Polifemo, Sileno e le Cariti (Eur. Cycl. 578-584)

At Cycl. 578-584, lines 581 οὐκ ἄν φιλήσαιμ’. αἱ Χάριτες πειρῶσί με, and 583 κάλλιστα, νὴ τὰς Χάριτες κτλ., give no satisfactory sense. We suggest to read οὐκ ἂν φιλήσαιμ’ αἳ Χάριτες πειρῶσί με («I wouldn’t kiss those Graces, who are tempting me»), and κάλλιστον ἢ τὰς Χάριτας (this Ganymede... «prettier than Graces»), interpreting the whole passage as follows: the drunken Cyclops refuses to kiss «the Graces that» seem so well-disposed towards him, and prefers to lie with old Silenus, whom he regards as «nicer than the Graces themselves», theorizing that a young male is always more desirable than a female to him