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Updated: May 26, 2025
As the rams went past Polyphemus felt their backs, to see if the men were there; but the simple monster never thought of feeling under their bellies. Last in the train came the big ram, with Odysseus clinging underneath. Then said Polyphemus, as his great hands passed over his back: "Dear ram, why art thou the last to leave the cave?
Young Galatea, nursed in the caverns of these rocks, white as the foam, and shy as the sea fishes, came one morning up the valley to pick mountain hyacinths, and little Polyphemus led the way. He knew where violets and sweet narcissus grew, as well as Galatea where pink coralline and spreading sea-flowers with their waving arms.
Are you engaged in trade, or do you rove at adventure as sea-robbers who wander at hazard of their lives, bringing bane to strangers? The same question is addressed to Odysseus by Polyphemus, and was plainly the first thing thought of when a seafaring stranger was encountered.
When he heard that, Polyphemus "grinned horribly a ghastly smile," and answered: "This shall be thy gift: I will eat thee last of all, for the sake of thy good wine." With that he sank down backward on the floor, and lay like a leviathan, with his head lolling sideways, and his mouth gaping, buried in drunken sleep.
Another very material point of difference between the Iliad and the Odyssey lies in the fact that the Homer of the Iliad always knows what he is talking about, while the supposed Homer of the Odyssey often makes mistakes that betray an almost incredible ignorance of detail. Thus the giant Polyphemus drives in his ewes home from their pasture, and milks them.
|Ships. |Entry. |Quality. |Discharge. |Y.|M.|W.|D.| |Duke |9 June, 1789 |Able Seaman|2 Dec., 1789 | |5 |2 |2 | |Polyphemus|10 Oct., 1794|Midshipman |7 May, 1797 |2 |7 |2 | | |Apollo |8 May, 1797 |Mate |27 Dec., 1797| |8 |1 |3 | |Blazer |2 Jan., 1798 |2nd Master | | | | | | | | | and Pilot|26 July, 1798| |7 |1 |3 | |Porpoise |7 Oct.,1798 |Mate |9 July, 1800 |1 |9 | | | | | | | |6 |1 |3 |1 |
He is the hero who, in all countries and ages, fights with monsters and overcomes them; like Indra, the ancient Hindu sun-god, whose thunderbolts slew the demons of drought in the far East; or Perseus, who, in Greek story, delivers the maiden from the sea-monster; or Odysseus, who tricks the giant Polyphemus, and causes him to throw himself into the sea; or Thor, whose hammer beats down the frost-giants of the North.
If one has the fortune to keep awake, here he may lie and think the thoughts that are born of sun and wind. And now, although it is not yet noon, hunger rages in us. The pancakes, the syrup, the toast and the other incidents of breakfast have disappeared the way the rabbit vanishes when the magician waves his hand. The horrid Polyphemus did not so crave his food.
From the shadows of the cave Odysseus now stepped forward, bearing in his hands an ivy bowl, full of the dark red wine. "Drink wine after thy feast of men's flesh," said Odysseus, "and see what manner of drink this was that our ship held." Polyphemus grasped the bowl, gulped down the strong wine, and smacked his great lips over its sweetness.
If the interest turns on some dramatic moment, the action must be quick and uninterrupted, or it will lose half its effect. I had been telling a class of young children the story of Polyphemus and Ulysses, and just at the most dramatic moment in the story some impulse for which I cannot account prompted me to go off on a side issue to describe the personal appearance of Ulysses.
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