M³ Greek Civilization

            I have to go meta on Perseus one more time. We tie Perseus, Hestia, and Prometheus together one more time, and connect them all to Odysseus. I know, I know, it doesn’t seem like a good fit. Odysseus is not exactly known for restraint and wisdom, especially after mouthing off to Polyphemus. And it’s not like he was the poster child of monogamy when he’s shtupping Circe and Calypso.

M³ Sinbad: Odyssey Redux

            With Odysseus’s adventure with Polyphemus out of the way, we’re wide open for something really interesting. We’ll segue into Sinbad the Sailor, who is famous for having his own adventures. We’ll skip his first and second voyages, going straight for the third. Why? Simple, we know this story. If you don’t have your own copy of the 1 Nights, you can read Sinbad’s third here.

            Sinbad’s third adventure finds him restless, as usual, and soon shipwrecked, also as usual, on an island. This island is home to an evil giant that will eat the crew. It is up to Sinbad to come up with a cunning plan to blind the giant using to spears after heating them—

            Wait! Come back! No, really, this is the story, and, yes, I know it’s a direct plagiarism of The Odyssey. If this were modern day and Homer were alive, he would be suing . . . well, we don’t know who wrote Sinbad—they weren’t even part of the original Arabian Nights—but Homer would sue somebody.

M³ Mind Over Might

            The enduring lesson of book 9 is hard to miss: brains over brawn. Yet the pattern for Greek heroes have not emphasized this. Perseus, Theseus, Hercules, Achilles, Agamemnon, and others too numerous to list have all possessed intelligence, but it’s been subsumed behind their battle prowess. Like most fighters in Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, they take up their big-ass swords and proceed to execute their problems.

M³ Prophesied Fate

            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.

M3 Insight to The Problem

            When we last left our heroes, they were trapped in a cave with the dreaded cyclops, Polyphemus! The barbaric giant vowed to feast upon all, including the great Odysseus. Can they escape the peril? Can they hope to defeat such a giant? Can I drop the lame announcer voice?

            Yes. Yes, to all three. The only one of those that was actually a question was the last. There really are no spoilers when it comes to a story recorded over 2,500 years ago.

M3 What's in A Name?

            One of the more famous parts of the story between Odysseus and Polyphemus is that of the name Odysseus gives the cyclops. This is famously translated as “No man, No one, or Nobody. These are all correct, and the cleverness of this answer comes through, but also paints Polyphemus as a bit a moron. Certainly, he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the translation doesn’t do anyone any justice.

M3 Civilization Fail

            With the gods not present on the island of the Cyclopes, it’s no surprise that the law of the gods really holds no sway over them. Specifically, we’re talking about the law of hospitality, for “Zeus is the avenger of suppliants and strangers—Zeus, the strangers' god—who ever attends upon reverend strangers” (line 271). This a big deal. We’re not talking about some minor deity being in charge of strangers. Zeus, king of the gods. The head honcho, the big cheese himself. The language, too, is strong. Avenger is no word to be tossed about lightly, and the same is true for reverend. These mean that strangers, travelers, have a sacred position within Greek society, and to do wrong by them is to invite the wrath of Zeus.

            But the Cyclopes are far from Greek society, “for the Cyclopes reck[on] not of Zeus, who bears the aegis, nor of the blessed gods, since verily we are better far than they” (276). We already established that the Greek gods are not omniscient, and now we have the Cyclopes whothink they are superior, and is not willing to follow the law of Zeus regarding strangers. The Greeks divided the world into those who “are cruel, and wild, and unjust, or whether they love strangers and fear the gods in their thoughts” (176).  We take this even further, and the cyclopes all live in caves and subsist only by their flocks. They do not cultivate the land in any way, nor do they build. Their living is very primitive. In short, the Cyclopes are barbarians. By every measurement the Greeks have, the Cyclopes are a tribal people, not much above monsters (if that).

This is very bad news for Odysseus and his men, who are about to become dinner. The only measure towards civilization and mercy—in Polyphemus’s eyes—is that he will eat Odysseus last. Not exactly a good host. How will our hero escape this peril? Tune in next week for “What’s in a Name?”

M3 Limits of Greek Godhood

            Ahh, The Odyssey, one of my favorite books of mythology. I think I like it because it’s got these great episodes throughout the book, much like a nice tv show. “Join us next time as Odysseus deal with Circe the Witch!”

            And while at some later date I will go through the entire book analyzing each adventure, that is not today. Today we start in the middle, with Book 9 (or IX if you’re a fan of Roman Numerals like me) where Odysseus faces off against the dreaded Cyclopes!

            Why in the middle? Well, for lots of reasons, first and foremost is that because Odysseus’s adventures are mostly episodic, we don’t lose out on anything by starting in the middle. The next big reason is that it has to do with some of the same stuff we talked about with Abraham recently. Third, this story in particular is essential for understanding another myth, which we’ll dive into after this one.

            So, Odysseus and his men sail to the island of the Cyclopes (but there’s no sign or anything announcing this). Odysseus, despite the protests of his men, loads up some wine, and heads inland to see if he can find some signs of civilization (spoiler alert, he doesn’t). Instead he finds a cave stocked with cheeses in various stages.

            Again, the men are not happy. They want to abscond (yes, that’s the word I’m choosing here) with the cheese and make sail for home. Odysseus, however, insists that they stay because it would be inhospitable to steal.

            Enter the Cyclops Polyphemus, erstwhile son of Poseidon, who leads in his sheep and promptly seals the cave entrance with a mighty boulder. I must also point out that these sheep are scaled to size for Polyphemus as well. These are not little lambs.

            So, Polyphemus proceeds to do the “Fe Fi Fo Fum” thing and . . . wait, wrong story. It’s similar enough, but we’ll get into that another time. The big P isn’t happy that Odysseus and his men are in his pad, so he proceeds to question them. Odysseus tells him that they’re just looking for hospitality, (citing his devotion to Zeus and how Zeus is the god of Strangers) and that they brought gifts of wine for Polyphemus.

Polyphemus isn’t happy about this, and proceeds to do the most inhospitable thing one can do, smash a couple of sailors heads against the cave wall, chop them up, and eat them (not raw, nicely roasted over a fire).

See, Polyphemus really doesn’t care about the gods, he actually believes that the Cyclopes are greater and more powerful than the gods, so there’s no reason to honor or reverence them. Such irreverence—maybe to the point of outright blasphemy—doesn’t have immediate repercussions for him, either, and the Greek gods are not exactly shy about punishing hubris.

So why aren’t they punished by Zeus and his ilk. Why are there not thunderbolts and transformations aplenty, here? Well, we have to talk about omniscience. The Greek gods ain’t got it. Not by a long shot. If someone is out of earshot, out of sight, or otherwise beyond the senses of the gods, they don’t know about it. Artemis didn’t know about Actaeon's presence until he got too close, nor did she know her father had disguised himself as one of her own nymphs. Hera knew about many of Zeus’s affairs, but not all of them, and the list goes on.

The gods don’t appear to be present on the island of the Cyclopes at all. There is no devotion to the gods save for that brought to the island by Odysseus and his men. The Greek gods are also fiercely territorial, and none of them has any following from this island. None of the gods resides here, most probably because there are no humans here (which is easy to understand since Polyphemus is dining on them).

It’s the natural limit of polytheism. Since there are many gods, each with their own particular specializations, their own domains, none can ever rise up to the level of omniscience. In this respect, they are much more human than God in the Old Testament. Their limits make them more relatable, and also give them flaws with which humans can more readily identify with.

But just because Zeus didn’t hear of this disrespect at the moment does not mean that there is complete unawareness as to the kinds of beings the Cyclopes are. Stay tuned.