I choose a passage from Book 9, and lines 360-368.
Odysseus and his crews accidentally became stayed on the land of Cyclops, They got the some cave and took some food like wine and cheese and there were some goat, so they recognized that was a place where someone lives. When they took some food, Polyphemus, one of the Cyclops, the host of the cave, the giant came to the cave, and seized two of odysseus’s crews and made his meal. So Odysseus began to plan a strategy to escape from Polyphemus. After completing the plan, first, he made the giant to give some gift to him, and when the giant asked him about who he is, he reply that ‘Noman is my name’. He already knew the strategy can make the giant helpless. This passage is the point of that strategy to escape from polyphemus. For this passage, the wisdom of Odysseus is marked. Like the war of Troy, his great wisdom to his reputation saved him and his crews again. His courage is as good as wisdom, he was in very high spirits, and said his name and needs, even if he could be killed by the giant. He always tried to maintain a brave and dignified appearance front of the giant. He said ‘Cycolops, You ask me my name, my glorious name’, the reason why he said ‘my glorious name’ is to emphasis his name and make the giant remember his name impressively for his strategy. I think the author said that the wisdom and braveness is the best and the powerful weapon in the war, not strong power and great physical like polyphemus. That situation is a good part to explain his character, which is one of many situations about odysseus’s travel.
Actually, I don’t understand what is standard, which is to get caught first one of his crews to sacrifice from the Giant. How did odysseus avoid being caught while his crews are getting caught? I think, if the odysseus is greatly wise man, he has should save more crews from the giant. There was too many victim. In my opinion of this, the author wanted to say that he is not a perfect god, he is just wise man even though god loves him wherever he is. But, it is true that the rest of crews were able to escape from there with odysseus’s great wisdom.
Hi Woosang,
This is a promising start. The passage you’ve chosen is crucially important to the poem, and in fact we’ll discuss it in class tomorrow. I think you could go further, however, in digging in to the *details* of the passage itself. While you do a good job of explaining its importance to the plot, you do not analyze the language in depth, or relate that language to other moments in the poem (other moments where Odysseus lies, perhaps, or other moments when not having a name–when being Noman, or nobody–is at issue).
I like your point that Odysseus is strategizing, here. It might also be worthwhile to consider just how much of his strategy Odysseus has worked out. Has he hatched a full plan? Or is he improvising–making up this lie on the spur of the moment, not sure how it will help in the long-run? Figuring this out might be a first step to answering the interesting questions with which you open the final paragraph.
Best,
Prof Kolb
This passage is a great example of Odysseus’ wisdom. It shows that Odysseus was a great hero in war by being so clever and smart in such dangerous and life threatening situations. Odysseus was very wise and brave in this passage and saved him and most of his crews life. Odysseus not being to save all his men is also a good point because it shows the difference between gods and mortals..
This passage is very great that shows one of the great examples of great bravery of Odysseus. It also shows that unlike other Greek mythical heroes he did not risk himself to fight with Cyclopes directly. His main purpose of surviving is to get back to his home Ithaca, so in order to escape from Cyclopes, he had to hide his identity. I like the way you said his courage is as good as wisdom since Odysseus had a bravery of facing Polyphemus face to face and he had a great oratory to trick him.