Hundreds of years ago, in the growing nation of Greece, many tales were spun that would later be known as Greek Mythology. These myths were packed full of death, rape, famine, and some cute little pegasi. One of the most famous of these myths is the story of Polyphemus and Odysseus. The story, taken from the Odyssey, is one about a "hero", named Odysseus who, on a quest, is captured by a one-eyed giant known as a cyclops. The cyclops attempts to devour him and his men, but Odysseus blinds Polyphemus, the cyclops, and later escapes. Although, it can be said that Odysseus was a brave and wise "hero" who used his wit to escape, he exhibited many negative traits that hurt him and his followers because he showed horrible decision-making skills, …show more content…
For someone so clever, he really did not stop and think. For example, they stopped on a strange island they knew nothing about and decided to literally cook 100 lambs! Not only would the fire and smoke alert all island residents that someone was there, the cyclops could actually smell it. When trying to find the residents and figure out if they were friendly or not, they went inside a cave (always a bad idea). Then then, even after seeing the abnormally sized food that could not possibly be devoured by a regular sized person, started to basically yell 'Hey, giant, here we are! Inside your home! Are you friendly?'. It would have been much smarter to not go inside the cave and wait out, in silence, observing if the cyclops was a friend or could potentially be a foe. And I would also like to point out that Odysseus had hundreds of other men just waiting out on the boat. He should have told them to try to find him if he did not return by dusk or something. That would have saved a lot of time. Hundreds of strong men would probably be able to at least break Odysseus out. But, his poor decision-making skills aside, there was something even more deadly, leading them farther into the cave.