Summary and Analysis

Book 9: In the One-Eyed Giant's Cave

After identifying himself to the Phaeacians at the feast, Odysseus tells the story of his wanderings.
Following the victory at Troy, he and his men sail to Ismarus, the stronghold of the Cicones. With
apparent ease, they sack the city, kill the men, enslave the women, and enjoy a rich haul of plunder.
Odysseus advises his men to leave immediately with their riches, but they ignore his warnings. The
Cicones gather reinforcements, counterattack, and eventually rout the Greeks. Odysseus and his
men retreat by sea. Storms blow the ships off course, but they finally arrive at the land of the Lotus-
eaters. The inhabitants are not hostile; however, eating the lotus plant causes Odysseus' men to lose
memory and all desire to return home. Odysseus barely gets them back to sea. The next stop is the
land of the Cyclops, lawless one-eyed giants. One of them, Polyphemus, traps Odysseus and a
scouting party in his cave. Only the Greek hero's wily plan allows escape.

Odyessy
There are many challenges throughout the Odyssey the most significant being his arrogance that
Odysseus must overcome in order to reach home. In book 9, beginning with line 113 Odysseus and
his men begin a journey in the land of the Kyklops. This set of challenges for Odysseus shows the
reader the battle between arrogance and wisdom within Odysseus. The choices that Odysseus
makes during this portion of his journey home will help him to realize his arrogance and the
downfalls of yielding to it, which he must overcome to regain his kingdom and property from the
suitors.
When Odysseus first decides to explore the nearby island he makes a wise decision to take
only his own ship and company. The reason he does this is to [book 9; lines 187-189] “find out what
the mainland natives are- for they may be wild savages, and lawless, on hospitable and God fearing
men”. This proves to be a wise decision because the natives are Kyklops. Kyklops have no laws, no
councils, and no interest in hospitality or civility of any kind. A reader could reasonably believe that
Odysseus decision to only bring his own ship and company prolongs the lives of the men he left
behind.
Beginning with line 201 in book 9 Odysseus begins to describe the type of men that resides
in the cave he is now in. He describes the absentee resident of the caves by what he sees in the cave.
He describes the resident as being in the cave alone, remote, knowing nothing but savagery. He
goes further to call him a huge brute. Once again Odysseus shows his wisdom in leaving all but
twelve of his men at the ship to go ahead. In line 229 through 231 he states “for in my bones I knew
some towering brute would be upon us soon- all outward power, a wild man, ignorant of civility”.
His men want to plunder and leave before the resident returned. This desire is in direct contrast to
what they did in Ismarus when he advised them to leave Ismarus immediately with their riches.
Furthermore, Odysseus show his arrogance when he ignores the advice of his men to take the
plunder and leave but instead opts to stay and wait for the caveman to return home to test the
owners hospitality. Odysseus makes a costly mistake in his decision, all of the evidence he sees in
the cave points to a savage and uncivil being, but Odysseus, in his arrogance, elects to wait for the
caveman's return anyway. A reader could use these instances to support a theory that it is better to
“quit while you’re ahead”.
Starting in line 273 when the Kyklops sees Odysseus and his men. The one eyed giant is
curios at first as to who they are. He begins in line 274 by asking “strangers who are you? And
where from?” Odysseus responds to the questions of the one eyed giant by describing in great detail
where they are from and who they are but becomes arrogant in the end of his description by
instructing the Kyklops on what is acceptable behavior according to Zeus. Polyphemus, the one-
eyed giant, responds by insulting Odysseus by calling him a “ninny”. This is a sign of arrogance
and disrespect because of the brave and heroic things Odysseus did in the Trojan War. By insulting
Odysseus and disregarding without thought of the statement made by Odysseus concerning the
“care of the Gods courtesy”. Polyphemus portrays two characteristics of his personality; brute
strength and a lack of respect for the Gods.

In lines 307 through 311 Odysseus tells Polyphemus that Poseidon had destroyed his ship
but that he and his men had been spared. These lines provide a few important details. The first detail
is the respect that is shown for the powers of Poseidon by Odysseus. It also gives warning to the
one-eyed giant that these men were spared by Poseidon and therefore should be spared by the
Kyklops. Another significant factor is it foreshadows the fate of Odysseus ships and crew, while
singling out Odysseus himself.

In lines 465 to 475 Odysseus describes how he tied sheep together three abreast and slung a
man under each in order to escape in the morning when Polyphemus lets his flock out in the
morning to graze. Special attention was made of the fact that Odysseus took the choice of the flock,
the woolliest ram, for him to escape under. He does not take the best of the flock out of arrogance
but instead to show his position of leadership and nobility. That morning when the giant let his flock
out to graze Odysseus and his ram were the last to escape the captivity of Polyphemus. This
symbolizes that Odysseus had a greater concern for the welfare of his men than he did for himself, a
trait of a great leader and a hero.

After escaping from Polyphemus’ cave Odysseus allows his arrogance to overtake his
wisdom and shouts taunts at the one-eyed giant. The Kyklops responds by breaking away a hilltop
and throwing it at the departing ship of Odysseus almost beaching the target. Even thou Odysseus
men beg him not to continue to taunt the monster; Odysseus can not overcome his arrogance and
shouts his true name and identity to Polyphemus. Odysseus gives his identity to Polyphemus not out
of arrogance as with his name but merely as a way of the way things were done in that period of
time. This lack of wisdom and display of arrogance brings upon him the wrath of Poseidon on
behalf of his son, Polyphemus.

Odysseus learns throughout this portion of his journey that it is wiser to be humble than it is to be
arrogant towards others. In every instance where Odysseus, his men, or Polyphemus become
arrogant it cost the offender a price. Odysseus arrogance cost him all of his men and ships, he
carriers this lesson with him and learns from it. When Odysseus shows his humility he fares better
than when he lets his arrogance win the day. The lesson of arrogance enables him to defeat the
disrespectful and arrogant suitors so that he can regain control of his kingdom and property. The
moral of the Odyssey being that mans own arrogance is his worst enemy

Homer's recounting of Polyphemos' blinding is startling in its descriptive and poetic powers. The
imagery is vivid and specific: "Šwe bored that great eye socket / while blood ran out around the
red hot bar. / Eyelid and lash were seared; the pierced ball / hissed broiling, and the roots popped"
(420-423). Note that this entire chapter is in Odysseus' narrative voice as he recounts his tale to
Alkinoos, and is the most we have heard him speak so far. He (and Homer, of course) uses several
occupational similes while describing the blinding: "I leaned on it / turning it as a shipwright turns a
drill / in planking, having men below to swing / the two-handled strap" (416-419) and "In a smithy /
one sees a white-hot axehead or an adze / plunged and wrung in a cold tub, screeching steamŠ /
just so that eyeball hissed around the spike" (425-427, 429). Both similes remind us of the nearly
mechanical work the men are engaged in - creating a weapon, hardening it through fire, and
blinding Polyphemos - and of the collaborative effort required to mount such a task: only together,
as a virtual shipwright and his workers, can they defeat the powerful Kyklops.
The Greeks stayed with Circe for a year. She told Odysseus that he must visit the underworld and
consult the blind prophet Tiresias before returning to his homeland. Reluctantly and full of dread,
Odysseus went to the kingdom of the dead. While there, he met his dead mother, Anticlea, and the
spirits of Agamemnon*, Achilles*, and other Greek heroes. Tiresias told Odysseus what to expect
and do during the rest of his journey and after he returned home to Ithaca.

After leaving the underworld, Odysseus went back to Circe's island for a short stay. Before he set
sail again, the enchantress warned him about some of the dangers he still faced and advised him
how to survive them. The first of these dangers was the Sirens, evil sea nymphs who lured sailors to
their deaths with their beautiful singing. Odysseus ordered his men to plug their ears with wax so
they would not hear the Sirens' song. Wanting to hear their songs himself, he had his men tie him to
the ship's mast so that he could not be lured away.

ship had to pass. Odysseus barely escaped the monsters, and he lost some of his men to them. The
survivors reached the island of Helios with its herds of sacred sheep and cattle. Both Tiresias and
Circe had warned Odysseus not to harm any of these animals, but his men ignored the warning and
killed some of them as a sacrifice and for food. When Helios complained to the gods, Zeus sent a
storm that destroyed Odysseus's ship and drowned all his remaining companions. Alone, the hero
reached the island of the enchantress Calypso, the point at which the Odyssey began.

Return to Ithaca. After hearing the story of Odysseus's adventures, the Phaeacians gave him a ship,
and he set sail for Ithaca. This time Poseidon put aside his anger and allowed Odysseus to reach
home, but he punished the Phaeacians for helping him. In Ithaca, the goddess Athena appeared
before Odysseus and reassured him that his wife, Penelope, had been faithful. She had resisted the
attentions of many suitors who desired both her and his kingdom and were occupying his house.
Disguised as a beggar by Athena, Odysseus stayed with a loyal swineherd while the goddess went
to fetch his son Telemachus from Sparta.

When Telemachus returned, Odysseus revealed himself to his son, and together they plotted the
undoing of Penelope's suitors. Still disguised as a beggar, Odysseus went to the palace and walked
among the suitors. Later that night, Penelope asked to speak with the beggar, whom she did not
recognize as her husband. She asked what he knew of Odysseus and told him how she had fended
off the suitors. She had refused to marry until she finished weaving a shroud for Odysseus's father,
Laertes. She would weave the shroud by day and then unravel her work at night. This worked until
her trick was discovered. While they were talking, an old nurse came in to wash the beggar's feet.
Recognizing a scar on his leg, she knew him to be Odysseus, but he swore her to secrecy.

Penelope announced to the suitors that she would marry the man who could string the bow of
Odysseus and shoot an arrow through 12 axes placed in a row. The suitors all failed. Telemachus
then demanded that the beggar be allowed to try. The beggar accomplished the feat. Then throwing
off his disguise, he and Telemachus fought and killed all the suitors.

Read more: Odyssey, The - Myth Encyclopedia - mythology, Greek, god, story, names, ancient,
tree, war, hero, people, trojan, creatures, evil http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Ni-Pa/Odyssey-
The.html#ixzz0akVkLgUT

After pleading in vain with Aeolus to help them again, they re-embarked and encountered the
cannibal Laestrygones. Odysseus’s ship was the only one to escape. He sailed on and visited the
witch-goddess Circe. She turned half of his men into swine after feeding them cheese and wine.
Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave Odysseus a drug called moly, a resistance to Circe’s
magic. Circe, being attracted to Odysseus' resistance, fell in love with him and released his men.
Odysseus and his crew remained with her on the island for one year, while they feasted and drank.
Finally, Odysseus' men convinced Odysseus that it was time to leave for Ithaca. Guided by Circe's
instructions, Odysseus and his crew crossed the ocean and reached a harbor at the western edge of
the world, where Odysseus sacrificed to the dead and summoned the spirit of the old prophet
Tiresias to advise him. Next Odysseus met the spirit of his own mother, who had died of grief
during his long absence; from her, he learned for the first time news of his own household,
threatened by the greed of the suitors. Here, too, he met the spirits of famous women and famous
men; notably he encountered the spirit of Agamemnon, of whose murder he now learned, who also
warned him about the dangers of women (for Odysseus' encounter with the dead, see also Nekuia).
Returning to Circe’s island, they were advised by her on the remaining stages of the journey. They
skirted the land of the Sirens, passed between the many-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool
Charybdis, and landed on the island of Thrinacia. There, Odysseus’ men ignored the warnings of
Tiresias and Circe, and hunted down the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios. This sacrilege was
punished by a shipwreck in which all but Odysseus drowned. He was washed ashore on the island
of Calypso, where she compelled him to remain as her lover for seven years before escaping.
Having listened with rapt attention to his story, the Phaeacians, who are skilled mariners, agree to
help Odysseus get home. They deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbor on
Ithaca. He finds his way to the hut of one of his own former slaves, the swineherd Eumaeus. Athene
disguises Odysseus as a wandering beggar in order to learn how things stand in his household. After
dinner, he tells the farm laborers a fictitious tale of himself: he was born in Crete, had led a party of
Cretans to fight alongside other Greeks in the Trojan War, and had then spent seven years at the
court of the king of Egypt; finally he had been shipwrecked in Thesprotia and crossed from there to
Ithaca.
Meanwhile, Telemachus sails home from Sparta, evading an ambush set by the suitors. He
disembarks on the coast of Ithaca and makes for Eumaeus’s hut. Father and son meet; Odysseus
identifies himself to Telemachus (but still not to Eumaeus) and they determine that the suitors must
be killed. Telemachus gets home first. Accompanied by Eumaeus, Odysseus now returns to his own
house, still pretending to be a beggar. He experiences the suitors’ rowdy behavior and plans their
death. He meets Penelope and tests her intentions with an invented story of his birth in Crete,
where, he says, he once met Odysseus. Closely questioned, he adds that he had recently been in
Thesprotia and had learned something there of Odysseus’s recent wanderings.
Odysseus’s identity is discovered by the housekeeper, Eurycleia, as she is washing his feet and
discovers an old scar Odysseus received during a boar hunt; he swears her to secrecy. The next day,
at Athena’s prompting, Penelope maneuvers the suitors into competing for her hand with an archery
competition using Odysseus' bow. The man who can string the bow and shoot it through a dozen
axe heads would win. Odysseus takes part in the competition himself; he alone is strong enough to
string the bow and shoot it through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner. He turns his
arrows on the suitors and with the help of Athena, Telemachus, Eumaeus and Philoteus the
cowherd, all the suitors are killed. Odysseus and Telemachus hang twelve of their household maids,
who betrayed Penelope and/or had sex with the suitors; they mutilate and kill the goatherd
Melanthius, who had mocked and abused Odysseus. Now at last, Odysseus identifies himself to
Penelope. She is hesitant, but accepts him when he mentions that their bed was made from an olive
tree still rooted to the ground. Many modern and ancient scholars take this to be the original ending
of the Odyssey, and the rest is an interpolation.
The next day he and Telemachus visit the country farm of his old father Laertes, who likewise
accepts his identity only when Odysseus correctly describes the orchard that Laertes once gave him.
The citizens of Ithaca have followed Odysseus on the road, planning to avenge the killing of the
Suitors, their sons. Their leader points out that Odysseus has now caused the deaths of two
generations of the men of Ithaca—his sailors, not one of whom survived, and the suitors, whom he
has now executed. The goddess Athena intervenes and persuades both sides to give up the vendetta.
After this, Ithaca is at peace once more, concluding the Odyssey. Yet Odysseus' journey is not
complete, as he is still fated to wander. The gods have decreed that Odysseus cannot rest until he
wanders so far inland that he meets a people who have never heard of an oar or of the sea. He then
must build a shrine and sacrifice before he can return home for good. [7]