Wine loosens the giant

21“ ‘Take this, O Cyclops, after your repast
Of human flesh, and drink, that you may know
What liquor was concealed within our ship.
I brought it as an offering to you,
For I had hope that you would pity us,
And send us home. Yet are your cruelties
Beyond all limit. Wicked as you are,
Hereafter who, of all the human race,
Will dare approach you, guilty of such wrong?’

22“As thus I spoke, he took the cup and drank.
The luscious wine delighted mightily
His palate, and he asked a second draught.

23“ ‘Give me to drink again, and generously,
And tell your name, that I may make a gift
Such as becomes a host. The fertile land
In which the Cyclops dwell yields wine, it is true,
And the large grapes are nursed by rains from Zeus,
But nectar and ambrosia are in this.’

24“He spoke; I gave him of the generous juice
Again, and thrice I filled and brought the cup,
And thrice the Cyclops in his folly drank.
But when I saw the wine begin to cloud
His senses, I bespoke him blandly thus: —