Maron, a priest of Apollo, gives Odysseus the powerful wine later used against the Cyclops Polyphemus. Maron lives at Ismarus in Thrace, where Odysseus and his men raid the city after leaving Troy.
Odysseus spares Maron, his wife, and his family out of respect for Apollo. In gratitude, Maron gives Odysseus a goatskin filled with exceptionally strong, undiluted wine, along with gold and a mixing bowl. Odysseus carries the wine onward during his voyage.
When Odysseus reaches Polyphemus’s cave, he offers the wine to the Cyclops. Its strength quickly intoxicates Polyphemus, who falls asleep after drinking it. Odysseus then blinds him with a sharpened stake and escapes beneath the sheep. Maron is therefore not the Cyclops’s victim or a member of Odysseus’s crew: he is the Apollo priest whose gift makes the escape possible.