Odysseus and the Cyclops

A huge stone rumbled across the mouth of the cave and sealed the way out with a single sound. Darkness fell at once, thick and heavy, as if someone had dropped a giant lid over the band of men standing frozen inside. Not one crack of light could get through.

The man standing closest to the stone, his hand still tight on the hilt of his sword, was Odysseus. He was a king on his way home to the island of Ithaca after many years away. The old people of ancient Greece used to tell their grandchildren about this voyage home. On the way, his ships stopped at a strange island. It was the home of the Cyclops, a race of giants with a single eye in the middle of the forehead. Odysseus left most of his ships anchored safely offshore. He took only one ship and his bravest companions, and landed on the island to look for more food for the long voyage still ahead.

They found a wide cave piled high with fragrant cheeses and jars brimming with milk. Lambs and young goats lay snugly in their pens, as neat as if someone had just put everything in order. The men sat down in the cave to rest and waited for its owner to come home.

But the one who came home was no welcoming host. It was Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant, carrying on his shoulder a bundle of firewood as big as a whole tree. He drove his sheep and goats inside, then turned back to the entrance. He rolled a stone into the mouth of the cave, a stone that 20 oxen could not have pulled. He closed it as easily as the lid on a great jar. That was the stone that had just rumbled across, locking Odysseus and his companions in the dark.

Polyphemus lit a fire. The flames leapt up and showed the uninvited guests pressed into a corner of the cave. The giant stopped short for a moment. Then he roared in anger, reached out his huge arm, and seized two of the men. They vanished from their friends forever, and their voices were never heard again. The whole cave fell silent with fear.

All night long, no one in the cave dared to close an eye. The next morning, before taking his flock out to graze, Polyphemus seized two more men. They vanished just like the first two. In the evening, when the giant came back, the same grief struck one last time. Six companions of Odysseus were gone, taken in three turns. A silent sorrow weighed on everyone who remained.

In the middle of that fear, Odysseus began to think. He looked at the stone across the door, which no one could move. Then he looked down at the skin of strong wine still hanging at his side, and slowly a plan took shape. That evening, when Polyphemus came back, Odysseus stepped forward and offered him the wine. Polyphemus took a sip and was plainly delighted. He drank it down in one gulp and asked for more. Then he asked the name of the man who had brought him such fine wine. Odysseus answered calmly that his name was Nobody.

The wine slowly took hold. Polyphemus staggered, crashed down onto the floor of the cave, and fell into a deep, drunken sleep. This was the moment Odysseus had been waiting for. With his four bravest companions, he lifted a great log that belonged to the giant himself. Then, pushing together with all their strength, they aimed straight at the single eye in the middle of the giant's forehead, closed in sleep. A terrible scream tore through the darkness, then died away. When the last echo faded in the stone cave, the only eye of Polyphemus had closed, never to see the light again.

The roar of pain from Polyphemus carried across the island and woke the neighboring giants. They ran to the cave and called in from outside, asking what was wrong and who was hurting him. Polyphemus bellowed back that Nobody was hurting him. The neighbors heard this and looked at one another, puzzled. If nobody was hurting him, then there was nothing to help with. One by one they went back to their own caves and left Polyphemus alone, howling in the dark. The name that had seemed to mean nothing was the very thing that saved the whole crew.

The next morning, the blind giant felt his way to the mouth of the cave. He pushed the great stone aside to let his sheep and goats out to graze, as on every other day. Then he sat right in the doorway and ran his hands over the back of each animal that passed. He feared that the guests still alive would slip out hidden among the flock.

But Odysseus had already planned for this move too. During the night, he and the men who remained had quietly gathered strips of willow they found on the cave floor. With them they tied the biggest, strongest rams together in threes. Each man clung to the belly of the middle ram, hidden under its thick fleece and shielded by the rams on either side. Slowly the rams stepped out into the light, and under the belly of each middle ram a man lay hidden. Polyphemus only felt along the backs and sides of the passing sheep. It never crossed his mind to reach down to their bellies. One by one, the whole crew slipped past those groping hands and out of the cave to safety.

At the shore, the men hurried aboard and rowed hard out to sea. But once the ship was a safe distance from land, Odysseus could not hold back his pride. He stood up tall in the ship and shouted back toward the island. He told Polyphemus that the man who had blinded him was Odysseus, and not any Nobody at all. Hearing the real name, Polyphemus roared with rage. His hands groped around him until he tore off a great rock jutting from the side of the mountain. He raised it high and hurled it with all his strength toward the voice. The rock crashed into the sea just behind the stern, missing by a hair. A whole mass of seawater burst upward from the blow and gathered into a great wave. It tossed the ship about and very nearly sank them all in the open sea.

The terrified companions held tight to the sides of the ship and begged Odysseus not to call out even once more. The crew gripped their oars and threw the last of their strength into rowing. They hauled the ship over wave after rough wave, out toward calmer water. Behind them, the island of the giants faded away, until only the sound of waves against the rocks along its shore was left. At last the little ship caught up with the rest of the fleet, waiting at anchor out at sea. The men threw their arms around one another, their faces relieved, yet still shaken. The small ship rocked gently on the swell beside the others. Then the whole fleet turned toward the open sea, where a long voyage still lay ahead.