The Cyclops Myth | Odysseus, Polyphemus, and Poseidon Explained
A ship reaches an unfamiliar island. Odysseus and his men, sailing home from Troy, spot a cave while searching for water and food, and they go inside. One choice Odysseus makes in that cave pulls everything that follows in a completely different direction.
The Sheep and Cheese Found Inside the Cave
Inside the cave were pens holding lambs and kids, along with neatly arranged wheels of cheese. The companions who came along urged him to take only what they needed and hurry back to the ship.
But Odysseus said he wanted to see for himself what kind of hospitality the cave's owner offered, and decided to stay. That single choice becomes the start of everything that happens afterward.
Before long, the cave's true owner, the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, returns driving his flock. He blocks the entrance with a massive boulder that many men could not budge, and from that moment Odysseus and his men are trapped in a prison they walked into on their own.
Contrary to Odysseus's expectation of a welcoming host, Polyphemus greets them by seizing several of his men and devouring them on the spot. For the rest of the crew, there was nothing to do but stay awake through the night, dreading what the next day would bring.
The Name 'Nobody' and a Cup of Wine
It might seem simplest to just kill Polyphemus right away, but there was a reason they could not. Only Polyphemus, with his tremendous strength, could move the boulder blocking the entrance — kill him, and the remaining men would be sealed inside the cave forever. To escape alive, they needed a way to render him helpless without killing him.
Odysseus offers Polyphemus the strong wine he brought along. Drunk on its taste, the giant asks his name, and Odysseus answers that he is called 'Nobody'. After a few more cups, Polyphemus soon falls into a deep sleep.
In the meantime, the crew had prepared an olive-wood stake they had sharpened earlier and hardened in the fire. They drive it with all their strength into the giant's single eye as he sleeps. Blinded, Polyphemus cries out in agony and begins groping around the cave.
Why the Neighboring Giants Simply Went Home
Hearing his screams, the other Cyclopes gather outside the cave and ask what is wrong — whether anyone is harming him by trickery or by force. Polyphemus answers exactly as asked: that Nobody is trying to kill him by trickery, and that Nobody is trying to kill him by force.
The neighbors find the answer strange instead. If no one (Nobody) is attacking him, then he must simply be ill, they say — pray to your father, the god Poseidon — and they go straight back home.
The fake name given earlier turned out to be the final piece of the escape puzzle.
Escaping by Clinging Beneath the Sheep
At daybreak, Polyphemus, unable to see, lets the flock out while feeling each animal's back with his hands. He is checking whether a man might be riding on top. Every time his fingertips drew near, the men had to stifle even their breathing.
Odysseus and the surviving companions tie themselves firmly not on the sheep's backs but beneath their bellies. That way, by the narrowest of margins, they slip out of the cave unharmed and flee to where the ship waits.
Revealing His True Name and the Curse That Followed
Had they rowed away quietly, the story might have ended differently. But once the ship had put enough distance between them, Odysseus shouts his true name toward the shore. He himself reveals, at a moment when he did not have to, that the man who deceived and blinded him was not Nobody but Odysseus.
Hearing the real name, Polyphemus immediately offers a prayer to his father Poseidon. That prayer had not one aim but two: that Odysseus should never reach home at all, and that if he ever did, he should return very late, having lost all his companions, in wretched condition.
The first choice — to stay in the cave — and the final choice — to reveal his name even from a safe distance — collide within the same man. The price of handing his own name to an enemy whose father was the god of the sea was this prayer: that Odysseus's homecoming be blocked or delayed, and that he lose all his companions.
Where to Read the Original Source of This Episode
The events summarized here unfold in Book 9 of The Odyssey. Which god Odysseus meets after leaving this island, and what temptations and dangers he passes through before reaching home, continue across many more books that follow.
Characters Who Carry the Story Forward
You can find out why Polyphemus's father Poseidon came to hate Odysseus so deeply in the myth of Poseidon. The story of another god Odysseus meets after leaving this island, the master of the winds, can be found in the myth of Aeolus.
The tale of the sorceress Odysseus encounters on the voyages after the Cyclops island is covered in the myth of Circe, and where this episode sits within Odysseus's entire journey home is covered in the Odyssey plot in order.