title: Cyclops (Greek Tragedy in New Translations)
author: Heather McHugh
description: Text: English (translation)<br> Original Language: Greek
zlib_text: Cyclops By Clive Cussler
  
  
  # PROLOGUE
  
  
  March 9, 1918
  
  
  Caribbean Sea
  
  
  The Cyclops had less than one hour to live. In forty-eight minutes she would
  become a mass tomb for her 309 passengers and crew-- a tragedy unforeseen and
  unheralded by ominous premonitions, mocked by an empty sea and a diamond-clear
  sky. Even the seagulls that had haunted her wake for the past week darted and
  soared in languid indifference, their keen instincts dulled by the mild
  weather.
  
  
  There was a slight breeze from the southeast that barely curled the American
  flag on her stern. At three-thirty in the morning, most of the off-duty
  crewmen and passengers were asleep. A few, unable to drift off under the
  oppressive heat of the trade winds, stood around on the upper deck, leaning
  over the railing and watching the ship's bow hiss and lift over the high
  rolling swells. The main surge of the sea seemed to be moving beneath the
  smooth surface, while massive forces were building in the depths below.
  
  
  Inside the Cyc