Classics Essay
“Book Nine refers to Odysseus by the epithet ‘cunning’ or ‘clever.’ How appropriate is this in the context of Book Nine?
The epithet “Cunning” is appropriate in several sections of the book and highly inappropriate during others. In this essay I shall discuss points of cunning and stupidity and will conclude with an answer I feel is fitting of the book.
I will begin with the incident involving the Cicones. After the battle of Troy, Odysseus and his men arrive at the city of Ismarus, the city of the Cicones. The fleet decide that it looks nice and wealthy, and looting it will be a great idea, of course if it was as simple as that, it would’ve been a decent idea. Of course looting a city isn’t as simple as that and Odysseus managed to forget about the inhabitants and the people’s army. All was going to plan until the men became greedy and decided that rather than leave with the loot, they would ignore Odysseus’ idea to flee; “Then I said we ought to be off and show a clean pair of heels. But my fools of men refused.” From this quotation we can see that it isn’t entirely Odysseus’ fault, we do see a lack of leadership, and rather than make his men come with him, he ended up drinking and butchering sheep with them.
When the Cicone reinforcements arrived, there was a prolonged battle as Odysseus’ men were chased from the land. Six men from each of Odysseus’ ships were lost, but that wasn’t the only consequence. Due to Odysseus’ failings, Zeus “sent my fleet a terrible gale from the north.” Already we can see that Odysseus isn’t living up to his epithet and we are only one page into the book.
Following the storm that Zeus conjured up, we see Odysseus’ first act of cunning. The sea is extremely rough, and the ships are being pushed side along by the wind. The sails end up being ripped by the wind and Odysseus decides to take them down and row, subsequently saving them for certain doom. Though this isn’t an act worthy of tales for years to come, I feel that in giving this order he certainly saves his men and lives up to the epithet.
After surviving the storm, Odysseus and his men go ashore in the land of the lotus-eaters, a seemingly friendly people, that sadly had a vicious fruit that twisted the mind of his crew; “as soon as each had eaten the honeyed fruit of the plant, all thoughts of reporting to us or escaping were banished from his mind”. With this problem, Odysseus has to have a plan to take his men back as clearly the fruit is preventing them from even thinking about leaving the land of the lotus. His plan is one of minor brilliance and it involves the shackling and kidnapping of his own men before dragging them back to the ships – “I dragged them under the benches and left them in irons”. One could describe this as an act of cunning heroism, which of course justifies Odysseus’ epithet. Odysseus’ crew weren’t happy about this of course, but that doesn’t take anything from his cunning.
After leaving the land of the lotus-eaters, Odysseus’ band of men land in the land of the Cyclopes, giant humanoids with only one eye. Over the next few pages, Odysseus explains there coming to the land, and how they survive on the land before meeting Polyphemus. None of this has relevance to the epithet so rather than covering it in detail, here is a brief summary; After landing, they feast on the islands livestock – goats. After devouring the goats, the party decides to explore the island more and come across a cave full of cheese and milk. This cave is of course the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus.
Odysseus makes a big error of judgement in this cave and chooses to ignore his men;
‘Now my men’s ideas was first to make off with some of the cheeses, then come back, drive the kids and lambds quickly out of the pens down to the good ship, and so set sail across the salt water. They Pleaded with me; but though it would have been far better so, I was not persuaded.’
Odysseus is overcome with greed and chooses to wait for the inhabitant to return, as the ancient Greek code of hospitality involves giving gifts to your visitors. This idea sounds very cunning but it turns out to be the exact opposite. When Polyphemus returns, he starts off in a hospitable manner but grows bored of Odysseus’ men and subsequently becomes aggressive and devours two of Odysseus’ men on the spot and locks the rest up in a cave by rolling a giant boulder across the entrance so that he can have them for future meals.
After this calamity Odysseus has to conjure up a plan to escape from the wretched cave, at first he and his men try to move the boulder through force, this of course doesn’t work and yet again the epithet of clever and cunning is invalid.
Although Odysseus has made all the mistakes that resulted in being shut away in a cave, it is his cunning that allows them to escape. Odysseus plans to get Polyphemus drunk so that he and his men can trick their way out. The trick of course is destroying Polyphemus’ only eye by gouging it with a burning hot pole while the Cyclops is intoxicated, but that isn’t the really clever part. While drinking with Odysseus, Polyphemus asks him what his name is, Odysseus cunning replies “My name is Nobody. That is what I am called by my mother and father and by all my friends.” This quick thinking by Odysseus prevents the other Cyclopes from coming after him as Polyphemus exclaimed: “O my friends, it’s Nobody’s treachery, Nobody’s violence that is doing me to death.” The other Cyclopes labelled Polyphemus as being sick, a victim of lunacy, all while Odysseus and his men were fleeing to their ships. This great act makes the Epither very appropriate, but as we are about to find out he undoes all of his good work in a final act of arrogant stupidity.
As Odysseus’ is leaving he cries out to Polyphemus:
“Cyclops if anyone ever asks you how you came by your unsightly blindness, tell him your eye was put out by Odysses, Sacker of Cities, the son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.”
By doing this, Polyphemus, learns his real name, and subsequently informs his father, the God Poseidon. Poseidon burning with a lust for vengeance curses Odysseus, making sure that he won’t be able to return home for ten years. Poseidon’s curse is entirely Odysseus’ fault and makes Odysseus quite frankly, the epithet of ‘Idiotic’ and ‘Arrogant.’
After summing up the various acts of cunning and stupidity showed by Odysseus, I can quite easily say that I do not think that the epithet ‘Cunning’ is appropriate at all. One could argue Odysseus did many cunnings deeds, but I feel that it was always his mistake that led to him having to bail himself out. Odysseus put his men in bad situation after bad situation after bad situation and ended preventing a quick passage home. The epithet ‘cunning’ is not appropriate.