The Odyssey

After the episode with the Trojan horse the war was over. Ulysses started to make his long journey home. This story is told in a collection of tales called the Odyssey and the hero is often called Odysseus instead of Ulysses, though they are one and the same person. The Greeks journeyed back towards their home but got blown off course by the strong winds. Eventually they saw land and decided to stop. They needed food and water before they could carry on with their journey.

As they landed on a beautiful shore with fruit trees and nut trees all bearing fruit Odysseus looked around and guessed that they had landed on the island of the Cyclops. The Cyclops were a feared nation of giants each with a huge eye in the middle of their forehead. The men started to explore when suddenly a cyclops saw them. He looked around at the sailors. Odysseus told him that they were shipwrecked and asked for shelter and food. He ate two of the men then asked Odysseus who he was. Odysseus answered that his name was nobody. The Cyclops locked them in his cave by rolling a huge stone across the door.
Odysseus tried to gain his freedom by offering Cyclops three bags of wine. The Cyclops drank the wine then fell into a deep sleep. While he was asleep Odysseus and his men tried to work out how to escape. They knew that they would all be eaten for supper. They sharpened a tree trunk into a point and blinded the Cyclops while he slept.

The Cyclops bellowed and shouted and screamed and raged. Other Cyclops people ran out of their homes to help him. They shouted
"Who hurt You?"
"Nobody hurt me. Nobody tricked and blinded me!"
"Well if nobody hurt, tricked or blinded you what are you shouting about?" They went back to bed.
The Cyclops was so angry he vowed that they would not escape and he would eat them all.
The following morning the men hoped to creep out when he let his sheep out to feed. They waited quietly for a chance to escape but Cyclops gave them no opportunity. During the night they made some more plans.
The following morning they carried out their plan. They tied the sheep in threes and hung a man underneath each threesome. The Cyclops ran is hand over their backs but missed the men underneath and so they escaped. They got back to their boat, took some of the sheep to help out with the food for their journey and continued on their way home.
When they were out at sea Odysseus shouted back that it was he who had blinded the Cyclops. Cyclops prayed to his god, Poseidon, god of the sea, to take revenge for him.