Welcome back, everyone to one thousand one classic short stories and tales. This is your host, John Hagadorn. Today, a story of courage.

This story is called Ulysses and the Cyclops, as retold by Andrew Lang.

This story is from the Odyssey.

Homer's great epic of the Greek king Odysseus' long journey home after the Trojan

War.

Of all the Greek heroes, Odysseus was the one whose courage was the most rooted in cleverness.

Time after time, when others sank into despair, Odysseus instead summoned his own powers of ingenuity.

In this retelling of his famous encounter with Cyclops, he is called by his Roman name Ulysses.

Ulysses.

Ulysses at his ships reached the coast of the land of the Cyclopus,

which means the round-eyed man,

men with only one eye apiece, set in the middle of their foreheads.

They lived not in houses, but in caves among the hills, and they had no king and no laws, and did not plow or so, but wheat and

vines grew wild, and they kept great flocks of sheep. There was a beautiful wild desert island

lying across the opening of a bay. The aisle was full of wild goats, and made a bar against

the waves, so that ships could lie behind it safely

went up on the beach for there was no tide in that sea there ulysses ran up his ships and the men

passed the time in hunting wild goats and feasting on fresh meat and wine next day ulysses left all the ships and men

there except his own ship and his own crew,

and went out to see what kind of people lived on the mainland, for as yet none had been seen.

He found a large cave close to the sea, with laurels growing on the rocky roof and a wall

of rough stones built around a court in front.

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