Odysseus refilled the bowl with the sparkling wine, and again the giant gulped it down. A third time it was replenished, and quickly emptied. Noticing that
the potent drink was beginning to affect even that huge body, Ulysses answered his question:
"You ask my name: I will tell it, and do you fulfil your promise of a stranger's gift. My name is Noman. Noman am I called by mother, father and all my comrades."
With a drunken chuckle the Cyclops answered:
"Noman I will eat last, after all his comrades: that is the stranger's gift."
With that, he sank back, overcome by the wine. In a few moments he was sleeping, gorged and intoxicated, horrible to see and hear.
The moment had come. Odysseus seized the clumsy stake, and thrust the point into the embers of the fire, urging his men to be of stout heart and take their one chance.
When the point of the green olive trunk was aglow and ready to burst into flame, he snatched it from the fire. His four helpers took it like a battering-ram. Odysseus himself, standing on a projecting point of rock, grasped the butt firmly.
At the word of command, as if they were boring a ship-beam with a drill, the four plunged the smouldering point into the giant's eye with all their strength, while their leader twisted the weapon violently.
The effect was startling. Blood bubbled around the point. The great eye-ball hissed like water into which a smith has plunged hot iron to temper it. With a roar that almost deafened them, the giant came to life, and his mighty upheaval hurled the men hither and thither. He wrenched the stake from his eye and