... “Cyclops, you asked my name, and I will tell it: give me afterwards a guest gift as you promised. My name is Nobody. Nobody, my father, mother, and friends call me.”
... Seized by terror we shrank back, as he wrenched the stake, wet with blood, from his eye.
He flung it away in frenzy, and called to the Cyclopes, his neighbours who lived in caves on the windy heights.
They heard his cry, and crowding in from every side they stood by the cave mouth and asked what was wrong: “Polyphemus, what terrible pain is this that makes you call through deathless night, and wake us?
Is a mortal stealing your flocks, or trying to kill you by violence or treachery?”
Out of the cave came mighty Polyphemus’ voice: “Nobody, my friends, is trying to kill me by violence or treachery.”
To this they replied with winged words: “If you are alone, and nobody does you violence, it’s an inescapable sickness that comes from Zeus: pray to the Lord Poseidon, our father.”
Off they went, while I laughed to myself at how the name and the clever scheme had deceived him. ...
-- Homer, Odyssey IX
