him to go in and help Silenus. Odysseus calls on Hephaestus and Hypnos then exits into the cave. The chorus sing. Odysseus enters from the cave and tells them to be quiet and come and help burn the eye out. The chorus excuse themselves. Odysseus suggests that they can at least offer encouragement. They agree to provide this and do provide this while Odysseus exits into the cave. The Cyclops enters from the cave with noise and blindness. The chorus mock him and direct him away from Odysseus and the others while they escape from the cave. Odysseus addresses the Cyclops before exiting toward his ship. The Cyclops says that he is going to smash the ship then exits into the cave, which is "pierced through" (ἀμφιτρῆτος). The chorus say that they will go with Odysseus and be slaves to Dionysus. Analysis Euripides is not the only ancient dramatist who wrote a Cyclops satyr play. Aristias of the early fifth century did also. But Cyclops is apparently the only thing which Euripides wrote with a particular Homeric foundation. Euripides' play combines the myth of Dionysus's capture by pirates with the episode in Homer's Odyssey of Odysseus' time with the cyclops Polyphemus. Into this scenario Euripides thrust Silenus and the satyrs, comic characters. The satyr play as a medium was generally understood as a "tragedy at play". It relied extensively on the multifarious connotations which surrounded the concepts of "playfulness (paidia), education (paideia), child (pais), slave (pais), playful (paidikos), and childishness (paidia)". In Cyclops Euripides employed "metapoetically loaded terms" like second and double and new to highlight interactions with his sources, familiar and foundational texts in Athenian education. The characters in Cyclops are not ignorant of Euripides' sources. "Silenus 'knows his Odyssey rather well'". Euripides' Cyclops knows about the Trojan War and gives Odysseus his opinion of it. By playing with metapoetic images throughout the play Euripides fostered "a collective consciousness" in his democratic audience and facilitated their recognition that cooperation was necessary throughout Athens if they were to overcome their enemies. Both the Homeric episode and Euripides' Cyclops are based on the blinding of the Cyclops. It was almost certainly known by Euripides' audience that a particular Alcander had stuck a stick into the eye of Lycurgus the Spartan lawgiver. On one level of Euripides' play Alcibiades thrusts a stake into the eye of "a gross caricature of a Spartan",