Q: When Polyphemus asked Odysseus his name, what did the hero say?
A: He said, “My name is Nobody.”
Q: Describe how Odysseus attacked the Cyclops.
A: He offered Polyphemus wine that made him fall into a drunken sleep. Then Odysseus and his men blinded Polyphemus by stabbing the monster in the eye with the sharpened stick he had made.
Q: Who did Polyphemus tell the other Cyclopes was trying to kill him and how did they react?
A: He said that “nobody” was trying to kill him. The other Cyclopes said, “If nobody is trying to harm you, then Zeus must have sent a deadly disease to plague you.” The Cyclopes told Polyphemus to pray to Poseidon for help.
Q: How did Polyphemus strike back at Odysseus after he escaped?
A: He tore off a mountaintop and threw it at Odysseus’ ship.
Q: How did Poseidon grant his son’s request?
A: He promised to delay Odysseus’ return home.
EXPERT COMMENTARY
According to Professor Barry B. Powell, Homer gives the ancient Greek custom of xenia, the hospitality shown to guests, a new twist in this story: “The gift of Cyclops parodies, by inversion, the custom of xenia—Odysseus will be eaten last!”3
The tool that Odysseus used to blind the Cyclops, according to Powell:
... is like a bow drill, whose forward thrust comes from the weight of the user as he leans against it. The twist of the drill came from a long thong wrapped in a single turn around it: men at each end pushed and pulled so it turned, now clockwise, now counterclockwise, like the drill of someone starting a fire by friction. But the simile is somewhat mixed: How could Odysseus both guide the stake and twist it, especially if its weight was being carried by four other men?4
Polyphemus learned from a prophecy that Odysseus would visit him:
A seer named Telemus had once warned Polyphemus that a man named Odysseus would blind him. But Polyphemus was too heartbroken to pay attention to this oracle. The grotesque Cyclops had loved the sea nymph Galatea, but she only had eyes for the handsome human youth Acis. Polyphemus had crushed his rival under a giant rock. But Galatea only hated him more after this murder, while Acis—in answer to her prayers—was changed into a river god.5
According to scholar and historian Michael Grant:
Odysseus resembles the typical hero of the Iliad in his unconquerable, enduring great heart. By this he survives fantastic obstacles.... He overcomes them by the sheer force of his character, amazingly resourceful, yet recklessly ferocious. He is the type, for all time, of a man who has battled with the varied storms of life and won. Miraculous though his adventures are, yet they illuminate his character and confirm his violent belief, like Ivan Karamazov’s, in his own powers.6
However, even though Odysseus resembled the typical hero of the Iliad, Grant noted that he exhibited one characteristic difference, which he demonstrated in his dealings with Polyphemus:
Yet there is one exceptional feature about this heavy-jawed, beetle-browed hero. He is tremendously clever, far more clever than any hero of the Iliad. In his heroic character an unexpectedly prominent, indeed preeminent, part is played by intelligence, assuming multifarious forms from strategic and tactical sageness to the weaving of an endless web of lies and fancies.7
Writers of the classical period in Greek history, according to Grant, held negative opinions of Odysseus’ cleverness:
The classical fifth century usually, though not always, regarded Odysseus as an evil product of over-cleverness: cruel, corrupt, sophistical and deceitful, a hardboiled confidence man. “May I never,” said the old-fashioned, aristocratic Pindar, “have a character like that, but walk in straightforward ways.” To Sophocles, Odysseus is a magnanimous hero in the Ajax, but a cold blooded schemer in the Philoctetes. So he is in several plays of Euripides, written in the age of the Peloponnesian War, when many people thought that cleverness was ruining Athens.8
7
CIRCE, THE BEWITCHING QUEEN
INTRODUCTION
After Odysseus and his men escaped from the Cyclops Polyphemus, they sailed to the island of Aeolus, King of the Winds. Aeolus lived on the island with his six sons, who were married to his six daughters. He was known for his hospitality, but as we shall see in the story, Odysseus’ men abused this hospitality, with disastrous results for the crew. Ultimately, Odysseus ended up on the island of Aeaea, home of the sorceress Circe.
Circe was the daughter of the Sun and Perse, a nymph. Her brother, Aeëtes, was the father of Medea, another sorceress. Although Circe used a wand, she did not resemble a witch as we usually think of one. She did not wear a black hat and robe or have a wart on her nose. Instead, Homer called her “The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea.”1 She wore her hair in long braids and sang with a melodious voice.
Her island has been identified with the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples.2 In about 800 B.C., Greeks from the island of Euboea, east of Attica, sailed in small open boats all the way to Italy, where they settled the first Greek colonies. The Odyssey, according to some experts, may have been written down on Euboea at about this time, and those who listened to the tales, especially the Greek seafarers, associated the adventures of Odysseus with specific geographic locations around Italy.3
This story uses a device similar to one used in the story about the Lotus-Eaters, a food that produces the loss of memory. However, in this case, the loss of memory is caused by a magical potion that Circe made.
In this tale, Hermes, Zeus’ messenger, gives Odysseus a protective herb. It was the magic herb moly, whose “root is black and flower as white as milk.”4 Moly served as an antidote, to counteract the effects of Circe’s magical drugs.
Circe, the Bewitching Queen
Zeus had given Aeolus, the King of the Winds, the power to rouse the winds or to calm them. When Aeolus heard of the struggles of Odysseus and his sailors to reach home, he decided to help them. In keeping with the custom of hospitality, Aeolus gave Odysseus a special gift, a leather bag that held all the strongest, most dangerous winds. Aeolus cautioned Odysseus not to open the bag if he wanted to reach home safely.
Unfortunately, some of the crew thought King Aeolus had given Odysseus a sack full of gold, which he was unwilling to share with them. One day, when the ship was nearly home, Odysseus took a nap. This was the opportunity for which his men had been waiting. They opened the bag, but there was no gold inside. Only fierce winds rushed out.
The winds pushed the ships to the land of the Laestrygonians, a race of gigantic cannibals. These creatures used rocks to smash all of Odysseus’ fleet, except for his ship, which was anchored in a different place. They also ate up all Odysseus’ men except for those manning his vessel.
Odysseus’ tired and discouraged crew put back out to sea and eventually came to the island of Aeaea, the land of Circe, the sorceress. She had been expecting Odysseus or someone like him, because a prophecy foretold that a heroic man would someday defy her magic.
Odysseus sent out a search party led by his trusted and brave warrior, Eurylochus. Deep in the woods, they came to a palace. Built of magnificent stone, it rose high above the forest. Mountain lions and wolves roamed the grounds. These beasts approached Odysseus’ men, who backed away, fearful that the animals would attack. But the creatures only pawed at the ground and swished their long tails.
Just then, the men heard unearthly singing coming from inside the palace. One of the warriors peered inside. “I can see a lovely woman with long braids working at her loom.”
After the men called out to her, the woman opened the gleaming palace doors. “Welcome! I am Circe. Please, come inside.”
All the men rushed in except for Eurylochus, who sensed a trap. Circe invited them to sit on high-backed chairs. In drinking bowls, she mixed a fragrant brew of cheese, barley, honey, and wine. But the men did not see her stir in drugs. These drugs would erase their memories of home.
Once the sailors had drained their bowls of potion, Circe drew out her witch�
�s wand, touched the men, and transformed all of them, except Eurylochus, into pigs. She herded them, squealing and crying, into pigpens. But they kept their human brains, so they were aware of the terrible fate which had befallen them.
Eurylochus ran back to the ship in panic to tell Odysseus what had happened to the rest of the crew. He could hardly speak, because he was so horrified by the disaster.
Odysseus grabbed his bronze sword and slung his bow and arrows over his shoulder. “Lead me back the same way you came, Eurylochus.”
“No, captain, let us escape while we can. You will never bring any of those men back alive,” Eurylochus answered.
Odysseus told Eurylochus to stay behind at the ship, and set out alone to rescue his men. On the way, he met Hermes, who gave him an herb that would protect him from Circe’s charms.
“Take this herb, Odysseus. Without it, you will be trapped here, just like the rest of your men,” warned Hermes. “My herb will protect you from Circe’s drugged wine. Then, when she brings out her wand, draw your sword and rush at her as if you are going to stab her. She will be so frightened that she will try to convince you to fall in love with her. Make her promise that she will release your crew and not do you any harm.”
Odysseus approached the palace and shouted out to Circe. At once, she opened the gleaming palace doors and welcomed him inside. She led Odysseus to an ornately carved chair and mixed her potion in a golden bowl, stirring in her poison. But because of Hermes’ magic herb, Odysseus did not fall prey to the poison.
“Who are you?” cried Circe in astonishment. “No other man has ever withstood my potion.”
“I am mighty Odysseus, one of the Achaean warriors who won the Trojan War. Now you must turn those pigs back into my men.”
When Odysseus was reunited with this crew, Circe treated them all to a sumptuous feast. She was such a wonderful hostess that they ended up staying with her for an entire year.
But finally, Odysseus’ men reminded him of their need to return home to Ithaca. Circe told Odysseus what he had to do to safely reach Ithaca. First, he had to cross the River Ocean and sail beyond the western edge of the world to visit with the prophet Tiresias in the Underworld. There, he would have to sacrifice a ram and some sheep and fill a pit with their blood to attract the ghosts in the Underworld, all of whom craved blood.
Odysseus did as Circe instructed him. When Tiresias appeared, Odysseus offered him a cup of blood. Then the prophet looked into the future and predicted what would happen next to Odysseus.
“Royal Odysseus, you seek a smooth journey home, but Poseidon, whose son you blinded, will make it hard for you,” said Tiresias. “And beware the danger awaiting you on the island where the sacred cattle of the Sun live.” These beasts were the most beautiful cattle in the world. According to Tiresias, if Odysseus’ men harmed the cattle, they would be killed, and Odysseus would not return home for many years.
Tiresias continued on in his gloomy fashion. “When you do arrive home, you will find many troublemakers residing at your palace. But you will banish them and restore order.”
After Tiresias finished speaking, many other ghosts came to drink blood and talk with Odysseus. He spoke with his mother, who had died of loneliness waiting for him to return. She told him that his wife, Penelope, still waited for him. Odysseus tried to embrace his mother. But because she was a ghost, his arms passed right through her. Heroes such as Patroclus and Achilles also approached Odysseus. But Ajax, still jealous that Odysseus had received Achilles’ armor, refused to speak a single word to Odysseus.
More and more of the dead clustered around Odysseus, wanting to speak with him. Suddenly, he was hemmed in by thousands of ghosts, raising eerie, unearthly cries. As mighty as he was, Odysseus felt terror. He fled to his ship and urged his men to cast off at once. Mighty rowing and a fair wind sped them on their way, away from the kingdom of the dead and toward Ithaca.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: Where did Odysseus go after he left the Cyclopes?
A: He stopped at the Land of the Winds. King Aeolus gave him a leather bag that contained the strongest, most dangerous winds. He warned Odysseus not to open the bag, but some of his crew did anyway. The winds were released and drove the ship to the land of the Laestrygonians.
Q: Where did Circe live?
A: She lived in a palace on the island of Aeaea.
Q: What were Circe’s powers and how did Odysseus escape them?
A: She was a witch who gave Odysseus’ men a drugged potion and turned them into pigs. Hermes gave Odysseus an herb which protected him from Circe’s powers. Odysseus drank her potion unharmed, which no man had ever done before.
Q: Then what did Odysseus do?
A: He forced Circe to turn his crew back into men, and they stayed there for a year.
Q: What did Circe tell Odysseus he needed to do in order to return home?
A: He had to go to the Underworld to meet with the prophet Tiresias.
Q: What happened when Odysseus visited the Underworld?
A: He sacrificed a ram and some sheep and filled a pit with their blood, because that was what the ghosts of the Underworld craved. Tiresias then appeared and told him not to eat any of the cattle on the Island of the Sun. Odysseus also visited with the ghosts of his mother and Achilles.
EXPERT COMMENTARY
The tradition of xenia, hospitality shown to guests, played an important part in how Odysseus and his men were driven to the land of Circe. According to Professor Barry Powell, “Aeolus feasts Odysseus and his men and gives him a special gift in accordance with the customs of xenia—a sealed cow-hide bag that contained the dangerous winds—which he warns him not to untie under any conditions.”5 The men, of course, untie the bag when Odysseus is asleep, release the winds, and drive the ships back to Aeolus. Powell noted that Aeolus offered them no further hospitality: “Observing that they must be bitterly hated by the gods to have suffered such a fate, Aeolus gruffly orders them away.”6
Opening the bag of winds, according to Powell, was “another instance of the motif of the folktale prohibition.”7 Writers Kevin Osborn and Dana L. Burgess agreed:
Many of the fantastic elements in the story of Odysseus’ wanderings seem more akin to the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm than to the lofty legends of Greek gods and heroes. The foul-tempered Cyclops is not unlike the troll who blocks the Billy-Goats Gruff or the giant who chased Jack down the beanstalk. In the tale of Aeolus, we see that “curiosity killed the cat”—a common theme found in folk tales from Pandora to Goldilocks.8
Historian Michael Grant noted that the Odyssey, contrary to the Iliad, has many links to folktales:
The Odyssey is a collection of folk-tales and fairy-tales: the fictitious stories, less sophisticated half-sisters of myth—“backyard mythology,” because they seem to have been handed down for entertainment rather than with the more solemn and purposeful motives or overtones which have given many other myths their power. The Iliad was a legend with a basis, however tenuous, of fact; in the Odyssey, though, it describes the adventurous saga of a person believed historical (and linked to the Trojan War), we find the products not of memory, still less of reason, but of imagination—neither factual nor explanatory.9
8
DEADLY DANGERS ON THE SEA
INTRODUCTION
In this tale, Odysseus and his crew sailed back to Aeaea where Circe, the sorceress, used her magical powers to find out about three deadly dangers that lay ahead: the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis. First, Odysseus had to steer his ship safely by the Sirens, who lured unsuspecting sailors to their deaths. Then, he would encounter Scylla, a six-headed monster, and Charybdis, a deadly whirlpool. If he and his crew made it safely through these dangers, they would land on the Island of the Sun. Circe told Odysseus that no matter how hungry he and his men were, none of them should touch the cattle of the Sun. Anyone who touched them would never return home.
The tales of the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis are based on stories
well-known to Homer’s listeners. The hero Jason and his crew, the Argonauts, faced these same dangers in a Greek myth that is older than the Iliad and the Odyssey. 1 In the twelfth book of the Odyssey, knowledge of Jason’s voyage and his adventures is assumed.
A key theme of this tale is that of a fantastic journey. It retells many fantastic and amazing adventures that Odysseus faced. The stories of Circe and the Cyclops are other stories with this theme.
The nymph, Calypso, who appears in this myth, represents other divine and mortal women who fell in love with Odysseus. Most of them, including Calypso, tried to entrap him, often by trickery. Faced with the temptations these women presented, such as beauty and luxurious living, the mighty hero ultimately resisted the love of all the women other than his wife.
The love of Odysseus for his wife and son plays an important part in this tale. Although at first he enjoyed the relaxing life on Calypso’s island, especially after ten years of war, Odysseus longed deeply for Penelope and Telemachus. This longing led to his ultimate release from Calypso’s island.
Deadly Dangers on the Sea
The Sirens sang high, thrilling songs that bewitched sailors and caused them to crash their ships into the rocks. They were surrounded by the whitened bones of their many victims. To prevent his crew from hearing the Sirens’ voices, Odysseus cut a circular chunk of beeswax into pieces, softened the pieces, and plugged the ears of his crew members with the wax. But Odysseus wanted to hear the songs of the Sirens, so he commanded his men, “Bind me hand and foot and tie me to the mast, for I want to hear the music of these maidens. But I dare not take a chance of having our last remaining ship crash into the cliffs, so I must be lashed to the mast. No matter how hard I urge you, do not release me until we are safely out of reach of the Sirens.”
Mythology of the Iliad and the Odyssey Page 7
