At the end of the last book, Odysseus was asked to tell his story about where he came from. Up to this point in the book, Odysseus had not revealed his actual name to King Alcinoos. Odysseus starts by telling the men there that he was Odysseus from Ithaca who fought at Troy. Odysseus starts his story when he left Troy and landed on the island of Ciconians. After they were driven out by a neighboring town, they sailed for nine days, lost, til they landed on the land of the lotus-eaters. Odysseus sent two men and a speaker to talk to find out who the natives were. Soon, they came across one of the lotus-eaters, who offered Odysseus's men a lotus. As soon as the men tasted the lotus, they forgot all about their journey home to Ithaca. Odysseus found then and brought them back to the ship . He ordered the rest of the crew on the ship so that they wouldn't taste the lotus. Odysseus quickly left the island and continued sailing.
Their next stop was the island of the Cyclopes. Odysseus landed his ships in a cyclops-free harbor. Here the men killed some of the sheep there to eat. The next morning, Odysseus decided to take one of the ships in his fleet around the island to find some of the cyclopes to try to talk to them. Odysseus set off and soon found another harbor and the cave of a cyclops. Odysseus walked up to the cave looked inside. The cyclops wasn't there, so Odysseus and his men made a fire and ate some of his cheese. Soon the Cyclops came back to his cave and herded his sheep in. When the cyclops saw Odysseus, he asked Odysseus who he was and where he came from. Odysseus answered that they were Achaians coming home from Troy. Odysseus asked the cyclops to welcome like a stranger, which Polyphemus laughed at. Polyphemus rolled a giant stone in front of the entrance so that no one besides him could get in or out. Then, he grabbed two of Odysseus's men and ate them. The next morning, Polyphemus ate two more men and then herded his sheep outside. As he left, Polyphemus rolled the stone back in front of the entrance.
While he was gone, Odysseus devised a plan. He took part of a giant log that Polyphemus was planning to us as a staff and sharpened the end of it to a point and hid it among the manure on the floor. When Polyphemus came home again that night, he herded his sheep in and rolled the stone back. The cyclops ate two more men. When he was finished, Odysseus offered him a cup of the wine he had brought with him as provisions. The wine was so good that Polyphemus asked for two more glasses. When he was drunk, the cyclops asked Odysseus what his name was, to which Odysseus replied that his name was Noman. Then, the Cyclops fell asleep. While he was sleeping, Odysseus took his log out of the manure and stuck the end in the fire. After the tip started to catch on fire, the men brought the log over to Polyphemus and stuck it in his eye, rendering him blind. Polyphemus woke up with a start and pulled the wood from his eye, roaring in pain. Hearing his cries, other cyclopes came and asked Polyphemus what he was yelling about and if someone had hurt him, to which he replied that Noman had hurt him. Hearing that nobody had harmed Polyphemus, the other cyclopes went away.
The next morning, Odysseus and his remaining men hid under the cyclops's sheep as he herded them outside and made it out of the cave undetected. The men made it to their boat in the harbor, and were sailing away when Odysseus turned around and teased Polyphemus. Polyphemus picked up a giant rock and hurled it at Odysseus's general direction. The rock landed ahead of the ship and the resulting wave pushed the boat back to shore. The men started to sail away again, and Odysseus again felt the need to shout. He called out to Polyphemus saying that if anyone ever asked who blinded him, tell them that Odysseus of Ithaca did it. At this, Polyphemus prayed to his father, Poseidon, to kill Odysseus on his voyage home, and if he doesn't die, to make his journey long, hard, and painful.
Odysseus sailed back to the original harbor where he had landed his ships and rejoined with the rest of his fleet.
No comments:
Post a Comment