Reading Notes: Homer and The Odyssey, Part A

Odyssey: The Land of Cylcopes

• Cyclops have no code of law but instead lay to the law of their wives and children.  Outside the  clyclopes land lies a wooded area filled with goats. 
• They have no way of visiting other places and can carry any crop during its season. 
• Odysseus traveled through a cave and slept there overnight.  When dawn arose the explored the island marveling at what they saw.  
• They began to hunt the goats and the next day decided to figure out who the island belonged to.   The chapter ends with them coming across a giant that they described as a monster 

Prisoners of the Cyclops

• Odysseus and his twelve best men approached the giant, and with him he brought dark sweet wine. When they approached his cave the giant was momentarily gone tending to his sheep so they explored his cave and found many great things.  
• The men partook in the giants great foods and when the giant returned the men hid while the giant milked all his goats.  The giant finally saw them and asked why they were there. 
• Odysseus explained that they had come back from war and wanted hospitality but the giant did not give in and called them foreigners and fools. Odysseus told the giant that his ship had been destroyed by Poseidon and the giant, angered, took and smashed two men to the ground killing them and eating them.  The Cylcops laid down to sleep and the remaining men waited for the next day. 

Offering the Cyclops Wine

• The next day the Cyclops ate two more men, and then two more. 
• Odysseus went up to him and offered him the dark wine he had brought and the Cyclops drank it and wanted more.  The cyclops fell asleep in drunkenness.  
• Odysseus and his men took wooden stakes that they had made, stuck them in the fire until they were burning hot and gathered around and stabbed him in the eye and he screamed. He woke up and called fellow cylops to come. 

The Rest in Summary: 

• Odysseus and his men escaped by tying themselves to the bottoms to the sheep's when the sheep were released outside the cave. 
• At the next stop Odysseus's men were enslaved and turned into pigs by the goddess, however when she realized that he was Odysseus, she freed his men and turned them back into men and they feasted and drank with her for a whole year. 
• Odysseus asked the goddess if they could leave and she said yes but that they must visit the house of Hades.  

Angered Cyclops at Odysseus's escape. Web Source. 

Bibliography: The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Tony Kline. Web Source.