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Challenges Of Odysseus

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In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus encounters numerous challenges and trials on his journey home after the Trojan War. One of his memorable challenges was his encounter with Polyphemus, a Cyclops, which showcases Odysseus’ intelligence and leadership qualities while highlighting his arrogance. Odysseus and his men become trapped in the cave of Polyphemus after unknowingly taking shelter and consuming his food. The Cyclops was angered by this and devoured some of his men. Despite his men’s urges to attack and kill Polyphemus, Odysseus knew that they needed Polyphemus alive in order to escape. He cleverly devised a plan to blind Polyphemus by stabbing him in the eye with a sharpened wooden stake. Before he could do that, Odysseus knew they had to calm Polyphemus and distract him from seeing what …show more content…

Then Odysseus ordered one of his men to play the flute to lull Polyphemus to sleep, while he had the rest of his men help him sharpen a stake. Once the stake was ready and Odysseus’ men were in position, they blinded Polyphemus’ eye and were able to escape. Odysseus was able to quickly assess their situation and plan accordingly without having any more of his men die. He knew that if they blinded Polyphemus, he would go move the stone to call for help, which was their exit. His anticipation and cleverness in tricking Polyphemus demonstrate Odysseus' strategic intelligence and resourcefulness. His ability to rally his men and take charge in a dangerous situation also demonstrates his authority and charisma as a leader. At the same time, Odysseus’ compassion for his men and willingness to risk his own life to save them shows his humanity and nobility. Before Odysseus devised a plan to escape, he set in motion an intelligent notion of not revealing his true identity to Polyphemus. When Polyphemus introduced himself as Poseidon’s son and asked for his name, Odysseus responded by saying his name was

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In addition he doesn’t experience only one but also another moment of having extreme unworthy pride for himself. Odysseus and this team slowly began to reduce in numbers as Polyphemus eats a couple of their members each day, causing Odysseus's to plan his revenge against the cyclops, “ cheered my men… to keep their courage up… lugging it near the cyclops… lifted it, and rammed it deep in his crater eye” ( 370,371,375, 377, and 378). As a result Polyphemus is blinded by the group of men and Odysseus watches from a distance with a satisfied look. When Odysseus experiences his pride of what he had achieved he would usually boast about

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Polyphemus is the son of Poseidon which means that creating a conflict with him would not be a wise decision. Furthermore, it is especially unclever since Poseidon has the power to control the route a ship takes. Ignoring that fact, Odysseus decides to ignore his shipmates advice of not lingering in the island for too long. They begged Odysseus if they could, “. . . help themselves to the cheeses and be off,” and to, “make haste and drive the kids and lambs out of the pens and get under sail” (Homer 104).

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In one of the episodes, Odysseus encountered Polyphemus: a Cyclops who held Odysseus and his men captive. Despite the wishes of his crew, Odysseus did not kill the Cyclops; Odysseus knew that if the Cyclops were to die, the men would not be able to move the boulder blocking the exit. Instead of killing Polyphemus, Odysseus blinded him by driving a sharpened staff into his eye. Blinded, Polyphemus sat by the exit blocking any passage; the men were faced with another issue: how would they slip away? Odysseus knew that in order to escape he needed to devise a carefully thought out plan, so he “drew on all [his] wits, and ran through tactics, reasoning as a man [would] for dear life, until a trick came–and it pleased [him]” (Homer 993).

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256 Words | 2 Pages

In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, Odysseus taunts Polyphemus about outsmarting and defeating him. The exchange infuriates Polyphemus and causes Poseidon to create a sea storm in response to Polyphemus’ prayer to him to take revenge on Odysseus. Through Homer’s depiction of Odysseus threatening to “‘...ship [Polyphemus] to the House of Death’”, Odysseus’ extreme pride is displayed as he appears to believe he is capable of killing Polyphemus although Odysseus is a mere mortal and Polyphemus is a direct descendant of Poseidon. Odysseus’ inflated ego also convinces him that he does not have to fear repercussions for his actions as demonstrated through Odysseus taunting, “‘as surely as no one will ever heal your eye, / not even your earthquake

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He then uses the stake to blind Polyphemus and escape from his cave. However, Odysseus also uses strategy by first getting Polyphemus drunk on wine and also telling Polyphemus that his name is “Nobody.” This allows him to trick the other Cyclops’ into thinking nobody hurt Polyphemus when he is blinded, making it more difficult for Polyphemus to seek revenge. Overall, Odysseus’ use of strength and strategy in this scene show that he is a skilled warrior and leader who is able to overcome even the most difficult challenges. In the story “The Odyssey '', Odysseus faces the villainous sorceress Circe and receives help from the god Hermes.

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Odysseus’ greed and desire to be treated as king causes Polyphemus to become enraged and hold his guests hostage. Polyphemus also began to devour his guests two-by-two and put Odysseus in danger, at his own fault. In seeing his greed, the reader can determine that Odysseus does not care for his men but only himself and his well being. In the execution of his plan to blind the cyclops, Odysseus launched the burning olive branch into Polyphemus’ eye as hard as he possibly could. After he lugged the branch in his eye, Odysseus proceeded to twist the branch and completely burn and destroy the cyclops’ eye ([374-380]).

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After he successfully exits the cave by blinding the cyclopes, he and his surviving men board the ship. As a result of his pride, he calls out to the monster, "If anyone asks who put out your eye, tell them it was Odysseus of Ithaca!”(Hinds 109). Considering the fact Polyphemus is the son of Poseidon, the cyclops calls out to him and therefore starts the troublesome voyage for Odysseus back home. When he returns to Ithaca he learns to control his hubris by replacing it with patience. Athena, the goddess of war and strategy, disguises Odysseus as a beggar because it is wisest to arrive in Ithaca without anyone being able to recognize him.

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One of the first challenges Odysseus had to face was Polyphemus, the cyclops. Polyphemus trapped Odysseus and his men in his cave and then killed several of them. “Neither reply nor pity came from him, but in one stride he clutched at my companions and caught two in his hands like squirming puppies to beat their brains out, spattering the floor. Then he dismembered them and made his meal, gaping and crunching like a mountain lion—everything: innards, flesh, and marrow bones. We cried aloud, lifting our hands to Zeus, powerless, looking on at this, appalled; but Cyclops went on filling up his belly with manflesh and great gulps of whey… ”

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This is proven once again with his encounter with Polyphemus, the most renowned Cyclops. Odysseus knows that however strong he might think he is, he is no match for the Son of Poseidon. He does show a display of physical strength in this episode, and stabs the Cyclops in the eye, blinding him. However, the deadliest thing Odysseus does to the Cyclops is previously using Polyphemus’ stupidity against him, by wittily claiming that he was “Noman”, (no man). Upon being stabbed and his neighbours trying to help him, Polyphemus screams "(No man) is trying to kill me!" and loses all chances of getting help, sending off his allies.

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399 Words | 2 Pages

Polyphemus is Poseidon's son, the god of the sea. The way Odysseus used his patience in this case is when he waited two to three days to blind the Cyclops’. Odysseus was so good at this skill he watched Polyphemus eat some of his men one by one each day that passed, yet he was still patient. The longer he waited and had patience the better the plan went. This also worked with the Trojan horse at the battle of Troy.

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Odysseus used this gift to deceive Polyphemus, the Cyclops, to escape his cave. Odysseus tells the Phaeacians of how he almost wove his own doom saying, “I thought at first to steal upon him, draw the sharp sword at my hip and stab his chest where the midriff packs the liver- I groped for the fatal spot, but a fresh thought held me back. ”9 Odysseus was overwhelmed with anger because Polyphemus ate his men. However, Odysseus used his wise intellect to devise a plan that would save his surviving crew and himself.

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595 Words | 3 Pages

Polyphemus was obviously much bigger and stronger than Odysseus and his men. There was no way Odysseus could take down the cyclops head on. Instead, Odysseus took advantage of Polyphemus’ strength and stupidity. By getting Polyphemus drunk with wine, Odysseus was able to get him to fall asleep. Odysseus and his men then stabbed the cyclops’ eye with a large wooden stick, thus blinding the cyclops (417).

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Polyphemus threatens Odysseus by saying “‘Come back, Odysseus, and I’ll treat you well, praying the god of earthquake to befriend you-his son I am, for he by his avowal fathered me, and, if he will, he may heal me of this black wound-he and no other of all the happy gods or mortal men’” (160, 564-559). Polyphemus wanted to make a deal with Odysseus; he would have his father make Odysseus’ voyage home smooth, and Polyphemus hoped that Poseidon could heal his eye wound. Polyphemus seemed to doubt that his father would help him with his blindness, which shows that their relationship is not close or strong. After Odysseus threatened to kill Polyphemus and says that Poseidon could not help his blindness, Polyphemus prays to his father, saying “‘O hear me, lord, blue girdler of the islands, if I am thine indeed, and thou art father: grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, never sees his home: Laertes’ son, I mean, who kept his hall on Ithaca.

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He tore them limb from limb / To make his supper, gulping them down” (9.282-284). To escape from Polyphemus, Odysseus intoxicates him with wine, causing him to collapse. While Polyphemus is unconscious, Odysseus grabs a stake,

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In the section “In the One-Eyed Giant’s Cave” from Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus is portrayed as a hero through his character traits and behaviors. When Odysseus and his men attack the city of Ismarus, the Cicones’ strong hold, Odysseus made sure to fairly distribute the spoils among his men. Odysseus’s behavior shows that he is a great leader, a characteristic of a hero. While Odysseus and his crew are in the Cyclops’ cave, Polyphemus, the cyclops, notices them. Polyphemus asks who they are with a monstrous tone, “‘Strangers!'

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