. Let not this man reach his homeland, but if it pleases the gods that he may, destroy his companions and lec him come to a land that does not know him or want him. + SCENE Gn: NARRATOR I: And Odysseus’ storytelling continues in the palace of King Alkinoos. Days pass, but the memory of the terrors of Polyphemus are still fresh in the minds of Odysseus and his men. NARRATOR 2: Fear has such a grip on their hearts that rot even hunger can persuade them to stop at another island, a7