Week 3 Story: Polyphemus' Side to an Unfortunate Story
My name is Polyphemus and I have an unfortunate story to tell you. This story revolves around the reason I have this giant bandage over my eye. These men... Odysseus and his men. Let me tell you my side of the story and how I got injured.
The Cyclops
It was just like any other day. The same routine that I always do. I left my cave to complete some tasks. I soon arrived back to my cave in order to milk my ewes. That is when I saw the men that had been hiding in my cave. I questioned their presence and they begin to tell me to fear the gods. My short temper did not handle this well. I filled with rage that they obviously think so little of me to tell me what to fear in my own cave. After this, I grabbed two of their men so that they would fear me, but I ended up eating them for dinner. Oops. This might have been savagely, but I had to make an example out of the two men so that the rest of the crew would not treat me with such an attitude. This might have backfired.
I kept them in my cave and made a plan. I would continue to eat the men until they seem to want to make some sort of a deal. Some man whose name was Nobody finally made an attempt to be nice. He even offered me some wine! I gladly drank the sweet drink and out of spite, I told Nobody that I would be kind and eat him last out of all of his friends. Like I said before, I have a short temper and I say things before truly thinking about it. I truly believe that this is where I went wrong. The wine was all a ploy in their escape. While I was unconscious due to the poisonous wine, they took part of my olive branch, made it steaming hot from the fire, and stabbed me in the eye with it! It was the most painful feeling I have ever felt in my entire life. I screamed in pain and they manage to escape. My fellow Cyclopes yelled out if I needed help. I exclaimed that Nobody is trying to hurt me and get away. They simply did not understand.
The glass of wine that was poisoned by Odysseus and his men
Nobody and his men managed to get on their boats and leave the island. I began to throw rocks in an attempt to crash their boat. It was my last ditch effort to have some good meals! What can I say, they were tasty! Nobody yelled out and told me that his name was actually Odysseus. With this, I will spend the rest of my life waiting for my revenge on Odysseus, the monster that took my only eye and deprived me of more delicious meals.
Author's Note
This story is the Cyclops', Polyphemus, side to the story of how Odysseus blinded him. In the Odyssey, Odysseus and his men wander into a mysterious cave. They soon get trapped by a giant Cyclops. The Cyclops is mean and eats some of his men. Polyphemus traps the men in his cave and continues to eat Odysseus' men. The remaining men plan to poison the cyclops in order to blind him so that they can leave the cave and get back onto their boat. The plan works and the cyclops is left throwing rocks at their boat as they get away. I decided to tell a story that focuses on the cyclops point of view. It is interesting to tell a story from a different side/angle than the original. I hope that you all enjoy!
Bibliography
Homer's Odyssey by Tony Kline, online source
I love how you told the story from the point of view of the cyclops. Thus is a good strategy to changing a story and at the same time making the villain not look like the bad guy. I did this in my first story. The story does confuse me at the end. I am not sure if the cyclops is permanently blinded or if it was for temporary a second for he knew they got on boats and attempted to throw rocks at them. But in the beginning he had bandages on his eye. Other than this is was a great story.
ReplyDeleteHey Hannah, I thought that your story concept is excellent. This is a well done retelling told through the villain’s, and or opponent’s, point of view. I thought the writing was also well suited to how a cyclops would sound retelling the story. I wonder if this was intentional, and if you could make the bias more extreme. I thought the way you retold the story by having the cyclops retelling events after the fact was interesting. Your use of descriptive imagery and action fit this well. What if, you defined the audience as another cyclops or the father of Polyphemus. It could be interesting to use this same frame of reference with dialogue as a medium. Listening to two cyclopes bemoan their defeat could be a funny way to recreate this story. Another interesting perspective could be telling this story through the point of view of the sheep. Overall excellent job retelling this story, the plot development and characters were really good.
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