In Book IX of the Odyssey, Odysseus and his men arrive in the land of the Cyclopes: "giants, louts without a law to bless them." The Cyclopes are savages: they are so primitive that they do not practice agriculture. When Odysseus and his crew arrive, the only sign of habitation is the smoke from the Cyclopes' fires. After resting for a day, Odysseus takes a small party to investigate the interior of the island
and find out what the mainland natives are -for they may be wild savages, and lawless,or hospitable and god-fearing men.
They make their way to a cave where the Cyclops Polyphemus lives. Polyphemus is out in the fields with his flocks of sheep, so the men look around and note
a drying rack that sagged with cheeses, penscrowded with lambs and kids [...]And vessels full of whey were brimming there[.]
The men, fearful of the giant, are all for taking as much cheese and as many animals as they can back to their ships and pushing out to sea again. Odysseus is curious to see the Cyclops, however, and orders them to stay in the cave and wait. The consequences are dreadful. Over the next few days, Polyphemus eats most of the small company:
Then he dismembered them and made his meal,gaping and crunching like a mountain lion - everything, innards, flesh and marrow bones.
He locks the remaining men in his cave whenever he goes out, rolling a huge stone across the entrance. Odysseus comes up with an escape plan: first, they blind Polyphemus by stabbing him in the eye; then, they cling to the bellies of the sheep when Polyphemus puts them out to pasture the next morning. Polyphemus, blind, cannot see that the men are clinging to the sheep, and they successfully escape the cave.
Odysseus has shown his habitual cunning so far in this plan, but upon making his escape, he is overcome with a mixture of rage at the giant and pride in his own intelligence. He cannot resist telling Polyphemus exactly who has blinded him and in so doing makes his first mistake:
Now when I cupped my hands I heard the crewin low voices protesting: "Godsake, Captain!Why bait the beast again? Let him alone!"[...] I would not hear them in my glorying spirit,but let my anger flare and yelled: "Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell himOdysseus, raider of cities, took your eye:Laertes' son, whose home's on Ithaca!"
Polyphemus groans at this news, saying that a wizard once told him he would be blinded by a man named Odysseus. He seems to realize this fate has come to pass because he was such a terrible host (hospitality being sacred in Ancient Greece), so he says:
Come back, Odysseus, and I'll treat you well,praying the god of earthquake [Poisedon] to befriend you -his son I am [...] and, if he will, he mayheal me of this black wound[.]
Odysseus, still full of anger and adrenaline, makes his second mistake by rejecting this conciliatory gesture. He shouts back:
If I could take your life I would and takeyour time away, and hurl you down to hell! The god of earthquake could not heal you there!
Polyphemus immediately prays to his father, Poisedon, for vengeance and calls down a curse upon Odysseus and his crew:
"[...] grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, never sees his home [...] Should destiny intend that he shall see his roof again [...]far be that day, and dark the years between. Let him lose all companions, and returnunder strange sail to bitter days at home."In these words he prayed, and the god heard him.
As the reader knows, all of these things came to pass and Odysseus has suffered dreadfully since blinding Polyphemus. His sufferings are primarily due to Poisedon's wrath, which he could have avoided had he not explicitly identified himself to Polyphemus and then rejected the Cyclops's offer to return and thereby win Poisedon's favour.
(All quotes are from the Robert Fitzgerald translation of the Odyssey.)
Odysseus and his men encounter Polyphemus, the Cyclops, in book 9 of The Odyssey, and not all of them survive their captivity in Polyphemus's cave. Moreover, Odysseus's hubris after their escape ultimately contributes to the loss of the rest of the men.
After the men blind Polyphemus and escape the cave by hiding among his flock of sheep when he lets it out to graze, Odysseus makes his first mistake: he identifies himself to Polyphemus and tells him it was he who blinded him. This information provokes Polyphemus to pray to his father, Poseidon, to kill the rest of Odysseus's crew and create trouble at Odysseus's home in Ithaca.
Odysseus's second mistake is sacrificing Polyphemus's black ram as an offering to please Zeus. The offering, in fact, does not please Zeus, who begins to plan the destruction of the rest of Odysseus's men and his ship.
No comments:
Post a Comment