Ulysses blinding Polyphemus Flashcards
How long ago does the marble work date back to?
1st century BC.
Who does the marble work attribute to?
Attributed to Agesander, Athenodorus and Polydorus (all from Rhodes).
What is it based off?
Book 9 from Homer’s “Odyssey”, in which Ulysses gives the Cyclops wine to dull his senses before blinding him with a pole his men had made red hot.
The roots of his eye “sputtered in fire”.
What happened before the event (the marble work is based off) took place?
Odysseus and his men sail to the land of the Cyclops (Sicily) and made a meal of wild goats captured on an island offshore before they cross the mainland. There they find a cave full of sheep and crates of milk and cheese.
Odysseus decides to linger at the cave despite his crew advising to hurry off. Polyphemus, the cyclops son of Poseidon, returns and finds them. He was hospitable at first, but turns hostile. He devours two of his men and imprisons Odysseus and the rest for future meals.
How did they blind Polyphemus?
While Polyphemus was out, Odysseys finds a staff in the cave and hardens it with fire. Once the cyclops returned, he was offered and accepted wine from Odysseus - resulting in him getting drunk.
He asks for Odysseus’ name, to which he replied “Nobody”. Falling into intoxication, Odysseus’ men proceed to drive the red-hot staff to his eye. Hearing the shriek, his neighbors check on him but leaves when Polyphemus says “Nobody is killing me”.
