Presently a mass of ewes began to jostle in through the doorway; clearly the rams and he-goats were to be left outside, and these were the milkers of the herd.
Behind them came the monstrous creature, and to the crouching watchers it appeared as if some mountain peak from the range they had seen were walking in upon them. Yet this prodigy, which seemed to fill the whole cave, was built like a man in all respects save one: one great eye only he bore, in the centre of his forehead. Savage and uncouth he was, with matted hair, and yellow tusks at the corner of his mouth like some ancient wild boar. And wise Odysseus knew that this was one of the famed Cyclopes who acknowledged not even the sovereignty of Olympus.
That baleful eye apparently did not perceive the terrified group huddled into the shadow. The monster turned as he entered, and laid hold of a huge stone which stood beside the portal. Such was its size that a score of ox-teams could not have started it from its place; but the intruders saw him wrap his great arms about the mass: the muscles stood out like cables as, lifting the boulder clear from the floor, he placed it in front of the entrance for a door stone, completely blocking the exit.
Dark as it now was within, he at once set to work at milking, placing half the milk in vessels for curdling, and filling with the rest a bowl in which two ordinary men could have stood upright and which would have held ten amphoræ of wine of ten gallons
each. This done, he put the lambs and kids beneath their mothers.
Breaking off great limbs of the tree he had brought in as if they were twigs, he kindled a roaring fire. The leaping flames lit up the gloomy cavern. As the giant turned, the baleful glance of his single eye fell upon the cowering Ithacans.
"Ha!" he roared, in a voice that beat upon them like a gale of wind. "Who are you? Where have you come from across the seas? You look to me like some of those sea-rovers who bring no good to those they visit."
Though his companions, stout men all, seemed utterly overwhelmed by the savage's voice and aspect, Odysseus made answer boldly:
"We are Achæans, homeward bound from Troy, but driven by adverse winds across the sea. Through many wanderings Zeus has brought us hither. Subjects of Agamemnon are we, most famous of men, so great a city he took. Here by chance, we ask of you food and shelter, and the gift which is the stranger's due. Even you, O mighty one, must respect the gods. And Zeus is the protector of the stranger and suppliant."