Odysseus escapes from Polyphemus
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Eleven of the twelve ships Odysseus had have wrecked. He
reaches an island occupied by Cyclopes on his way to Ithaca. The island was
beautiful and had a plethora of resources. They landed their ship on the island
and ate dinner. After dinner, Odysseus ordered his crew to guard the ship and
he would confront the cyclopes, Polyphemus.
They snuck into a cyclopes’ cave and eat his food. He returns
home and catches them. Polyphemus eat his men. The cyclopes ask for his name
and Odysseus tells him his name is Nobody. Odysseus and the remaining men
performed a plan to stab the cyclopes in his eye one he fell asleep.
They fed him wine until he passed out and prepared the
olivewood stake for their attack. They stab him in the eye and he screams so
loud it wakes his neighbor and they all run over to ask him what’s wrong. He tells
them “Nobody is trying to kill me by violence” which confuses all of them
because they then believe he is alone and so they leave. Odysseus and his men,
the men that are left, steal his sheep and leave. Odysseus tells Polyphemus who
he really is as they sail off.
They land on another island: Circe’s. They split into the
two groups to look around, Odysseus led one and group and Eurylochus led the
other. Eurylochus finds a castle of stone and reports back to Odysseus. Odysseus
tells his men they will go back but to not fall for her tricks. They go back
and as Odysseus attacks her she falls to her knees and ask him how he wasn’t enchanted
she then knew who he was and invited him to bed. He demanded she free his men
and she did as he demanded. She invited them to eat and drink and they ended up
staying for days. She finally told Odysseus he must go to the House of Hades and
Persephone. She gives him specific instructions on how to get to Hades and she
led the way.
Bibliography. Homer. "Homer's Odyssey." Web source.
No comments:
Post a Comment