Book+IX

=The Odyssey - Book IX=

Odysseus lands on the island of the Lotus Eaters and some of his men partake of the Lotus flower. Odysseus and some of his men force the others back to the ship and they sail away.

Lotus Eaters

Odysseus then arrives at the island of the Laestragonians, where he and some of his crew search the island and find a cave that is filled with food. While Odysseus and his crew are eating, the tenent of the cave, Polyphemus, comes home and finds men eating his food. Polyphemus is a giant cyclops and is enraged that men would dare steal his food. Odsseus claims that it is their right to eat the food according to the hospitality of the customs that he has lived with since he was born.

Cyclops

Polyphemus eats a couple of the men. After the son of Posiedon eats a few more of the men the next day, Odysseus offers him some wine. As the cyclops drinks, Odysseus tells him that his name is Nobody. The cyclops finishes the wine and passes out after he has had a few bowls of it. While Polyphemus is asleep, Odysseus and his men take a giant spike that they made from one of the cyclop's clubs and stabs him in the eye, blinding the monstrous beast. This is the most important part of the story because it demonstrates Odysseus's intelligence when faced with a difficult predicament. This is the part of the story where the cyclops becomes angry, which is cause for his curses on Odysseus. Because he blinded the son of Posiedon, Odysseus is cursed to not return home for a very long time.

As soon as the sharpened club end pierces the giant eye, the cyclops awakes, screaming. The other cyclops on the island ask what caused him to be in such pain, he bellows to them that, " Nobody has stabbed me! Nobody has blinded me!" and so the the other cyclops scratch their heads and go back to their own caves in confusion. The next day, the cyclops let his sheep out so that they could eat, but to make sure that the men didn't escape, he would feel the sheep on their backs so that he could catch the men if they tried to escape. Unknown to him though, Odysseus had tied his men to the bottoms of the sheep and they escaped that way.



After they were free, they made it to their ship and were out to sea, but Odysseus couldn't help but yell his real name back to the cyclops and that he had escaped. Polyphemus roared and grabbed the top of a hill and hurled it toward the sound of the voice. The men beg and implore Odysseus to stop enraging the cyclops. The cyclops then prays to his father, Posiedon, and asks him to kill Odysseus, or to make his trip home miserable and long; that if he was indeed destined to return home that he arrive to intruders invading his home. Odysseus is in the challenge part of the hero cycle, and still as many more challenges to go. When they were on the island of the Lotus Eaters, Odysseus uses brawn to save his men by tying them up and carrying them back to the ship. In their escape from Polyphemus, Odysseus uses his brain instead. Odysseus blinds the cyclops and gives him a false name, and then escapes on the bellies of the sheep.

"'O Cyclops! Would you feast on my companions? Puny, am I, in a Caveman's hands? How do you like the beating that we gave you, you damned cannibal? Eater of guests under your roof! Zeus and the gods have paid you!'" Book 9, lines 519-23