On escape
from the cave, Odysseus takes his men and the sheep they escaped with back to
his ship, but he doesn’t just leave. That would be too easy. Instead, he starts
taunting Polyphemus who is surprisingly good at echo-location and hurls
boulders at the departing ship. These hit so closely that the waves threaten to
drive the ship back to the island.
Odysseus’s men are so freaked that they beg him to stop taunting Polyphemus.
Odysseus
refuses.
Why? This
seems like a no-brainer. It’s time for the escape. No need to spend time giving
the finger to the guy, but Odysseus continues, finally revealing his true name
to the monster.
This is no
simply ego, though Odysseus is no stranger to the concept. It’s definitely in
his nature to stroke his ego, but he also knows the benefits of discretion; he
showed restraint in not killing Polyphemus in the cave, so this should be easy
for him to do. But he doesn’t.
We’re
actually caught up in something deeper. Polyphemus, upon hearing Odysseus’s
name, recounts a prophecy that he had known, that one named Odysseus would
blind him. But Polyphemus thought this would be another giant, someone with
more physical strength then him. He never expected it to come from a shrimp
like Odysseus, a mere human.
The
prophecy demands Odysseus reveal his name to the cyclops. It’s mandatory. The
Greeks believed very much in fate, but lest we think that there is a total
absence of free will, it’s also Odysseus’s nature to do so.
We have to
think about fate more roundaboutly. Odysseus would not have been the one fated
to fulfill this prophecy had it not been in his nature to taunt Polyphemus.
Likewise, it had to be someone clever enough to devise the plan, had the
leadership skills to pull it off, and had the foresight to pull the naming
shenanigans. Most importantly, it had to be someone who valued Zeus’s law of
hospitality. That was the straw which broke everything.
And since
we’re talking prophecy, we have to recognize that this was set up in advance.
Three gods have the gift of prophecy: Zeus, Hera, and Apollo. The only one that
matters in this story is Zeus since his is the law that the cyclopes broke. It
is him that they openly disrespected as the god of strangers. And Zeus is clever
enough to set up a fitting, yet roundabout, justice.
Zeus has no need to directly come
down and smite Polyphemus. In fact, that would be too easy, and Polyphemus
would never know of the severity of his crime, hubris. Zeus is naturally
stronger than Polyphemus, so it would just be a beat down. However, Odysseus is
so much smaller and weaker, that it is a just comeuppance to Polyphemus
allowing his pride to get the better of him. He will forever remember that
someone he underestimated, someone he thought was weaker, punished him for not
showing proper deference to the gods.
Odysseus, as mighty as he is, and
as clever, was used as a weapon of divine justice against the Cyclopes, showing
not just the importance of revering the gods, but in the triumph of Greek,
civilized life over barbarism.