On page 227 lines 559-562 Odysseus defeats Poseidon’s son, the Cyclops, by blinding him. Odysseus overpowers him and managed to even save a few of his men. In the previous pages he is very admirable in the sense that he tells him his name is “Nobody” and that helps him conquer the beast when someone asks if he’s ok and he screams out that no one is killing him. It seems like a genius idea and you begin to think of Odysseus as a bit of a mastermind.
However, all that is ruined once the deed is done and he screams out “Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—you say Odysseus raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son who make his home in Ithaca!” Why did he reveal his identity purely out of selfishness and this need to be known as this great hero instead of doing the right thing and leaving unidentified? Does Odysseus not realize that the Cyclops is Poseidon’s son and Poseidon wouldn’t let something like this go unpunished? Is satisfying this need to go down in history as the “Raider of Cities” worth what came after? His ego is the reason that it took him twenty years to finally start heading home. If he had left the cave without revealing his identity he would’ve gotten away with the brutal murder and got home to his wife and baby twenty years sooner. His self-worth is so unbelievably high that in his twisted mind revealing himself and suffering the consequences is worth all the fame and glory. Any respect he earned for his brilliantly devised plan was totally ruined by his giant ego.
Daiana Gorbach
1 response so far ↓
m.ruiz // Feb 18th 2015 at 4:14 pm
I can’t say I fully agree with how Odysseus handled the Cyclops situation but I can say that I never really took his ego into account as I was reading it. It’s an interesting point you brought up.