Not a word in reply to that, the ruthless brute.
Lurching up, he lunged out with his hands toward my men
and snatching two at once, rapping them on the ground
he knocked them dead like pups –
their brains gushed out all over, soaked the floor –
and ripping them limb from limb to fix his meal
he bolted them down like a mountain-lion, left no scrap,
devoured entrails, flesh and bones, marrow and all!
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 323-330. Odysseus describes in horrific and graphic detail how Polyphemus kills two of his men and eats them. This is the Cyclops’ swift and brutal justice for those caught stealing his food. In two different similes, Polyphemus’ victims are compared to defenseless puppies as they are killed and the Cyclops to a mountain lion as he feeds on them.