Lesson 1.3 · Unit 1 · RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.2
A hero who wins by not being the strongest
The Iliad's hero is the best fighter alive. The Odyssey's hero is a man who talks his way out of things, and the difference is the whole point of reading the second poem after the first.
- The Odyssey covers the ten years after Troy, during which Odysseus tries to reach Ithaca.
- Its hero's defining quality is intelligence, named in the first line and demonstrated in nearly every episode.
- The poem's recurring epithet for him is polytropos, which means "of many turns" and can mean both much-traveled and cunning.
- Lying is a heroic skill here, and Odysseus lies to almost everyone, including his own family, without the poem disapproving.
- Athena is his patron precisely because she admires the same quality, and she says so directly.
- His flaw is the same as his virtue: the cleverness that saves him from the Cyclops is what makes him announce his name and earn Poseidon's hatred.
- The poem is structured around returns and recognitions rather than around battles.
- Butler's 1900 prose translation is public domain and is the version quoted throughout this course.
Where students lose marks: calling Odysseus a liar as if the poem agreed. The text treats deception as a skill, and an essay has to engage with that rather than importing a modern verdict.
The text. Homer, the Odyssey, Book 9, in Samuel Butler's 1900 translation. Public domain.
"Cyclops," said I, "you ask my name and I will tell it you; give me, therefore, the present you promised me; my name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends have always called me."
"Cyclops, if any one asks you who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty, say it was the valiant warrior Ulysses, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca."
Step one: state what the first trick accomplishes. When the blinded Polyphemus calls for help, he tells the other Cyclopes that "Noman" is killing him, and they conclude that nothing is wrong and go away. The escape depends entirely on a pun prepared in advance.
Step two: note what kind of heroism this is. Odysseus does not fight the Cyclops. He cannot: the stone at the cave mouth is too heavy for his men to move even if Polyphemus were dead. The problem is solved by planning and by language.
Step three: examine the second passage. Safely at sea, Odysseus shouts his real name, his father's name, and his home island. Polyphemus can now name him in a prayer to Poseidon, who is his father.
Step four: state the consequence. Poseidon's hatred is what keeps Odysseus from home for ten years and kills every one of his men. The entire remaining plot follows from three sentences shouted across water.
Step five: ask why he does it. His men beg him not to. He does it because being Noman is intolerable to him: the trick that saved his life required erasing his identity, and he cannot leave it erased.
Step six: state the structural point. The same quality produces both events. Cleverness devises the name-trick and pride in that cleverness undoes it. This is not a hero with a virtue and a separate flaw; it is one trait doing both jobs, which is a more interesting construction.
Step seven: connect it to the poem's design. The Odyssey repeatedly tests whether Odysseus can keep quiet. He succeeds with Circe, with the swineherd, with the suitors and with his own wife, holding his name back for four books after reaching Ithaca. Book 9 is the failure that the rest of the poem makes him pass.
Step eight: state the theme this supports. The poem argues that identity is something a person can put down and pick up, and that knowing when to do each is the skill it values. Odysseus's growth is not from weak to strong but from a man who must be known to a man who can wait.
Questions 1 to 5 are recall. Questions 6 to 10 ask for reasoning.
- What name does Odysseus give the Cyclops?
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Noman
- Why does that name work?
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The other Cyclopes hear that "noman" is hurting him and conclude nothing is wrong
- What does Odysseus do once he is safely at sea?
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Shouts his real name, his father's name and his island
- Who is Polyphemus's father, and why does that matter?
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Poseidon, who can now be asked by name to punish Odysseus
- What does polytropos mean?
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Of many turns: both much-traveled and cunning
- What kind of heroism does the Cyclops episode demonstrate?
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Not physical. Odysseus cannot fight Polyphemus and could not escape even if he killed him, because the stone sealing the cave is beyond his men's strength. The problem is solved by preparing a pun in advance, by getting the Cyclops drunk, and by hiding under sheep. Every step is planning and language, which is the poem's answer to the Iliad's idea of a hero. Planning and language rather than strength
- Why does Odysseus shout his name, against his crew's advice?
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Because being Noman is intolerable to him. The trick that saved his life required erasing his identity, and having survived he cannot leave it erased and unclaimed. The poem presents this as a need rather than a miscalculation, which is why it reads as characterization rather than as a plot device. He cannot leave the identity he erased unclaimed
- Explain why this is one trait rather than a virtue and a separate flaw.
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The cleverness that invents the name-trick is the same cleverness he is proud of when he announces himself, and the pride is not separable from the skill. A hero with a virtue and an unrelated weakness is a simpler construction. Here one quality produces both the escape and the ten-year punishment, which means the poem cannot simply recommend the quality. The same cleverness produces both the escape and the catastrophe
- How does the rest of the poem respond to Book 9?
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By repeatedly testing whether Odysseus can keep quiet. He conceals himself from the swineherd, from the suitors, from his old nurse and from Penelope, holding his name back for four books after landing on Ithaca. Book 9 is the failure and the second half of the poem is the same test passed, which makes the structure a course of instruction rather than a series of adventures. It repeatedly retests his ability to withhold his name, and he passes
- What theme does this support?
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That identity is something a person can put down and take up again, and that knowing when to do each is the skill the poem values. Odysseus does not grow from weak to strong; he grows from a man who must be known into a man who can wait. That reading accounts for the Cyclops, the disguises on Ithaca and the delayed recognition by Penelope. Knowing when to withhold identity, not growing stronger