The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - August 09, 2025


PREVIEW： Chronicles #9 ｜ Cyclops By Euripedes


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

143.78247

Word Count

2,168

Sentence Count

5


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to Chronicles. This week we're going to be talking
00:00:18.500 all about Cyclops by Euripides. I kind of feel like it should be called the Cyclops but Cyclops
00:00:27.360 it is and the reason that I decided to talk about this of all of the plays by Euripides this week
00:00:35.460 is because it very neatly finishes off the trilogy sort of you know informal trilogy we've done these
00:00:42.480 past few weeks looking at an ancient Greek tragedy an ancient Greek comedy and now a satire play and
00:00:50.380 it's actually the only surviving satire play that we have. Now what is a satire play? Let's just talk
00:00:56.980 about that before we actually begin to discuss the contents of the play itself. So the satire play
00:01:03.480 as I briefly mentioned back speaking with Stelios was a play that was very much mandatory during the
00:01:12.160 Dionysian festival in Athens when all of the playwrights would come and they'd have a trilogy
00:01:18.020 of tragedies and there would be traditionally a satire play performed at the end of it as a fourth
00:01:25.980 play kind of kind of as a palate cleanser really after some very very heavy tragic and dark themes
00:01:34.660 in all three of those tragedies the satire play was supposed to be something more comic more irreverent
00:01:41.680 and to basically let the audience go home with a good feeling no different really to how you know
00:01:49.180 when we're on the podcast we just tend to put the the funnier light-hearted segment at the end for you
00:01:54.560 however one of the things that is also probably important to mention as well is that even though
00:02:01.900 it is a lighter sort of play it actually draws upon a lot of elements of ancient Greek tragedy as well
00:02:11.020 for example in the Cyclops that we're going to be talking about today of course the Cyclops is
00:02:18.080 Polyphemus the Cyclops that Odysseus has to outwit during the events of the Odyssey and so it's a play
00:02:27.180 dedicated to that specific part of Homer but as you'll see as we go through it it's done in a more
00:02:34.080 satirical and more jovial style but the point is that it is still a play set in the heroic past like
00:02:43.680 tragedy unlike comedy it's not set in well contemporary Greek society in the time that Euripides was writing it
00:02:52.020 so Euripides is someone that we don't know a tremendous amount about his life he first competed
00:03:01.160 in the Dionysian theatre back in 455 and he won his first victory in 441 BC and of the estimated 92 plays
00:03:15.520 that he apparently wrote over the course of his life we have about 19 of them and some of them such as
00:03:23.500 Medea and the Barcai amongst the most famous tragedies of all time for good reason and we'll
00:03:31.100 definitely get to them further down the line the other thing to say about Euripides is that he was
00:03:37.000 the last of what are regarded as the three great ancient Greek tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles and then
00:03:45.380 Euripides as well and Euripides was someone who was a contemporary of Aristophanes although
00:03:53.320 Euripides was kind of towards the end of his life at that time but you see Euripides parodied quite
00:03:59.240 a lot in Aristophanes work one thing that I neglected to mention back during the chronicles on
00:04:05.640 Lysistrata was how often Aristophanes mentions the characters in the play mention Euripides when
00:04:12.920 they're talking about the annoyance of women and this is something that Euripides was famously not a fan
00:04:20.280 of women generally although there aren't actually any women in this play that we're going to talk
00:04:25.080 about today so that's not something that's really going to come up we'll talk about the story now and
00:04:31.320 then we'll unpack it all as things continue
00:04:35.480 on the Sicilian shore Silenus father of satyrs bemoans the plight of he and his sons once on a voyage to
00:04:49.720 find Dionysus rogue winds blew them towards this island and now they are the slaves of Polythemus a
00:04:57.020 gargantuan and gluttonous cyclops we sought you master till a sudden gale caught us near Malia filled
00:05:05.020 each sail with furious wind and desperate tempest shock drove us to this most wild Etrean rock here
00:05:12.860 where the sea gods one-eyed children dwell the cyclops each in his rocky cell man-eating monsters here I am
00:05:21.100 a slave to Polythemus I must clean his cave I who have danced with Barcus guard his flocks and with my
00:05:29.660 sons toil up these beastly rocks to tend the lambs and ewes my jobs to fill the water casks and scrape
00:05:37.340 it makes me ill the filthy floor after his nasty meals I great Silenus just think how it feels to rake up
00:05:46.540 dung and litter from the floor to make all clean for one whom I abhor here he comes home tonight
00:05:53.580 and goes to sleep here in the cave among his silly sheep his chorus of sons come shepherding those sheep
00:06:00.940 so that the flock can feed when a new site emerges on the coast a Grecian ship is rode to shore and the
00:06:09.100 legendary Odysseus veteran of Troy disembarks with his loyal crew we need to talk Silenus hails
00:06:17.180 Odysseus and the two get each other's bearings and the satyr informs the crew of the cyclops who reigns
00:06:23.980 as a tyrant nearby and what's more who would be very happy to eat the newly arrived men
00:06:31.180 Odysseus then barters food for wine as Silenus supplies the crew with meats and cheese
00:06:37.740 the fragrance of wine is divine and Silenus is incensed with thirst for it
00:06:43.420 for such a drink he agrees to bring the food from the cyclops cave
00:06:47.820 I'll risk it and not care what he can do yes for one cup of wine I'll bring you now the cyclopean
00:06:54.540 flocks from Etna's brow oh to be really drunk why then I'd leap from the Lysadian cliff into the deep
00:07:02.380 I'd shut my eyes and dive the man is mad who won't get drunk when drink is to be had
00:07:08.860 if I were drunk god how I chase a girls one just forgets all else when dancing whirls
00:07:15.580 the drink about one's wits I'd catch them too and then
00:07:19.260 well well we know what I would do there's no one here to kiss except the wine and that I'm off to earn
00:07:27.980 I'll make it mine I'll rob the cyclops make the monster cry hot tears from out that glaring central
00:07:35.420 eye he then goes to ponder the cave swiftly returning with the food but the cyclops approaches too
00:07:42.860 Silenus cowardly darts back towards the cave but brave Odysseus stands firm to confront the monster
00:07:50.540 tensions soon rise when Silenus returns from the cave beaten and bruised falsely declaring that he
00:07:57.100 was assaulted by Odysseus and his crew Silenus accuses Odysseus of thievery Odysseus accuses Silenus of
00:08:04.700 attempting to betray his master let the gods decide which man to glorify and even one of Silenus his own
00:08:11.580 sons sides with Odysseus hold hard hold hard he gave the things away quite freely to these strangers
00:08:20.060 and I say that if I'm lying let him go below one must be fair to strangers as you know the cyclops
00:08:27.820 asks who these new men are where they have come from and where they wish to go Odysseus coyly answers the
00:08:35.580 latitude questions of Troy and Ithaca but does not provide his name he is simply nobody Polythemus
00:08:44.060 laments the worthlessness of Helen and the rotten business of Troy but Odysseus counters do not blame
00:08:51.260 Helen all that she has done was by a god's design but you great son of the earth-shaking lord we beg you
00:08:58.700 now be merciful to us you must allow that we who visit you are friends indeed think and control your
00:09:06.940 truly impious greed many a temple on Hellenic soil reared to your father's honour with hard toil
00:09:14.620 bears out my claim on the Tanerian strand sacred inviolate and rising grand above Malaya lovely as a
00:09:22.860 dream on Sunnium's height the fretted columns gleam guarded by great Athena and the peace of quiet
00:09:31.420 Gerastus all the land of Greece proves what I say the land we have kept free from Phrygian conquest and
00:09:39.340 profanity Hellas your father and yourself as well have common cause with us for you to dwell here in the
00:09:47.340 shade of Etna's fierce jaws upon the fringe of Hellas and her laws then as a Hellene hear the suppliant's
00:09:55.740 prayer receive us your great sea guests with presents fair with food and clothes and comfort far more fit
00:10:03.820 is such a welcome than the ghoulish spit to pierce our limbs and glut our appetite enough of Greeks have
00:10:10.780 known death's awful night in Priam's land too many widows weep the cruel spear harvest rotting heap on
00:10:18.540 heap old fathers and grey-headed mothers wail their childless age oh do not swell the tale of slaughtered
00:10:26.220 Greeks for swear your hellish roast for swear it and be rather a good host who welcomes men in kindliness
00:10:34.380 forgo this carnal lust it may well work your woe but the cyclops is enslaved to his own greed and
00:10:42.700 rages midget the really wise man's god is gain all else is more pretense vaunting and vain what of each
00:10:52.140 seagirt pile and sanctuary my father's temples are no use to me i scorn the bolt of Zeus you call divine
00:11:01.340 how do i know this power is more than mine that's all that counts and when the rain comes down i've
00:11:08.220 got my snug dry cave in which i drown the thunder with loud belches feasting there on some roast game
00:11:16.140 or veal and banish care with gurgling vats of milk and when the snow comes from the bitter north why then
00:11:23.900 i blow the embers to a blaze throw on a tree don a warm fur and what's the snow to me the earth bears
00:11:32.380 grass whether it will or not to feed my flocks and herds so tell me what i need with sacrifice which
00:11:40.540 none deserves my belly is the only god i serve it's simple sense that man's first care should be to
00:11:48.700 please himself no other deity is half so pleasing as a well-fed man as for the fool who forms himself
00:11:56.700 a plan a code of rules to make him sick and sad i wish him joy of it and think he's mad i've got more
00:12:04.940 sense than to deny myself so to the pot you go no prayer nor pelf shall save you here's true hospitality
00:12:14.300 a warm place in my belly presently come in the cauldron waits the water boils my welcome
00:12:22.540 frees a man from all his toils odysseus and his hapless crew are pursued to the cave it echoes with
00:12:30.860 cries and savagery until odysseus emerges and lengthily recounts to the satyrs the gruesome details
00:12:38.860 of the horror he just witnessed as his crew were devoured before his eyes and of how he was saved
00:12:45.340 from such a violent fate by offering polythemus his wine and escaping he then suggests that he and
00:12:52.940 the satyrs work together to best polythemus and escape to the ship that the satyrs must now sail to
00:13:00.460 replace the crew he has lost wily odysseus then informs him of his plan you have your sword i have
00:13:08.380 my tricks polythemus will wish to visit the other cyclops on the island but odysseus will rely on his
00:13:15.180 greed and convince him to drink alone then when the inebriated creature drunkenly dozes odysseus will
00:13:22.780 smite his eye so that they can flee to the shore and out to the sea the cyclops then comes from the
00:13:30.140 cave and odysseus sets his plan in motion the mariner and the monster trade in wits until polythemus is
00:13:38.540 coerced into drinking dionysus's wine deeper and deeper his drunkenness sets in until he retreats to
00:13:47.420 the cave dragging poor meek silenus with him odysseus then prays to hephaistus and braves the cave moments
00:13:57.020 later the cyclops emerges in anguish blinded and broken he declares that nobody stabbed him as that
00:14:05.020 is the name odysseus gave at but in the certainty of victory odysseus boastfully reveals his name
00:14:12.860 if it's me you mean odysseus here i am safe and serene my father named me on my natal day odysseus
00:14:20.860 you must look for vengeance when you take to making impious meals of men ill had i done who
00:14:26.860 shook the trojan plain and sought not vengeance for my comrade slain i bid you weep i have done
00:14:33.740 what you say think of us sailing on our homeward way leaving your land of sicily behind there's a
00:14:41.260 frantic chase as they race to the shores and the satyrs sing in celebration of their escape from
00:14:48.140 slavery if you enjoyed this piece of premium content from the lotus eaters head to our website where you
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