The Cyclops Polyphemus

Description

The story of Cyclops comes to us from the Greek writer homer in his odyssey. Genesis says that god created man in his own image, while the Greeks said tat man made god in his own image. That idea had never entered the mind of man before.

The hero, Odysseus or Ulysses in Latin was on his way home with his crew from the Trojan war, and anchored his ship near a cave. Odysseus went off to explore with 12 of his men. Entering the cave, they ate cheese and drank milk. Cyclops, who forged the thunderbolts of Zeus roared that he was bigger than any god and feared none of them. He stretched out his mighty arms and seized in each hand one of the men, smashing their brains out and devouring them. Satisfied, Cyclops stretched out to sleep. Even if Odysseus and his men could kill Cyclops, they could never move the stone which sealed the entrance, and so would be imprisoned forever. Odysseus knew that if he could not find a way of escape, each of them would be eaten. In the morning two more of his men died in the jaws of the Cyclops. Then Cyclops drove out his sheep and goats and shut the stone behind him. Odysseus and his remaining men sharpened and long timber and hid it. When Cyclops returned, driving his flocks inside, he again ate two more men. Odysseus offered Cyclops wine and he demanded more till he was drunk and went to sleep. Then Odysseus and his crew drew out the long wooden spike and drove it into Cyclops’s eye. With an awful scream he sprang up and tore out the timber, but was blind. He searched his cave but could not find Odysseus and his men. At last he pushed the stone aside and stretched out his arms hoping to catch them escaping. Odysseus had a plan. His men clung on to the undersides of the wooly sheep, and as they filed out, Cyclops felt them over to make sure none carried a man on his back, but he never thought to feel the undersides. It was in this way that Odysseus and his men escaped.