The passage I will analyze is from Book IX, page 436, lines 474-495
In this passage Odysseus and his men have just escaped Polyphemus’ (Cyclops) cave and got onto their ship and started to sail away. Odysseus plan to escape the cave by blinding Cyclops while the boulder in front of the cave was moved shows his intelligence. Odysseus had a chance to kill Cyclops before but knew that his crew would not be able to move the boulder out of the way. Binding three of Cyclops’ sheep together and hiding a crew member underneath each middle sheep, so Cyclops couldn’t feel Odysseus and his crew while escaping, further demonstrates Odysseus’ wisdom. Once Odysseus and his men get on their ships and sail, what is considered a reasonable buffer zone by Odysseus, demonstrates Odysseus’ wisdom and craftiness being overshadowed by his ego.
In the passage I choose, Odysseus calls out to Cyclops, “just to rub it in.” This passage shows the extent of Odysseus’ ego and how his great wisdom and artfulness could be overshadowed just because he wanted to give Cyclops a piece of his mind. After taunting Cyclops, Cyclops throws a huge crag at Odysseus’ ship and almost destroys it. While most people would consider themselves lucky for escaping death twice, Odysseus uses his wisdom to go twice as far out to sea as he was before and foolishly starts to taunt Cyclops again. Even with his crew begging him to stop Odysseus keeps talking to Cyclops just because of his massive ego and tons of pride. This eventually gets another boulder flung at Odysseus and his crew. But they survive.
This passage gives a prime example of one of Odysseus’ biggest flaws, his ego. Throughout the whole story Odysseus’ pride often overshadows his wisdom and makes his journey more difficult or longer. In this passage, it almost got him killed twice in a very short amount of time. Odysseus’ pride also made his journey longer in other parts of the story, like when he competes in sports with younger men just to prove that he not only looks like a god but that he can compete in sports. Odysseus’ ego has caused him a lot of problems in his journey and so far he hasn’t learned from it.
I completely agree with your analysis. As smart and as cunning as Odysseus is, he ends up digging himself a ditch because of his ego. Odysseus deciding to, like you said, “rub it in” hurts him beyond imagination- decades of travel just to reach home. Also like you said, I don’t expect Odysseus to learn his lesson from this just yet. I do expect Odysseus to put himself in harm’s way once again because of his pride (we do have 24 books in total so there has to be something at least).
Hi James,
This response does a really nice job of connecting the passage you’ve chosen to other moments in the text. I had never linked it to his response to the young Phaeacians’ taunts, before, but you are absolutely right–in both cases, Odysseus cannot help but reveal something crucial about himself: his name, in Book 9, and his physical prowess, in Book 8. I agree that this is pride, but I wonder if pride is truly a flaw, here–it may be something more complex. After all, in Book 8, he earns respect. The Book 9 example is more complex, but it might be worth thinking about what’s at stake in revealing, or re-claiming (since he’s been “Noman” in this book) his name. Why not just stay “Noman”? One way to think about this might be to compare this moment to others in which Odysseus reveals his identity, as when he finally tells Alcinous who he is. (There are many more such moments in the books to come, and looking at several of them together might be a fantastic way to structure a paper).
As we move into essay-writing, one area to work in is close-reading–paying detailed attention to the specific language of the passage. Your sense of the big picture here is solid; attention to the minutiae of the lines you’ve chosen is much thinner. (It’s ok to choose a very short passage! 21 lines is a LOT; 3 or 4 is really enough; 8 is about the upper limit of what you can analyze in fine detail).
A very promising start.
Best,
Prof Kolb