Summary
He names himself, and his home, and begins. From Troy the wind took them to Ismarus, city of the Cicones, which they sacked; his men refused to leave and the Cicones' inland kinsmen counter-attacked, killing six from each ship.
A storm drives them past Cythera to the land of the Lotus-Eaters, whose food removes the desire to return. He drags the affected men back to the ships weeping and binds them under the benches.
They reach the land of the Cyclopes. Odysseus takes twelve men to a cave, against advice, wanting to see what its owner will give. Polyphemus returns, seals the cave with a stone, and eats two men; he asks the guest-gift question and answers it himself by promising to eat 'Nobody' last.
Odysseus gives his name as Outis, 'Nobody', gets the Cyclops drunk on strong wine, and blinds him with a sharpened olive stake. The neighbouring Cyclopes, hearing that Nobody is killing him, go away. The men escape under the bellies of the rams. From the ship, against his crew's pleading, Odysseus shouts his true name and patronymic, and Polyphemus prays to his father Poseidon for vengeance.
Narrative function
Supplies the cause of Poseidon's hostility and therefore of the entire remaining wandering, and demonstrates in a single episode both the hero's cunning and the flaw that undoes it.
Greek concepts in this book
- mētis
- Cunning intelligence. The Outis pun is mētis in its purest form: the trick is entirely linguistic, and the Greek for 'nobody' and for 'cunning' are near neighbours in sound.
- xenia
- Hospitality, here inverted. Polyphemus asks for no news, offers no food, and makes his guest-gift the order of eating.
- themis
- The Cyclopes are introduced as people without assemblies, without law-courts, and without established right — the poem's definition of savagery is political rather than physical.
Connections to other books
Book 5
Explains retrospectively why Poseidon has been pursuing him since Book 5.
Book 11
Tiresias's prophecy is framed as the working-out of Polyphemus's curse.
Book 12
The pattern of crew disobedience begun at Ismarus culminates at Thrinacia.
Source notes
Book 9 is where the poem's narration changes hands: everything from 9.39 to the end of Book 12 is Odysseus speaking. The Outis/mē tis wordplay is untranslatable and is the reason the episode is usually thinner in any other language, including English.
Reading it responsibly
The taunt at the end is the hinge of the poem. Having escaped by making himself nameless, Odysseus cannot bear to leave without his name attached to the feat — and giving his name is precisely what allows the curse to find him. The poem's hero is undone by the desire for kleos operating against the intelligence that had just saved him. This is characterisation of a very high order, and no adaptation that drops the Outis trick can reproduce it.