An Analysis Of Odysseus Of Homer's The Odyssey

In The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men had beached their boat on the Cyclops’ island. They

were in need of food, so they went to the cave they had seen on the from the shore. Odysseus

had taken a goatskin of very potent wine, to give to “whoever lived there in return for hospitality”.

They got to the cave and they waited for the master to return. When the master did come, they

saw he was a Cyclops, and as “tall as a great mountain crag”. They were terrified at the sight of

him, but Odysseus said that they were shipwrecked, and were under the protection of Zeus. But

he picked up two men and ate them, because the Cyclops doesn’t care for Zeus. Odysseus and

the others wanted to escape, but only the Cyclops could move the stone that he put in the

All night Odysseus tried to think of a plan, but he could not, so two more of

his men died at the Cyclops’ hands. But during the day he thought up a plan; a huge piece of

wood was lying by the pens, and he and his men cut off a good piece of it and sharpened and

hardened it. They hid it before the Cyclops came back, but he still had to watch two more of his

men die. After that Odysseus brought the Cyclops of his wine, and gave it to him until “a

drunken sleep overcame him” Then they got out the wood and drove it into the Cyclops’ eye. In

the morning, all of the men were on the bellies of the rams, and they left the cave like that when

the flock went out for pasture.

This painting is about Odysseus and Polyphemus, the cyclops. The artist, Nicolas Poussin, I

personally think read/ heard a different version of the story we read, because it looks like the

cyclops is far away, but in the story they never saw Polyphemus except for in the cave, and