RE-AIR: Euripides, Odysseus, and the Only Surviving Satyr Play (Cyclops Part 2)

In celebration of all things Odyssey and Odysseus, we're re-airing the two part series on the ONLY surviving Satyr play... Euripides' Cyclops, a dick-filled farce version of Odysseus' encounter with Polyphemus... Liv looks at some of the more phallic origins of theatre (hint, it's very phallic) and retells the only surviving Satyr play, Euripides' Cyclops. Help keep LTAMB going by subscribing to Liv's Patreon for bonus content! http://www.patreon.com/mythsbaby CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing. Sources: Euripides' Cyclops Companion by Carl A Shaw; Euripides' Cyclops from Six Classical Greek Comedies, translated by Kenneth McLeish and J. Michael Walton; Warwick entry on the Sanctuary of Dionysus https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/intranets/students/modules/greekreligion/database/clunap/#:~:text=In%20Mythology%20practice%20is%20said,affecting%20the%20genitalia%20of%20men. Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions http://mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions. Learn more about Liv's next group trips https://travelbugxlivalbert.my.canva.site/ to GREECE! Application deadline is November 30 (Subject to change due to demand). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Liv Albert?

  Hey nerds, really quick note from me. I want to tell you that we now have the applications open for the next set of listener group trips. This is us going back to the original, the trips that we have held in the past that have been so much fun, so successful, and pretty affordable in terms of wandering around Greece with a bunch of nerds. So check out the details and get your applications in at mythsbaby.com/groups.

• 0:36Speaker 01

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• 1:32Liv Albert?

  Oh, hi. Hello there. This is Let's Talk About Myths, baby, and I am your Euripides-obsessed host, Liv. Today, I am returning with, of course, the second half of Euripides's seder play, the Cyclops. We aren't officially in the Euripides series of episodes, and yet I couldn't resist when the world's first best playwright happens to be the author of the only surviving seder play from classical Greece. I mean, there is no alternative.

• 2:05Liv Albert?

  But before I dive back in, I want to let you know and/or remind you that it is nearly time, I mean, really, by the time you hear this, probably time to sign up for next year's group trips to Greece. So I am once again, working with the travel agency Travel Bug Livermore, where an amazing listener, Antonia, is working to get us another incredible tour through mythological Greece. And as I mentioned already, this next year, we are going to have two different trips that are going to be happening. I'm really, I'm really excited about this. This was an enormous priority for me to be able to have two kind of price options. So the first will be based in Athens

• 2:47Liv Albert?

  only, touring the city and all of the sights there, the southern tip of Attica too, where we will visit the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, and it's just an incredible temple that sits like right on the edge of a cliff over the sea. It's said to be where King Aegaeus threw himself into the sea when he thought his shitty son Theseus was dead. But it's a beautiful temple, as well as Thorakos Theater, which is a particularly unique theater that's nearby that even I haven't been to yet. I'm very excited. And so that tour will be shorter and less expensive for those who can't make the longer tour work. And the longer tour will be the same as this past year. It was

• 3:29Liv Albert?

  really great, so we're not changing it. We stayed in Athens, Nafpleo, and on the island of Agina, with trips to the Acropolis, Museum, Delphi, Eleusis, Epidaurus, Mycenae, the Temple of Aphaia on Agina, and more. For more information, go to mythsbaby.com/group-trip. It's linked in the episode's description, and there you will find some more information, as well as a link to the Google form. And, once you fill out the form, you'll be contacted by Antonia, who can provide all of the most official information. It's going to run the same as last year, which it seems to me went pretty smoothly. So, everything will be kind of determined

• 4:11Liv Albert?

  by Antonia on that end, though I will be involved with picking the names. We will only be able to take 12 listeners on each trip, so, you know, get yourselves in. The deadline to submit yourself is going to be listed on the site, or at least it will be. As of this writing, it's not yet, but probably by the time you hear it, it will be. If it's not, wait, like... 12 hours, you'll be fine. And then, once we have that all sorted, we'll select randomly from those who applied. So it's a total of 24 people, double last year, actually more than that. So it's a pretty good opportunity and I'm, I'm really excited. It went really well

• 4:52Liv Albert?

  and I was really scared and it was only incredible. I can't wait to see what we do next. So I just, the one more thing, I've also still got the new ad-free subscription program that's going to be coming. I've hit a slight technical snag, so it remains to be seen exactly when that will come, but stay tuned. And that's enough of that. We, we've got half of a Satyr play to get to. Where we last left this silly story, we heard the tale of Odysseus and Polyphemus the Cyclops. Only this one is a little different. In this Satyr play version of Homer's story, Euripides has taken this Homeric version of Odysseus and his men landing on the island

• 5:37Liv Albert?

  of the Cyclops on their way home from Troy, and he's added, "Satyr." So many saters, and with saters comes dicks. There's a chorus of saters and Papa Satyr, Silenus. In this version of the story, these saters were en route to rescue the god Dionysus from the time he was kidnapped by pirates and ended up stranded and enslaved on the island of the Cyclops. Now remember, saters are important to Dionysus, and so is theater. There's a lot of fun stuff happening here. And then Odysseus shows up and Silenus, the Papa Satyr, tries to barter some of the Cyclops stores of food for a bit of really great wine. It doesn't

• 6:21Liv Albert?

  go well, that well for him, though he does get drunk, because then Polyphemus arrived. And remember, Seder plays aren't like the tragedies, or really even comedies that we've looked at before. Seder plays were staged at the end of the tragedy competitions. The tragedians would write three tragedies and one Seder play. They are shorter, they're weird, and this is the only one that survives. We don't entirely understand the genre, but they seem to be somewhat ridiculous stories jammed with satyrs. Maybe to lighten the mood after a day full of child murder and sons marrying their mothers? Maybe to thank Dionysus? Like, he would like something weird like this.

• 7:05Liv Albert?

  In any case, this play, Euripides's Cyclops, is all we've got. And boy, is it weird.

• 7:27Liv Albert?

  This is episode 272. Euripides, Odysseus, and the only surviving Seder play. The Cyclops, Part 2.

• 7:51Liv Albert?

  The chorus of dancing, enormously erect satyrs sings of the Cyclops. Odysseus has left the stage and entered the cave, forced by Polyphemus the Cyclops, along with his men. The chorus of satyrs is left behind to sing of what's going on inside, or what might be in the future. Really, they're singing of being eaten by the Cyclops. Or rather, an attempt to avoid that fate.

• 8:20Liv Albert?

  The chorus sings, quote, "No thanks Cyclops, I'm not your guest Cyclops, no thanks Cyclops, why you digest Cyclops? A sacrificial feast, more fitting for a beast. Going home, may I suggest, would suit me best Cyclops. On this we'll all agree, it's a pretty rotten host. It's the sort of boorish manners I really can't abide, notwithstanding the free offer of a salad on the side."

• 8:48Liv Albert?

  It's only a quick song from the satyrs before Odysseus comes rushing out, looking not at all comfortable with what he's just seen. Horrors, that's what he's seen. So bad, he has trouble voicing it even to the satyrs. Were your men eaten? They ask. Two of them, he tells them, but it was so much more than that. He tells them exactly what happened, how they entered the cave, how it was dark before it was lit by the fire stoked by Polyphemus. Odysseus tells the satyrs how the Cyclops prepared his kitchen for cooking before, quote, "As soon as everything was ready, this hellish cook grabbed two of my men. In a single movement, he bled one of them into the brazen pot and, holding

• 9:31Liv Albert?

  the other by the ankle, cracked open his skull on a jagged bit of wall, so his brain spilled out. With his knife, he chopped off the flesh to bake on the fire and put the limbs into the pot to boil. It was terrible."

• 9:48Liv Albert?

  I told you lately how much I love Euripides, like, is it, is it weird that my love for him is only amplified by reading this bizarre and gory description of men being cooked and eaten by a giant Cyclops? No. But it gets better. Odysseus tells the satyrs what happened next. His men were terrified, those that weren't being eaten, of course, all huddled in a corner. They all watched as the Cyclops, full on the flesh of their companions, fell back onto his bed with a loud belch. That's when Odysseus had his brilliant idea: get Polyphemus drunk. He tells the chorus that his plan was to get him drunk on the fancy wine that he'd already shared with Silenus. So, Odysseus offered the Cyclops some wine,

• 10:31Liv Albert?

  and, oh, it's good wine. Before long, quote, "He started to sing. I just kept filling him up, warming his cockles and filling him up. There's the Cyclops singing away on one side, my sailors howling away on the other, all round the cave." Then Odysseus says, quote, "So I popped out quietly to save myself, and you too if you want."

• 10:57Liv Albert?

  No mention of his men, no, no, this is Odysseus. If he's famous for anything, it's sitting back while hundreds of his men die terrible deaths, and yet he remains. Yes, he's still my main man, it's fine. "So you wanna come with me?" he asks the chorus of satyrs. "Do you wanna escape the cyclops so you can find your god, Dionysus?" Quote, "Your father inside says yes, but he can hardly stand up from the drink and is glued to his cup, wings flapping like a bird trapped in lime. But you, you're young, let's get away together and you can go and find your Dionysus." Dear old Dionysus, a far cry from this ghastly cyclops. Pausilenus, he's as drunk as the cyclops, that's what we're learning here.

• 11:42Liv Albert?

  The satyrs, though, they are very interested in this idea. It's about time they escaped the gory mess that was life with the cyclops. Plus, the chorus of enormously erect satyrs reply, quote, "My poor old prick's been in retreat recently, he could do with a nibble."

• 12:04Liv Albert?

  Yeah. Remember, as much as the ancient Greeks were brilliant and artistic and creative in ways that we will never fully comprehend and we should appreciate forever, they also loved dicks and dick jokes. Fart jokes, too.

• 12:33Liv Albert?

  Odysseus tells the chorus of dick-loving satyrs that he's got a plan. "What, are you gonna leap on him when he's alone or shove him off a cliffside?" the chorus asks.

• 12:46Liv Albert?

  "Ha, ha, ha, I wanna believe," Odysseus said, "he's far cleverer than that. No," he tells them, "he prefers a subtle approach, an intellectual approach." I'm certain he said this with the haughtiest tone that the actor had in his repertoire.

• 13:03Liv Albert?

  Odysseus tells the dick-swinging satyrs that he's already proven that Polyphemus the Cyclops loves good wine. So now it's time for even more. He's gonna get the Cyclops even more drunk. Fill him up with all the wine that he can jam in. Odysseus will convince him that he doesn't want to have a party with the other Cyclops, even if he's made suggestions that he'd like that so far. No, no, he needs to keep all the wine for himself. There's no sharing the vintage Odysseus has plied him with. Then, quote, "I'll wait until he's overcome and in a Dionysian stupor." He tells him that inside the cave he saw an olive branch, that the next step of his

• 13:47Liv Albert?

  plan is to sharpen it, set it in the fire, then, quote, "As soon as it's alight, I'll pick it out and plunge it into his eye socket. That will sizzle his vision." And just as a shipwright drives his drill with a double strap, "I'll twirl my twig in his socket and recycle the Cyclops." He'll twirl his twig in the Cyclops socket. The chorus of satyrs are thrilled with this idea. It's wild, they love it. "Can they help at all?" they ask Odysseus.

• 14:27Liv Albert?

  Quote, "Is there any way I could give a hand, especially with the red-hot gouging? I would like to give a hand with the gouging." Heripides is hilarious, this translation is hilarious. "Of course you can help," Odysseus tells them. "The red-hot poker is huge, I can use more hands." "All right," Odysseus says to the chorus of dick-swingers. I imagine he's rubbing his hands together conspiratorially. I mean, imagine that is what you will. "Now that we've got a plan in place, let's get moving. Follow me and my orders, but, quote, "I have no intention of deserting my men by beating

• 15:10Liv Albert?

  a retreat." Though, of course, I could, me being outside the cave. But it wouldn't be fair for me to desert my companions. We came here together after all, just to save my own skin.

• 15:25Liv Albert?

  Yeah, he thought Odysseus was gonna be selfless, like just for a minute, and you were wrong. I mean, fine, he's saving his men, but I am obsessed with Euripides writing his character true enough to acknowledge that he doesn't actually want to save his men. Like, he just kinda feels like he has to. He's definitely imagined just leaving them there to die, cuz, like, he could. He's Odysseus, and he's outside the cave while they're inside! So... But now, he wants to look like the hero, so he's going to save his remaining men from the cyclops' grasp.

• 16:00Liv Albert?

  That doesn't make the chorus of phallocentric satyrs any more comfortable with the situation, though. Their reply is to sing, quote, "After me, me first, not you. Don't push, what's the rush? Form a queue, to grasp the flaming flagpole, and shove it in his eye hole, and twiddle till his brains are seeping through."

• 16:24Liv Albert?

  Then they change their tune. The cyclops walks out from the cave, and oh, he's as drunk as a skunk and singing his own tune. The satyrs then sing of the cyclops' singing, of his drunkenness and... of getting laid, quote, "We'll speed his arousal, we'll teach him carousal. By the time that we're finished, he'll end up blind drunk. Happy the man laid out with grapes in a bunch. Happy the man engaged with a friend after lunch, getting happily laid. Happy the man with a delicate girl in his bedding. Happy the man anticipating the wedding with the bridesmaid."

• 17:03Liv Albert?

  Then Polyphemus's cyclops joins them. He sings of being just as drunk as the satyrs imagined he was, that his stomach is full of wine, that he's playing it like a drum. He is singing of having the other cyclops' friends join him, quote, "A paean cyclopaean." He asks for more wine. The chorus of penis flingers sings of a wedding, the wedding, I gather, between the cyclops' polyphemus and the sharpened branch that Odysseus intends to jam into his face, quote, "The bridal torch is waiting, and she's ready for the mating. Inside the juicy hall, preparation's almost done, for the groom it's just begun. His crown still needs its multicolored shawl."

• 17:51Liv Albert?

  With the Cyclops outside of the cave and drunk off his ass, Odysseus is there to keep the plan moving. He gives Polyphemus exactly what he asked for: more wine. And, well, Polyphemus is drunk enough to imagine that the god Dionysus is living inside the very wine skin that Odysseus is offering to him. Quote, "Doesn't he mind living in a skin, being a god?" And a moment later, when Odysseus assures the one-eyed giant that the god of wine is perfectly content, living in a wine skin, quote, "It's not right for gods to live in skins." To which Odysseus says, simply, quote, "Who cares, as long as he makes you happy."

• 18:49Liv Albert?

  This episode is brought to you by Quince. You know the drill. Quince makes elevated, everyday essentials using premium materials like Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and premium stretch denim. I have been speaking into a microphone about Quince for a while now, and I have no complaints. I have a bunch of their stuff. I've got a couple cute sweaters that, I mean, it's nearing sweater season, so those will be back in the rotation anytime now. And I have this leather bag that I absolutely love. It's like this braided leather, and I use it like basically every day. Because that's the thing, they have really great basics.

• 19:32Liv Albert?

  Like, they have really great things that you can wear with so many other things. Just the options are endless. And as the weather gets colder, like all the sweaters in my closet, Quince has everything you need to round out your wardrobe, from warm, responsibly sourced down jackets, and cozy cashmere scarves and gloves, to beautiful 14 karat gold jewelry that adds the perfect finishing touch. And of course, everything at Quince is priced Eighty percent less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for quality, not brand markup. And if we haven't learned anything in the last 10 years, isn't it just getting rid of the middlemen? You know, making things more affordable. So find the fall pieces you'll reach for

• 20:17Liv Albert?

  most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was me. Let's talk about myths, baby. It's the best way to support the show.

• 20:54Liv Albert?

  Polyphemus is persuaded to drink more wine and convinced once more that he shouldn't invite his cyclops brothers over for a tipple. That any reasonable person would keep all of that delicious wine for themselves. He really needs convincing though. Isn't it more fun to be drunk with friends? He asks. Oh, no, it's best when you're at home, Odysseus says. Parties always end in fights, anyway. Oh, I'm too drunk for anyone to dare win in a fight, Polyphemus predicts. In the end, though, he is persuaded by Papos Ailinas to spend his drunken adventure at home, laying in the sun outside his cave on a soft bed of flowers. It's pretty appealing, I have to say. Less so, though, when you remember

• 21:39Liv Albert?

  what Odysseus has up his sleeve, or rather, what he's about to have up Polyphemus's eye.

• 21:46Liv Albert?

  And so when the topic returns to the wine and Polyphemus needs more, he finally asks this stranger for his name. To which, of course, Odysseus replies, quote, "My name is nobody. And what have you to offer me in return?" I'll eat you last, Polyphemus tells him. Cyclops is quickly distracted because of wine. He returns to Silenus, who's taken a sip, taking back the wine for another of his own. The pair bicker about the wine, they are both drunk. Silenus claims he needs to check the mixture, just another sip, to be sure. Polyphemus calls him a villainous cupbearer. Back and forth, the wine is passed between them.

• 22:30Liv Albert?

  Odysseus takes up the skin next. When he's asked to pour it instead, it's, I mean, it's really quite a funny scene, but nearly impossible to fully convey without dialogue. The point is, well, Polyphemus gets very, very, very drunk. So drunk that he starts imagining he's up on Mount Olympus with the Olympians themselves.

• 22:52Liv Albert?

  Quote, "Heaven seems to be getting muddled up with the earth. There's the throne of Zeus and the glory of the gods, it's divine. Shall I make love to the lot of you? Don't tempt me, graces. No, I'll make do with my Ganymede here. I'll have a better jiggle with him than with all of the graces put together. I'd rather have little boys than women any day." Uh, once you finish gagging, just remember that that's a reference to the deeply problematic and troubling by modern standards practice of Pterasty.

• 23:27Liv Albert?

  This relationship between Zeus and Ganymede is like that, it's ick. But we must forego the ick and remember that it was a deeply normal practice back then. Because Silenus now adds that he understands that Polyphemus is casting himself as Zeus in this scenario, but is Polyphemus meant to be Ganymede? He asks. And so with one more joke that's just a mega ick, because basically the play here is that Silenus is quote-unquote "seducing" Polyphemus into the cave, so he gets him passed out drunk.

• 23:56Liv Albert?

  The Poppasator and Cyclops return to the cave.

• 24:01Liv Albert?

  Still outside, Odysseus reminds the chorus what they're there to do, and after the chorus amps him up a little, sings of taking out the Cyclops's eye. But he sings it as if he's really in a tragedy this time, as if he's really the heroic character out to right a wrong. Things like, quote, "Destroy not Odysseus and his crew at the hands of one who cares, not for men, and less for gods." Which is then immediately contrasted by the chorus singing, quote, "We're singing songs of savage tongues, ready to nobble a guest gobbler."

• 24:40Liv Albert?

  They go on, singing of taking out his eye with the fiery stake. They sing in prayer of the wine working its Dionysian magic, that the Cyclops gets even drunker. And finally, they sing to everyone's favorite god of drunken madness, quote, "How I miss you, Dionysus, I be kissing Dionysus. Oh, let me bid farewell to this cyclopean hell. Shall I ever see you more, my Dionysus? And dwell with you in bliss, my Dionysus?"

• 25:29Liv Albert?

  Odysseus sends the chorus into the cave. He reminds them what they're there to do and what's happening next. It's eye gouging time! Uh, well, the Poppasators aren't quite so confident anymore. "Don't you think you should give us a little more information on the eye gouging?" they ask.

• 25:51Liv Albert?

  "Who should hold the stick and where?" Quote, "Because some of us are a bit of a long way from the door, actually, um, for pushing the flame into the eye, and I've just turned my ankle."

• 26:06Liv Albert?

  Needless to say, they're not feeling quite as heroic as Odysseus. And who blames them? And remember, you can never forget, don't ever forget, they're wearing costumes equipped with enormous, enormous erect phallois.

• 26:25Liv Albert?

  Odysseus calls them out. "Oh, sure, your ankle just happened to turn now." To which they add, quote, "Oh, uh, d- dust in my eye. Ash, probably." "You wimps," Odysseus tells them. To which they say, quote, "Just because I don't want to damage my back, I've got a bad back, and have my teeth knocked out of my head, suddenly I'm a coward? I do know a wonderful magic song which will make the brand jump up all by itself and sear the skull of this one-eyed son of the soil."

• 27:01Liv Albert?

  This play is really so fun. "Fine," Odysseus tells them, "if you all aren't brave enough to go inside and help me, I'll have to rely on the men of mine that are still in there." Which like, wait, remember they're there, Odysseus, baby steps. He adds to the chorus, "You can't do nothing. Sing them a song or something."

• 27:24Liv Albert?

  The satyrs are only relieved. "Perfect, that's what we'll do. You handle the eye gouging, we'll handle the music. Sounds even."

• 27:32Liv Albert?

  And so when Odysseus goes back inside the cave, the chorus of rock-hard satyrs stays outside and they sing of, well, the eye gouging.

• 27:42Liv Albert?

  Quote, "Twist it, be firm with it, give him a perm with it, wind it and twine it, try to refine it, now anti-clockwise and just watch him squirm with it."

• 27:55Liv Albert?

  They, they keep going, more hope for violence, more calls for gore. At one point, we hear the cyclops crying out from inside, screaming about his eye, and Odysseus cheering the chorus on and asking for more singing.

• 28:10Liv Albert?

  And now blinded, the Cyclops does as the Odyssey wishes of him and determines that well, he can still block his attacker, nobody, from leaving his cave. This time, though, there's the chorus of satyrs. Polyphemus is sitting at the mouth of the cave and the chorus chucks in on him. Things are, of course, not great. "What's wrong with you?" the dick-swinging satyrs ask. Polyphemus says, quote, "I'm dead." "Yeah, you don't look great," they tell him. "Did you hurt yourself?" "Nobody did it," he tells them. "Oh, that's good, then." The Cyclops says, quote, "Nobody has blinded me." "Well, then you can't be blind," they tell him. This goes on for another couple of lines.

• 28:54Liv Albert?

  Finally, Polyphemus asks, "Where is nobody?" They tell him, quote, "Nowhere, Cyclops." Polyphemus keeps searching around, asking the chorus where nobody and his men are, bumbling around with their intentionally poor instructions. Back and forth, he searches. Eventually, of course, Odysseus and his men use the opportunity to free themselves from the Cyclops' grasp, just as Homer intended. Odysseus reveals his true name. Polyphemus makes the threat of his father Poseidon, promising Odysseus that he has many more years at sea ahead of him. And the chorus of penis-swinging satyrs that have all been so magnificently added

• 29:36Liv Albert?

  to this classic Homeric story join Odysseus and his men on their ship, speaking the final lines of the play. Quote, "We'll join you on board, Odysseus, and for the rest of our lives, we'll serve nobody but Dionysus."

• 30:11Liv Albert?

  Oh, nerds. Well, that was the only surviving satyr play from the classical world. I am fascinated by the concept of these. Like, that was just bizarre in a truly joyful way. I mean, so many dicks. That's not necessarily the joyful part, but it is certainly bizarre. I just think it's so fun to remember that for all we think of Greek tragedy as this intelligent form of high art, which it was, it was also accompanied by dick-swinging satyrs who make off-color jokes.

• 30:47Liv Albert?

  I hope to talk more about satyr plays in the future. Today's episode is slightly hindered by the absolutely endless hours I've been putting in for the new merch and updated everything. These are good hours. I'm happy about it, but also they're long. So here we are. On Friday, I have an incredibly amazing conversation for you. Oh, it's fun. It's fun. And next week, the official start of our Euripides series. Let's talk about Myth, Baby is written and produced by me, Liv Albert. Michaela Smith is the Hermes to my Olympians, the assistant producer. Select music in this episode was by Luke Chaos. The podcast is part of the iHeart Podcast Network. Listen on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 31:32Liv Albert?

  Stay tuned for more on a subscription program to support the podcast and get ad-free options and so much more. The website's looking cool and new, too. If you want to check it out, mythsbaby.com. I am Liv, and I love this shit.

• 32:02Speaker 02

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• 32:19Speaker 03

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