When Odysseus lands on the island where the cyclopes live,
he encounters Polyphemus, Poseidon's son.
Polyphemus
captures Odysseus and some of his best men and traps them in his cave. He then starts
to eat some of the sailors. Odysseus shrewdly finds a way for all of them to escape (in
part by blinding the Cyclopes) , and makes something of a fool of Polythemus in the
process so that when the one-eyed giant goes to his friends for help, he sounds
ridiculous and they ignore him.
Meanwhile, Odysseus and his
men return to their ship, stealing livestock along the way. When Polyphemus realizes
what has happened, he finds his way to the shore. Still unable to see, he starts to
throw large stones at Odysseus' ship in an attempt to sink it. Odysseus, full of his
own sense of importance, turns his back on the hero's code: he not only identifies
himself to the giant, but taunts and makes fun of the fact that someone so much smaller
in stature (himself) could outsmart the hulking creature
(Polyphemus).
Polyphemus is furious by the insults Odysseus
throws at him (and his inability to beat Odysseus) and so he calls on his father,
Poseidon, to punish the egotistical Odysseus. Poseidon does, in fact, answer his son's
request, interfering with Odysseus' journey making it that much harder, and taking that
much longer, for our hero to return to his native shores.
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