In book nine Odysseus has to confront Polythemus, the Cyclops who is Poseidon’s son. Odysseus and his men where trapped within Polythemus’s cave, which had wine and other luxuries in it. But the Cyclops is intent on eating every last one of them and saving Odysseus, or “Nohbdy,” as Odysseus presented himself to the Cyclops, for last. Odysseus later blinds Polythemus with a burning stick, leaving him aggrieved and in pain. Writhing in pain, he opens the rock, letting Odysseus’s crew escape. This is just a primal form of the myth, but by injuring Polythemus Odysseys is released, illustrating the productive side of violence.…
Maggie Jiang Mr. Lunn Pre-AP English 9 December 2016 Sympathy for A Cyclops "Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about” (Mass). Every being on this world has their own struggles, their own hardships, that they must face. However, few receive the sympathy they deserve. No one thinks about feeling sympathy for a horrific monster. Polyphemus the cyclops from Homer’s poem, The Odyssey is an atrocious creature who deserves sympathy. Although he was cruel to Odysseus's men, sympathy is definitely felt for Polyphemus when the cyclops is robbed of everything he had. Polyphemus’s loss of his only friends, his sheep, causes readers to experience sympathy. While Polyphemus was not kind to Odysseus’s men, he was very fond…
As Odysseus escapes the cyclops, he tricks him by getting him drunk and stabs Polyphemus with a wooden spear in the eye. Once the escape is complete, Odysseus yells back at Polyphemus telling him his name is Odysseus and he was the son of Laertes. "But I would not listen to them, and shouted out to him in my rage, 'Cyclops, if anyone asks you who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty, say it was the valiant warrior Ulysses, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.” This quote is stated from The Odyssey book 9. This quote from the Odyssey concludes that Odysseus states with all passion, his name and his relative to the cyclops. By doing this he has committed an act of hubris.…
The gods have played their part altering the course of the hero’s voyage. Seemingly, in the epic harmony does not last long and challenges follow Odysseus like a plague. Calypso, the audience believes holds the last installment of the global journey, our hero has yet more battles ahead of him. In fact, the king of Ithaca wandered the Mediterranean and its coastal lands for 10 years before finally arriving home. As waves crash against the raft, “he was seen sailing the ocean”(284). The sea near the land of the Phaeacians is only one region Odysseus has been driven to. All these occurs as a number of loyal citizens and a hopeful family await his return, a period when others dependence on him shines through. As Odysseus is under the angry waters…
Aeneas’ relationship with his own father and son is central to the action of The Aeneid. The image of him fleeing the burning city of Troy carrying his father, Anchises, and accompanied by his own son Iulus is one of the most symbolic images of family devotion and perfectly encapsulates the theme of parental fidelity; the notion of leaving his father and son behind to die in Troy would have been a “sacrilege” (Book 2, pg 44) to Aeneas. An important theme throughout the Aeneid, is the pietas of Aeneas towards his father.The concept of pietas “captures the unity in the Roman attitude that individual lives are part of the whole, that is, the family, the state and the universe ” and highlights the unbreakable bonds between the individual and their family. After saving him from Troy, together they share the leadership of the Trojan expedition until the death of Anchises in Sicily. The funeral…
Upon finding a large cave on one of the many islands that Odysseus and his crew went to they entered and helped themselves to the food and drinks they found there, and sure enough, shortly after they fell asleep. After some time the Cyclops named Polyphemus that lives in the cave returned rolling a big stone into the entrance of the cave. When the cyclops found that Odysseus and his men had eaten all of his food he became enraged, grabbed two of the men smashed their heads against the…
Throughout Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Odysseus’ actions and choices are the driving point of the plot. When he and his crew encounter Polyphemus the Cyclops, he tries to secure his legacy by shouting his real name, and giving other important information away. The Cyclops prays that a curse befall him and his friends and Poseidon hears him. After this, half of Odysseus’ men are turned into swine when they encounter an enchantress and give into temptation, and though no men are killed, the crew is again delayed in their journey by a year. Misfortune and death are prevalent throughout the consequent chapters, where men are constantly lost, and those that survive begin to lose faith in their leader. By the end of chapter 12, all of the men have died,…
Aeneas is one of the few survivors who managed to escape when Troy fell. When Troy, a city on the coast of Asia Minor, was sacked by Greeks, he assembled a force and then traveled around Mediterranean Sea to find the promised lands, Italy. The Aeneid is about his journey from Troy to Italy, which enables him to accomplish his destiny. After six years of overcoming many hardships posed by gods and several failed attempts to found the city, his group made landfall at a Carthage, a city she brought into being on the coast of North Africa. Characterized by a reverence for the will of the gods, Aeneas subordinates all other concerns to the task, founding Roman race in Italy. Before Aeneas’s arrival, Dido is…
"Cyclops, if any mortal man ever asks you who it was that inflicted upon your eye this shameful blinding, tell him that you were blinded by Odysseus, sacker of cities. Laertes is his father, and he makes his home on Ithaca” (Homer 500-505). Homer’s work of historical fiction, The Odyssey, is the sequel to his earlier story The Iliad. The Odyssey follows Odysseus after the events of the 10 year Trojan war and his long journey home. He clashes with many monsters and it always seems that his pride gets the better of him. The quote above is Odysseus bragging to Polyphemus that he had blinded him, showing how prominent his ego is after clashing with the cyclops. This ego and several other mistakes lead to Odysseus’s entire crew being dead and taking 20 years to return home. Odysseus is not a hero. He was unfaithful to his wife and all of his crew is dead.…
“Proceeding from the homeland of Polyphemus, my men and I departed briskly; attempting to evade the storm that was ominously approaching. To my utter disappointment we found ourselves engaged in a strenuous battle with Poseidon who had sought revenge on me ever since my triumph over his offspring. He had unleashed his vigorous powers, and would stop at nothing until he had defeated me and my men. While engaged in this duel, I was eventually thrust against the mast, knocking me unconscious.…
Went to find Odysseus in his stone seat to seaward---tear on tear brimming in his eyes. The sweet days of his life time were running out in anguish over his exile, for long ago the nymph had ceased to please. ………………………… ………………………………………….. But when day came he sat on the rocky shore and broke his own heart groaning, with eyes wet scanning the bare horizon of the sea.…
Odysseus proclaiming to Polyphemus that his is the one, "Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laerters' son, whose home's on Ithaca!" (9. 504-505). This presents that Odysseus is telling Polyphemus everything about him, his name, his father, and his home. Odysseus is showing hubris, because he is being vain about the situation with the cyclops. This ties together that being hubris in greek mythology usually resulted in punishment from the Gods.…
Odysseus and his men land on a Cyclopes island, Polyphemus. Polyphemus gets mad at Odysseus and his men so Polyphemus eats 6 of Odysseus’ men. Odysseus uses his strength and his cleverness to blind the Cyclopes. “So with our brand we bored that great eye socket while blood ran out around the red-hot bar” (Homer 666). After they blinded Polyphemus, they used his rams to escape from Poly’s cave. This makes Odysseus an epic hero.…
During Odysseus’ retelling of his adventure in Book 9 of the Odyssey, he explains how he and his crew lands on an island, known as Sicily which is inhibited by cyclops. There he meets Polyphemus, a cyclop and blinds him after Polyphemus traps them in a cave, and eats 2 members of his crew. However, this is only Odysseus side of the story. In reality, Odysseus was the one who decides to steal Polyphemus’ cheese, make assumptions that Polyphemus was also a supporter of the Gods, expecting gifts as a guest, never giving a second thought of what he did to Polyphemus, and just dismisses everything because he is a hero who saves his crew from the monster. However, I will argue the book does not go in depth about how Polyphemus tries to be hospitable,…
He managed to trick Polyphemus and thus, is able to not only blind him, but is capable of escaping with his men. “ He stretched himself full length upon the ground among his sheep, and went to sleep. I was at first inclined to seize my sword draw it and drive it into his vitals, but I reflected that if I did we should all certainly be lost” (Homer 169).Although Polyphemus seemed dangerous to the eyes of the men, Odysseus had not allowed that to overwhelm his mind. He told Polyphemus in that his name was "Nobody." Since Odysseus had stated that, Polyphemus couldn't receive help of any sort from his fellow Cyclops friends since he had informed them that Nobody has attacked him." “Nohbdy, Nohbdy tricked me, Nohbdys ruined me” (Homer…