Then, the wind having abated, we took to our oars, and rowed for many days till we came to the country where the Cyclops dwell.  Now, a mile or so from the shore there was an island, very fair and fertile, but no man dwells there or tills the soil, and in the island a harbor where a ship may be safe from all winds, and at the head of the harbor a stream falling from a rock, and whispering alders all about it.  Into this the ships passed safely, and were hauled up on the beach, and the crews slept by them, waiting for the morning.

When the dawn appeared, then we wandered through the island; and the nymphs of the land started the wild goats that my company might have food to eat.  Thereupon we took our bows and our spears from the ships, and shot at the goats; and the Gods gave us plenty of prey.  Twelve ships I had in my company, and each ship had nine goats for its share, and my own portion was ten.

Then all the day we sat and feasted, drinking the sweet wine which we had taken from the city of the Cicones, and eating the flesh of the goats; and as we sat we looked across to the land of the Cyclops, seeing the smoke and hearing the voices of the men and of the sheep and of the goats.  And when the sun set and darkness came over the land, we lay down upon the seashore and slept.

The next day I gathered my men together, and said, “Abide ye here, dear friends; I with my own ship and my own company will go and make trial of the folk that dwell in yonder island, whether they are just or unjust.”

So I climbed into my ship, and bade my company follow me; so we came to the land of the Cyclops.  Close to the shore was a cave, with laurels round about the mouth.  This was the dwelling of the Cyclops.  Alone he dwelt, a creature without law.  Nor was he like to mortal men, but rather to some wooded peak of the hills that stands out apart from all the rest.

Then I bade the rest of my comrades abide by the ship, and keep it, but I took twelve men, the bravest that there were in the crew, and went forth.  I had with me a goat-skin full of the wine, dark red, and sweet, which the priest of Apollo at Ismarus had given me.  Because we kept him and his wife and child from harm when we sacked the city, reverencing the god, therefore did he give it me.  Three things did he give me,—­seven talents of gold, and a mixing-bowl of silver, and of wine twelve jars.  So precious was it that none in his house knew of it saving himself and his wife and one dame that kept the house.  When they drank of it they mixed twenty measures of water with one of wine, and the smell that went up from it was wondrous sweet.  No man could easily refrain from drinking it.  With this wine I filled a great skin and bore it with me; also I bare corn in a wallet, for my heart within me boded that I should need it.