Tales of Odysseus (Lotus-Eaters, Cyclops)

Author: Homer

Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE

Country or Culture: Greek

Genre: Myth

Overview

A renowned hero of Greek myth, Odysseus is the wily protagonist of Homer’s Odyssey, an epic poem likely composed in the eighth century BCE that tells of his arduous homecoming after the Trojan War. Odysseus is a brave warrior and adventurer but is best known for his cleverness, having devised the scheme of the Trojan horse that ensured Greek victory in the war. A lesser-known but crucial part of his character is his masterful storytelling ability, which is most evident in the stories he tells about himself. His tale of evading the Lotus-eaters and others who seek to hinder him on his journey and escaping Polyphemus (Polyphêmos) the Cyclops particularly illustrates his narrative genius.

This tale begins in book 9 of The Odyssey, after Odysseus has been washed up on the shore of the Phaeacians. When he finally reveals his identity to his hosts, Odysseus first tells of his battles with the Cicones and the Lotus-eaters before moving on to his encounter with the fearful Cyclops, who eats several members of the hero’s crew. When he and his crew are trapped in Polyphemus’s cave, Odysseus lulls the giant to sleep with wine and then blinds him with a giant wooden stake. Polyphemus begs the other Cyclopes for help, but they reject him when the giant tells them that “Nobody,” the name Odysseus claims for himself, has wounded him. Odysseus and his men then escape by hiding beneath sheep so that blind Polyphemus cannot use his hands to locate the men as the animals transport them out of the cave. Once the men are safe at sea, Odysseus cannot resist twice taunting Polyphemus. The giant reacts by throwing enormous boulders at the ship, nearly recapturing the men the first time but ultimately propelling their ship farther away and by asking the god Poseidon, his father, to sabotage Odysseus’s journey. Odysseus and his men safely reach an adjacent island and continue their adventures the following day.

A traditional interpretation of Odysseus’s meeting with Polyphemus regards the encounter as the hero’s process of becoming recivilized after enduring the savagery of war: Odysseus becomes trapped within the cave of the uncivilized Cyclops and must use his human ingenuity, rather than his military prowess, to save himself and his men. In this reading, the challenge of the Cyclops represents the hero’s psychological rebirth. However, the ways in which Odysseus represents himself and his adventures to the Phaeacians and to other characters is a key aspect of his psychology. A narratological analysis focusing on Odysseus’s stories about himself reveals that his behavior with the Phaeacians and his stories of his own past are crucial tools that he uses to fashion his character and reputation to win fame. His narratives reflect masterful strategies that include withholding and selecting key pieces of information, creating suspense, lionizing himself, and employing sophisticated techniques of anticipation. These tactics reveal that Odysseus is not simply a clever hero of wily stratagems. Rather, part of his intelligence and his psychological motivation lies in his ability to construct his identity and reputation deliberately through narrative. A narratological interpretation uniquely reveals how the fame of Odysseus relies deeply on both his actions and his masterful storytelling.

Summary

Odysseus’s narrative to the Phaeacians begins in book 9 when he first identifies himself by name and explains that he is the “son of Laertes, known to all men for [his] stratagems” (Od. 317). He mentions his experiences with Calypso (Kalypsô) and Circe (Kirkê), women who unsuccessfully tried to ensnare him, and proceeds to a more detailed account of his wanderings prior to his arrival in the land of the Phaeacians.

“Cyclops, you ask me of my glorious name, and I will tell you it; and do you give me a stranger’s gift, even as you promised. Nobody is my name, Nobody they call me—my mother and my father, and all my comrades as well.” So I spoke, and at once he answered me with pitiless heart: “Nobody will I eat last among his comrades, and the others before him; this shall be your gift.”

After departing from Ilium (Troy), Odysseus and his crew sail to the land of the Cicones and sack and loot their city, but they remain too long and are attacked by the Cicones and their allies, who kill some of the men. Embarking again, they are caught in a storm but eventually reach the land of the Lotus-eaters, who serve magical lotus food that causes some of Odysseus’s men to “forget their homecoming” (323). Odysseus himself must drag the men back to the ships to free them from the influence of the enchanting flowers.

Next, Odysseus tells of his encounter with the Cyclopes, “insolent and lawless folk” who live as savages, practicing neither agriculture nor any type of social government (Od. 323). After landing on a nearby island at night, Odysseus and his crew spend the following day exploring the land and feasting on the goats they find there. Odysseus then takes a smaller crew to explore the Cyclopes’ adjacent island. He and his men enter the cave of Polyphemus, one of the Cyclopes, and find abundant milk and cheese. Wishing to meet the creature, Odysseus and his men remain there until Polyphemus returns with his flocks and blocks the entrance to the cave with a giant boulder. After he milks his ewes and goats, Polyphemus discovers the intruders and inquires about their identity and purpose. Odysseus identifies himself and his men as “Achaeans” and “the men of Agamemnon, son of Atreus,” who have wandered the sea in search of home (335). He invokes Zeus several times and begs Polyphemus for hospitality and generosity.

Polyphemus responds by scorning the gods, proclaiming himself and all Cyclopes better than any deity, and he then asks Odysseus the location of his ships. To this, Odysseus responds falsely that he and his men have been shipwrecked. The Cyclops promptly kills and eats two of Odysseus’s men and then falls asleep, at which point Odysseus plans to kill the giant but quickly realizes that he and his men would be trapped in the cave by the boulder. Instead, they spend the following day sharpening an enormous stake of olive wood, and when Polyphemus returns in the evening with his flocks and feasts on two more men, Odysseus offers him three bowls of strong wine. As he drinks the wine, Polyphemus demands to know his guest’s name, and Odysseus responds by telling him that his name is “Nobody.” After Odysseus and his crew drive the stake into the sleeping giant’s eye, blinding him, Polyphemus cries out for help. Yet when the Cyclopes who live in the surrounding caves ask what has happened, Polyphemus states, “My friends, it is Nobody that is slaying me by guile and not by force” (Od. 345). The other Cyclopes respond that if nobody is hurting him, Polyphemus must be afflicted by Zeus and should pray to their father, Poseidon. The anguished Polyphemus then removes the boulder from the mouth of his cave and sits in the entryway to prevent the men from departing.

Having blinded Polyphemus, Odysseus now plans the Achaeans’ escape from the cave. He binds three sheep together side by side and instructs a man to hide underneath by grasping the middle sheep’s belly, repeating this process until the entire group is hidden. When Polyphemus touches the animals to determine whether they are his flocks or his human prisoners, he does not discover the men. After the sheep have all left the cave, Odysseus unties himself and his men, and they flee to their ships, taking the sheep with them. Odysseus forbids his crew from mourning the lost men, instead urging them to embark quickly. When they are within shouting distance, Odysseus taunts Polyphemus, telling him that the man who defeated him was evidently “no weakling” and that Zeus and other gods have punished the giant. Enraged, Polyphemus hurls a “peak of a high mountain” at the ship, which causes the backflow of the sea to return Odysseus and his men to the Cyclopes’ shore (Od. 351).

They quickly row back out to safety, and although his men urge him to keep silent, Odysseus once again cannot resist calling out to Polyphemus. This time, the hero names himself, “Odysseus, the sacker of cities,” as the blinder of the Cyclops (Od. 353). Polyphemus laments his fate and recounts that a prophet had foretold that a man named Odysseus would one day rob him of his sight. He begs Odysseus to return so that he may bestow gifts and pray to Poseidon for Odysseus’s safe passage. Odysseus responds by wishing that he could send the soul of Polyphemus to Hades, the underworld. Polyphemus then prays to Poseidon, asking that Odysseus never reach home, or if he does, that he lose his ship and crew and meet misfortune in Ithaca. Polyphemus then throws a boulder even larger than the first. Fortunately for the Achaeans, the boulder hits the water and propels the ship toward the island where the rest of Odysseus’s men wait. The men divide the sheep among themselves, and Odysseus sacrifices a ram to Zeus. They spend the rest of the day feasting and embark the next morning, continuing their long journey home.

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