Greek Evil Thoughts In The Odyssey

The Greek’s had eight evil thoughts that they lived by, similar to the moral codes of today. They were taught to avoid these thoughts. “The Cyclops”, is an excerpt from Homer’s epic The Odyssey, Odysseus, the protagonist of the epic, explores the island that Polyphemus, the cyclops that is the antagonist of the episode, lives on. Odysseus and his crew meet Polyphemus and become trapped inside Polyphemus’ cave, where Odysseus uses his cunning to escape. In this episode, Odysseus demonstrates Kenodoxia (boasting), philargyria (greed), and orge (anger), three of the eight Greek evil thoughts. Boasting, one of the eight Greek evil thoughts, may cause those who are listening to the boasting to feel anger or jealousy towards the boaster and boasting rarely results in positive emotions from the

Would you feast on my companions? Puny, am I, in a Caveman’s hands? How do you like the beasting that we gave you,” (The Cyclops. 476-478). In response to Odysseus’ boasting, Polyphemus hurls a hilltop at Odysseus’ ship. The hilltop landing in the water almost sent Odysseus’ ship back to Polyphemus’ island (481-485). Due to Odysseus boasting, he taunted Polyphemus into engaging in a desperate attack at Odysseus’ ship, which almost succeeded. This suggests that Odysseus feels the need to boast about his accomplishments, even if doing so would put him or others in peril. Greed may cause people to engage in activities that put them in risky and undesirable situations. Odysseus intentionally waits for Polyphemus by his cave, curious and wishing to see the Cyclops (Prologue 660). Greed is shown to be present in Odysseus when he intentionally interacts with a dangerous foe, putting himself and crew at risk without a good cause. This reveals Odysseus’ greed and how little he values the lives of his crew by his willingness to put them at risk for a meaningless cause. Anger often clouds judgement and causes poor