"But tell me, where did you moor your sturdy ship
when you arrived? Up the coast or close in?
I’d just like to know."
So he laid his trap
but he never caught me, no, wise to the world
I shot back in my crafty way, "My ship?
Poseidon god of the earthquake smashed my ship,
he drove it against the rocks at your island’s far cape,
he dashed it against a cliff as the winds rode us in.
I and the men you see escaped a sudden death."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 314-322. When Polyphemus attempts to be clever with Odysseus, trying to find out where he moored his ship, Olysseus is one step ahead. Instead of falling for the trap, Odysseus lies and says that his ship was smashed by Poseidon. The cunning Odysseus realizes that Polyphemus probably intends to destroy his ship.