Reading Notes: Homer's Odyssey Part A

(Head of a Cyclops, Picture by Steven Lek)

 

Odyssey: The Curse of Polyphemus: Translate by Tony Kline

Characters: Polyphemus, Odysseus, Crew, Poseidon

Polyphemus: Is the cyclopes. He gets blinded by Odysseus and they escape him. He prays to Poseidon to get revenge or justice on Odysseus. Throws a bi rock at the ship as they leave.

Odysseus: Previously blinded the cyclopes. get men to sail on and they got lost. Kills some magic deer. (feel like since this is all from his perspective maybe he killed his own crew to survive)

Crew: just rowing Kind of boring not much personification. I think adding them into the between island journey as their morale fades and hunger takes over could be interesting.

Poseidon: Hears Polyphemus's prayer that he want Odysseus to return home broken and beaten.

Plot: After blinding Polyphemus the cyclopes, Odysseus and crew escape and have lots of sheep. Polyphemus prays to Poseidon to ruin Odysseus. He then throws a huge rock towards the ship and narrowly misses them. They go to another island where they divvy up the sheep and sacrifice to Zeus who does not accept their prayers. After their feast, the crew all head to sea. They end up at Circe's island hungry and tired. Odysseus goes to explore the island a little and comes across a big stag that he kills and brings to the crew to eat. In the morning, Odysseus considers going into the middle of the island where there is smoke coming. He saw this the day before as well, but wanted to get food instead.

Setting: leaving the island of the cyclopes. Circe's island.

How I Could Change It: I think adding some context to their days on the sea being hard and them gradually running out of food could be interesting. Everything is told from Odysseus's perspective, so switching to a third person narrator might allow the story to be less focused on him.