Abstract
THE PENULTIMATE SCENE OF EURIPIDES' Cyclops has disappointed many critics. Those who defend it do so simply because it is funny. No one has remarked that scene is crucial to play's argument-it is here that Odysseus defeats Cyclops, reversing their earlier confrontation, and it is here that he finally supplants Silenus and takes control of chorus. Criticism of scene is widespread but hardly consistent. Duchemin found it remarquablement r6duit and supposed that author was rushed; she has been followed by Arnott and Wetzel.' Schmidt, following Bernhardy, thought it leider sehr weit ausgesponnen.2 Lasserre concluded that l'action n'en est pas touch6e;3 to Masqueray it was peu motivee.4 Arrowsmith found that this initial sympathy [for Odysseus] is nonetheless quickly alienated.. . by Polyphemus' transformation into a drunken, almost lovable, buffoon.5 The scene's defenders have generally argued only that it is amusing, iocossissime inventa,6 and they qualify even this: farce obviously depend on ingenuity of actors;' the poet had made a firm decision and he must have seen consequences.' The one critic to have studied scene in detail, L. E. Rossi, argues
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