The Unremarkable Odysseus and the Monstrous Cyclops

Abstract

Homer’s Polyphemus is remembered as the Cyclops who lives in his cave and cares for his sheep. He is loyal to his routine of sleeping, milking his ewes, eating, and leaving his flock to graze. Polyphemus is notoriously and proudly unafraid of the gods, a descendant of Poseidon, and a cannibal. His encounter with Odysseus is centred on their initial discussion, where the former tries (and fails) to outsmart the latter, on how Odysseus sees his actions as a punishment of Zeus for the crime of ὕβρις and of breaking ξενία, and, later, of Odysseus’ pride, as he cannot hold back from speaking his name aloud as he escapes Polyphemus’ grasp – following the famous (9.367) “no one” (trans. Heubeck) or “noman” (trans. Wilson) segment in the myth. Nolan fails to include most of these characteristics at the price, intended or not, of an interpretation of an unremarkable Odysseus and a monstrous Polyphemus.