From the shadows of the cave Odysseus now stepped forward, bearing in his hands an ivy bowl, full of the dark red wine.

“Drink wine after thy feast of men’s flesh,” said Odysseus, “and see what manner of drink this was that our ship held.”

Polyphemus grasped the bowl, gulped down the strong wine, and smacked his great lips over its sweetness.

“Give me more,” he cried, “and tell me thy name straightway, that I may give thee a gift.  Mighty clusters of grapes do the vines of our land bear for us, but this is a rill of very nectar and ambrosia.”

Again Odysseus gave him the bowl full of wine, and yet again, until the strong wine went to the giant’s head and made him stupid.

Then said Odysseus:  “Thou didst ask me my name, and didst say that thou wouldst give me a gift.  Noman is my name, and Noman they call me, my father and mother and all my fellows.”

Then answered the giant out of his pitiless heart:  “I will eat thy fellows first, Noman, and thee the last of all.  That shall be thy gift.”

Soon the wine made him so sleepy that he sank backwards with his great face upturned and fell fast asleep.

As soon as the giant slept, Odysseus thrust into the fire the stake he had prepared, and made it red hot, all the while speaking cheerfully and comfortingly to his men.  When it was so hot that the wood, green though it was, began to blaze, they drew it out and thrust it into the giant’s eye.  Round and round they whirled the fiery pike, as a man bores a hole in a plank, until the blood gushed out, and the eye frizzled and hissed, and the flames singed and burned the eyelids, and the eye was burned out.  With a great and terrible cry the giant sprang to his feet, and Odysseus and the others fled from before him.  From his eye he dragged the blazing pike, all dripping with his blood, and dashed it to the ground.  Then, maddened with pain, he called with a great and terrible cry on the other Cyclopes, who dwelt in their caves on the hill-tops round which the wind swept.  The giants, hearing his horrid yells, rushed to help him.

“What ails thee, Polyphemus?” they asked.  “Why dost thou cry aloud in the night and awake us from our sleep?  Surely no one stealeth thy flocks?  None slayeth thee by force or by craft.”

From the other side of the great stone moaned Polyphemus:  “Noman is slaying me by craft.”

Then the Cyclopes said:  “If no man is hurting thee, then indeed it must be a sickness that makes thee cry so loud, and this thou must bear, for we cannot help.”

With that they strode away from the cave and left the blind giant groaning and raging with pain.  Groping with his hands, he found the great stone that blocked the door, lifted it away, and sat himself down in the mouth of the cave, with his arms stretched out, hoping to catch Odysseus and his men if they should try to escape.  Sitting there, he fell asleep, and, as soon as he slept, Odysseus planned and plotted how best to win freedom.