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

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

10


Summary

This week on Chronicles, we re talking all about The Cyclops, the final satire play in the trilogy by Greek Greek playwright Aristophanes, and the play that finishes off the trilogy we ve been looking at for the past few weeks.


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
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