Polyphemus

Odysseus and his men enter the cave out of curiosity, eat the giant’s cheese, and wait for him. When Polyphemus returns, he rolls a huge stone across the entrance, milks his sheep, and then kills and eats two of the men. The next day he eats two more. Odysseus cannot kill him outright, because no one else could move the stone.

Odysseus gives him wine, tells him his name is “Nobody,” and then, when the giant is asleep, drives a heated stake into his single eye. The blinding is described with terrible physical detail, and Polyphemus’s screams bring the other Cyclopes, who leave when he says that “Nobody” is hurting him.

Odysseus and his men escape by clinging to the undersides of the sheep as Polyphemus lets them out to pasture. Once at sea, Odysseus cannot resist shouting his real name, and Polyphemus prays to Poseidon to make his return long and painful. The prayer is heard.

The episode is the moral centre of Odysseus’s wanderings. His cunning saves the crew, but his boast turns a personal victory into a divine vendetta. The Odyssey is careful to show that the hero’s greatest strength—his resourcefulness and his pride in his name—is also the cause of his suffering.