"ὣς φάτ᾽, ἀτάρ οἱ αὖτις ἐγὼ πόρον αἴθοπα οἶνον.360

τρὶς μὲν ἔδωκα φέρων, τρὶς δ᾽ ἔκπιεν ἀφραδίῃσιν.

αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ Κύκλωπα περὶ φρένας ἤλυθεν οἶνος,

καὶ τότε δή μιν ἔπεσσι προσηύδων μειλιχίοισι·

‘Κύκλωψ, εἰρωτᾷς μ᾽ ὄνομα κλυτόν, αὐτὰρ ἐγώ τοι

ἐξερέω· σὺ δέ μοι δὸς ξείνιον, ὥς περ ὑπέστης.365

Οὖτις ἐμοί γ᾽ ὄνομα: Οὖτιν δέ με κικλήσκουσι

μήτηρ ἠδὲ πατὴρ ἠδ᾽ ἄλλοι πάντες ἑταῖροι.’

ὣς ἐφάμην, ὁ δέ μ᾽ αὐτίκ᾽ ἀμείβετο νηλέι θυμῷ·

‘Οὖτιν ἐγὼ πύματον ἔδομαι μετὰ οἷς ἑτάροισιν,

τοὺς δ᾽ ἄλλους πρόσθεν: τὸ δέ τοι ξεινήιον ἔσται.’370

ἦ καὶ ἀνακλινθεὶς πέσεν ὕπτιος, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα

κεῖτ᾽ ἀποδοχμώσας παχὺν αὐχένα, κὰδ δέ μιν ὕπνος

ᾕρει πανδαμάτωρ· φάρυγος δ᾽ ἐξέσσυτο οἶνος

ψωμοί τ᾽ ἀνδρόμεοι· ὁ δ᾽ ἐρεύγετο οἰνοβαρείων.

καὶ τότ᾽ ἐγὼ τὸν μοχλὸν ὑπὸ σποδοῦ ἤλασα πολλῆς,375

ἧος θερμαίνοιτο· ἔπεσσι δὲ πάντας ἑταίρους

θάρσυνον, μή τίς μοι ὑποδείσας ἀναδύη.

ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δὴ τάχ᾽ ὁ μοχλὸς ἐλάινος ἐν πυρὶ μέλλεν

ἅψεσθαι, χλωρός περ ἐών, διεφαίνετο δ᾽ αἰνῶς,

καὶ τότ᾽ ἐγὼν ἆσσον φέρον ἐκ πυρός, ἀμφὶ δ᾽ ἑταῖροι380

ἵσταντ᾽· αὐτὰρ θάρσος ἐνέπνευσεν μέγα δαίμων.

οἱ μὲν μοχλὸν ἑλόντες ἐλάινον, ὀξὺν ἐπ᾽ ἄκρῳ,

ὀφθαλμῷ ἐνέρεισαν· ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἐφύπερθεν ἐρεισθεὶς

δίνεον, ὡς ὅτε τις τρυπῷ δόρυ νήιον ἀνὴρ

τρυπάνῳ, οἱ δέ τ᾽ ἔνερθεν ὑποσσείουσιν ἱμάντι385

ἁψάμενοι ἑκάτερθε, τὸ δὲ τρέχει ἐμμενὲς αἰεί.

ὣς τοῦ ἐν ὀφθαλμῷ πυριήκεα μοχλὸν ἑλόντες

δινέομεν, τὸν δ᾽ αἷμα περίρρεε θερμὸν ἐόντα.

πάντα δέ οἱ βλέφαρ᾽ ἀμφὶ καὶ ὀφρύας εὗσεν ἀυτμὴ

γλήνης καιομένης, σφαραγεῦντο δέ οἱ πυρὶ ῥίζαι.390

ὡς δ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἀνὴρ χαλκεὺς πέλεκυν μέγαν ἠὲ σκέπαρνον

εἰν ὕδατι ψυχρῷ βάπτῃ μεγάλα ἰάχοντα

φαρμάσσων· τὸ γὰρ αὖτε σιδήρου γε κράτος ἐστίν

ὣς τοῦ σίζ᾽ ὀφθαλμὸς ἐλαϊνέῳ περὶ μοχλῷ.

σμερδαλέον δὲ μέγ᾽ ᾤμωξεν, περὶ δ᾽ ἴαχε πέτρη,395

ἡμεῖς δὲ δείσαντες ἀπεσσύμεθ᾽· αὐτὰρ ὁ μοχλὸν

ἐξέρυσ᾽ ὀφθαλμοῖο πεφυρμένον αἵματι πολλῷ.

τὸν μὲν ἔπειτ᾽ ἔρριψεν ἀπὸ ἕο χερσὶν ἀλύων,

αὐτὰρ ὁ Κύκλωπας μεγάλ᾽ ἤπυεν, οἵ ῥά μιν ἀμφὶς

ᾤκεον ἐν σπήεσσι δι᾽ ἄκριας ἠνεμοέσσας.400

οἱ δὲ βοῆς ἀίοντες ἐφοίτων ἄλλοθεν ἄλλος,

ἱστάμενοι δ᾽ εἴροντο περὶ σπέος ὅττι ἑ κήδοι·

‘τίπτε τόσον, Πολύφημ᾽, ἀρημένος ὧδ᾽ ἐβόησας

νύκτα δι᾽ ἀμβροσίην καὶ ἀύπνους ἄμμε τίθησθα;

ἦ μή τίς σευ μῆλα βροτῶν ἀέκοντος ἐλαύνει;405

ἦ μή τίς σ᾽ αὐτὸν κτείνει δόλῳ ἠὲ βίηφιν;’

τοὺς δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἐξ ἄντρου προσέφη κρατερὸς Πολύφημος·

‘ὦ φίλοι, Οὖτίς με κτείνει δόλῳ οὐδὲ βίηφιν.’

Odysseus intoxicates the Cyclops with strong wine and bores out his eye with a red-hot stake. Polyphemus appeals to the other Cyclopes.

The seductive gift is doing its work, its fragrance “surrounding the senses” of the monster (περὶ φρένας ἤλυθεν οἶνος 362), like the alluring voices Odysseus heard when he awoke near Nausicaa and her handmaidens: ὥς τέ με κουράων ἀμφήλυθε θῆλυς ἀυτή (6.123). All is in readiness for the crucial part of the escape plan. 

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Κύκλωψ, εἰρωτᾷς μ᾽ ὄνομα κλυτόν, αὐτὰρ ἐγώ τοι
ἐξερέω: σὺ δέ μοι δὸς ξείνιον, ὥς περ ὑπέστης.
Οὖτις ἐμοί γ᾽ ὄνομα: Οὖτιν δέ με κικλήσκουσι
μήτηρ ἠδὲ πατὴρ ἠδ᾽ ἄλλοι πάντες ἑταῖροι.

Cyclops, you ask me my name, so I will
tell you; but you must give me my guest gift, as you promised.
My name is “Nobody.” My mother and father and all
my other companions call me “Nobody.”

Odyssey 9.364–67

This name is unique to the Odyssey’s version of the folktale (see essay on 9.318–59). In all other known variants, the monster is alone, without companions nearby, so the name trick is not needed to isolate him. (Though the Cyclopes appear elsewhere in Greek mythology as a group, Homer could presumably have put Polyphemus on the island by himself.) There is another fairly common folktale attested, in which the hero deceives a demon by telling him that his name is “Myself,” thereby heading off help when the demon calls out to his fellows. This name would have served as well as “Nobody,” if the poet’s only purpose had been to have Odysseus deceive and isolate the monster. Sorting out all the variables that went into composing the Cyclops episode is impossible at this remove in time, but clearly Homer wanted the name "Οὖτις" for his hero.

This preference makes sense because it reflects a major motif in the poem, the tension between Odysseus as famous returning hero and his deliberate choice to remain anonymous when he arrives in each new place on his way home. By keeping his identity to himself, Odysseus can learn about each new place and those who live there before he gives up any leverage that anonymity might afford him. When he feels confident about the good will of the locals, he reveals, or allows others to reveal, his identity. Each time this moment arrives at a dramatic high point, when Odysseus has “returned” from namelessness to his heroic persona, with all of its attendant advantages.

On another level, the anonymous stranger is, as we have seen (Introduction, para. 32, 42), the focal point in the poem’s implicit critique of the dominant heroic return story, in which all other considerations must give way to the imperative to restore Odysseus to his former status, symbolized by his re-assumption of the roles of king, husband, father, and son. If kleos (glory) elevates the hero above more ordinary mortals, it also isolates him. Achilles, the most famous of the heroes who went to Troy, is entirely alone except for Patroclus, whom his over-weaning pride and arrogance eventually condemn to death. In the interlude at the humble outpost of Eumaeus that follows Odysseus’s arrival on Ithaka in Book Thirteen, the benefits of namelessness are fully on display (see Introduction, sec. 23-25). Odysseus, disguised as an old beggar, forms a warm friendship with his unwitting servant, something that would not be possible for the returning king, whose status would prevent any intimacy with his social inferior. The ambiguous portrait of the glories of human civilization we have been tracing in the Cyclops episode is a part of this ongoing critique, articulated through a series of analogous polarities, civilization and savagery, anonymity and fame, centripetal and centrifugal, open and closed.

The weaponized pun works beautifully, as the other Cyclopes decline to come to the aid of Polyphemus:

"τίπτε τόσον, Πολύφημ᾽, ἀρημένος ὧδ᾽ ἐβόησας
νύκτα δι᾽ ἀμβροσίην καὶ ἀύπνους ἄμμε τίθησθα;
ἦ μή τίς σευ μῆλα βροτῶν ἀέκοντος ἐλαύνει;
ἦ μή τίς σ᾽ αὐτὸν κτείνει δόλῳ ἠὲ βίηφιν;"
τοὺς δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἐξ ἄντρου προσέφη κρατερὸς Πολύφημος:
"ὦ φίλοι, Οὖτίς με κτείνει δόλῳ οὐδὲ βίηφιν."

“Why have you cried out so in distress, Polyphemus,
through the immortal night, and made us all sleepless?
Surely no mortal is driving off your flocks against your will?
Surely no one is killing you by force or trickery?”
Mighty Polyphemus called to them from inside the cave:
“Oh friends, Nobody is killing me with force and trickery.”

Odyssey 9.403–8

Now the full range of the pun comes into play, in the repeated phrase, μή τίς (9.405–6), which echoes μῆτις, “intelligence,” as Odysseus confirms a few verses later:

ὣς ἄρ᾽ ἔφαν ἀπιόντες, ἐμὸν δ᾽ ἐγέλασσε φίλον κῆρ,
ὡς ὄνομ᾽ ἐξαπάτησεν ἐμὸν καὶ μῆτις ἀμύμων.

So [the Cyclopes] said as they went away, and I rejoiced in my heart,
that my name and my blameless intelligence fooled him.

Odyssey 9.413–14

Nowhere else in the poem is anonymity valorized so directly: the nameless stranger is, in this instance, pure intelligence, precisely what is needed to escape the monster.

Odysseus is the first intellectual hero, who uses his mind, rather than physical force, to overcome the monster. Sophocles once again shows himself to be a careful student of the Odyssey when Oedipus conquers the Sphinx by solving a riddle: What creature walks on four feet in the morning, two feet in the afternoon, and three feet in the evening? Answer: a human being. The Sophoclean hero’s name, too, continues the legacy of wordplay, containing two possible etymologies pointing to his dual identity, Οἰδίπους, from οἰδέω, “I swell up,” plus ποῦς, “foot,” something like “swollen foot,” and οἶδα, “I know,” plus ποῦς, meaning, “know-foot.” The first version points to the helpless infant, abandoned on the mountain with his ankles pierced, the second to the intellectual hero, who solves the riddle.

 

Further Reading

Dimock, G. “The Name of Odysseus.” Hudson Review 9: 52–70.

Murnaghan, S. 1987. Disguise and Recognition in the Odyssey, 77, 100. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Thalmann, W. 1992. The Odyssey: An Epic of Return, 80–88. New York: Twayne Publishers.

Tracy, S. 1990. The Story of the Odyssey, 60–61. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Van Nortwick, T. 2008. The Unknown Odysseus: Alternate Worlds in Homer’s Odyssey, 45–47. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

 

360  οἱ: “to him,” 3rd pers. pron. dat. sing.

360  πόρον: > πόρω, augment omitted.

361  ἀφραδίῃσιν: “in his folly,” dative of manner > ἀφραδίη [ἀφραδία], which has the same meaning in both the singular and plural.

362   ἤλυθεν: "came to" + acc. of person, a rare construction (LSJ ἔρχομαι III.2).

365  ὥς περ ὑπέστης: “as you promised” (LSJ ὑφίστημι B.II).

366  Οὖτιν: the indefinite pronoun would be οὔτινα, but dropping the final α makes it sound like a proper name.

369  ἔδομαι: dep. fut. > ἔδω.

369  οἷς: “his,” dat. pl. possessive adj. (> ἑός).

371  ἦ: “he spoke,” 3rd sing. impf. > ἠμί, signaling the close of the Cyclops’ speech.

372–73  κὰδ … / ᾕρει: “overcame (him),” tmesis (separation of the preposition and verb in a compound verb) > καθαίρεω. κὰδ = κατά.

373  φάρυγος: “from his throat,” genitive of separation.

375  ὑπὸ σποδοῦ ἤλασα: "I thrust it under the embers." an accusative would be more normal, indicating direction, see LSJ ὑπό I.2. 

376  ἧος: ἕως, “until” + opt., as usual after a past tense main verb (LSJ ἕως A.I.3).

377  μή … ἀναδύη: "so they would not retreat," 3rd sing. aor. 2 > ἀναδύομαι, probably optative (Goodell 611.c), though some editors spell it ἀναδύῃ and treat it as a subjunctive (Goodell 611.b).

378  μέλλεν: unaugmented impf.

379  διεφαίνετο: “was glowing.”

381  θάρσος ... μέγα: “great courage,” neut. dir. obj.

381  ἐνέπνευσεν: “inspired” (lit., “breathed in”)

382  οἱ μὲν: “they,” looking forward to ἐγὼ δ᾽ in the next line.

383  ὀφθαλμῷ: dative of place where (Goodell 527).

383  ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἐφύπερθεν: looking forward to οἱ δέ τ᾽ ἔνερθεν in 385.

383  ἐρεισθεὶς: “leaning,” aor. pass. ptc. > ἐρείδω

384  δίνεον: unaugmented impf.

384  ὡς ὅτε τις τρυπῷ ... ἀνὴρ: “just as when a man bores...” τρυπῷ is apparently optative > τρυπάω = τρυπάοι. The subjunctive in a simile would be more usual (Monro 283.a).

384  δόρυ νήιον: "a ship's timber."

385  οἱ … ἔνερθεν: “and they, below” looking back to ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἐφύπερθεν in 383.

385-6  ὑποσσείουσιν ... / ... ἑκάτερθε: “rotate it with a strap, grabbing on both sides,” i.e., the men rotate the drill by looping a strap around it and pulling on either side in turn.

386  τὸ δὲ: “it,” the drill.

386  τρέχει: “runs,” i.e., spins.

387  τοῦ: “his,” the Cyclops’.

387–88  ἑλόντες / δινέομεν: “we took ... and whirled.”

388  δινέομεν: unaugmented impf.

388  τὸν: refers to the stake (μοχλόν in 387).

388  θερμὸν ἐόντα: “being hot,” with τὸν.

389–90: “And the heat singed his (οἱ) eyelids and brow all around as the eyeball was burning, and its (οἱ) roots swelled to bursting in the flame” (Montgomery). οἱ in both cases is singular dative of possession of the personal pron..  

390  γλήνης καιομένης: either a genitive absolute or a genitive dependent on ἀϋτμή.

390  ῥίζαι: the roots of his eye.

392  εἰν: ἐν.

392  μεγάλα: “loudly,” adverbial ( = μεγάλως).

392  ἰάχοντα: “hissing,” masc. acc. sing., agreeing with πέλεκυν (391).

392  βάπτῃ: subj., as normal in a simile (Monro 283.a).

393  τὸ γὰρ: “for this,” i.e., the tempering.

394  σίζ᾽: ἔσιζε, “hissed,” an onomatopoeia.

395  σμερδαλέον … ᾤμωξεν: “he cried out piercingly and loud.” Both σμερδαλέον and μέγα, neuter singulars, can be taken adverbially.

396  ὁ: “he,” the Cyclops.

397  ὀφθαλμοῖο: genitive of separation.

398  τὸν: “it,” the stake (μοχλόν in line 396).

398  ἀπὸ ἕο: “from himself,” gen. sing. 3rd pron. ( > ἑέ).

398  χερσὶν: instrumental dat. > χείρ, with either ἔρριψεν or ἀλύων, “showing distress with his hands,” i.e., flailing his hands.

399  μεγάλ(α): “loudly,” adverbial

399  μιν ἀμφὶς: "around him," anastrophe (the prep. follows its noun, causing the accent on the preposition to fall back onto the first syllable). ἀμφίς = ἀμφί (LSJ ἀμφίς B).

401  βοῆς: gen., with ἀΐοντες (Monro 151).

402  περὶ σπέους: with ἱστάμενοι.

402  ὅττι ἑ κήδοι: indirect question with optative after a past tense main verb (Goodell 661). ὅττι = ὅ τι. 

402  ἑ: acc. 3rd sing. pron. > ἑέ.

403  τίπτε τόσον … ἀρημένος: “in what great distress…” (lit., “why on earth, distressed to such an extent…”).

403 ὧδ(ε): "in this way."

404  ἄμμε: acc. pron. = ἡμᾶς. 

404  τίθησθα: pres. act. indic. 2nd sing.

405  ἦ μή τίς: “surely nobody…?” ἦ introduces a question, and μή indicates that a negative answer is expected. Note the wordplay on μή τίς and Οὖτις (οὔ τις) here and in lines 408 and 410).

405  σευ … ἀέκοντος: either genitive absolute or, because true genitives absolute are rare in Homer (Monro 246), a genitive of separation with ἐλαύνει (“drives the flocks from you…”). 

405  σευ: gen. personal pron. > σύ.

406  σ᾽ αὐτὸν: “you yourself.”

406  βίηφιν: the suffix –φιν indicates that the noun is used instrumentally (Smyth 280). As with δόλῳ, treat as a dative of means.

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Suggested Citation

Thomas Van Nortwick and Rob Hardy, Homer: Odyssey 5–12. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-947822-17-7 https://dcc.dickinson.edu/zh-hans/homer-odyssey/ix-360-408