Week 4 Story: Homer's Odyssey - Rewritten
Homer's Odyssey - Rewritten
With heavy hearts and many long days at sea, Cyclops and his one-eyed posse sailed upon to the land of the Humans. The land was good, but the conditions made the hungry sailors unable to find crops. However, they were guided by Nymphs to goats that filled their bellies for the time being. They rested for the night, deciding in the morning that Cyclops and 12 of his crew would explore the island of the Humans.
The next morning, Cyclops took his men and headed onto the island. They came upon a cave, which they could tell belonged to a human. They ate cheese from the cave and burnt an offering while they waited for the human to return, hoping to reason with it. However, the return of the human caused more harm than good. The human, who introduced himself as Odysseus, mocked Cyclops and his mates in the cave and ate two of them. They were trapped. Odysseus closed the stone behind them and completed his chores for the night, and went onto sleep.
Morning came, Odysseus ate his breakfast, which consisted of two more crew-mates, then headed out onto the island, leaving Cyclops and the remaining men trapped in his cave. Cyclops devised a plan while stuck in the cave, and waited for the human to return. When Odysseus returned, he snacked on two more of Cyclops' crew. Cyclops then offered him some wine he had, and Odysseus drank until he was drunk. He then asked Cyclops for his name, which he replied with "Nobody". Once the human fell into a drunken sleep, Cyclops and his crew poked out both of Odysseus' eyes. He cried out in pain, screaming to his fellow humans that "Nobody had blinded him". The other humans did not help, as they were told "nobody" hurt Odysseus. Cyclops and his crew escaped the blinded human and returned to their ship.
Cyclops and his crew then traveled to the Island of Aeaea. The crew went hungry for days, but then split into two groups to search for food. The group without Cyclops came upon a home of a mischievous god named Hermes. Hermes tricked this group with potion, then turned them into pigs. However, one escaped and told Cyclops of what had happened. Cyclops went to reason with Hermes, but on his way ran into the goddess Circe. Circe told Cyclops he would need to eat the moly herb to withstand the potion, and when he got to Hermes was able to outlast his trick. Hermes was impressed with Cyclops, the one-eyed genius and allowed him and his crew to stay and eat and drink for a year. Once a year had passed, Cyclops and his mates head back out to sea.
Source: Story rewritten from Homer's Odyssey Part A
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-homers-odyssey.html
My wow moment was my laughing throughout the whole story because of what ensued when you reversed the roles of the Cyclops and Odysseus. Because it was not explicitly stated that the human was now giant, I thought of a tiny human trapping a pack of giant cyclops in the cave, then eating two of the cyclops periodically. That would have been quite the meal. Now that the captor had two eyes they stabbed both out which was funny to me. I wonder why the other humans were so quick to dismiss foul play in the human that was now blinded, could they not see the cyclops standing just inside the cave? I wonder if both the cyclops and the humans were the same size, if the story would have turned out just the same, would the humans still tried to eat the cyclops?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could have done more to change the plot/story for the second island, rather than just change names, and done something more exciting like changing interaction with Hermes into a Hansel and Gretel situation.
Hi Clay!
ReplyDeleteThis story was so creative and I definitely think my favorite part was the picture you posted with it. I also thought it was kind of interesting how clever the Cyclops was during the entire story. He was clever enough to ultimately impress a God! It was also kind of cool that the roles were reversed from my understanding of the story since Odysseus eats two whole humans!
Hey again Clay!
ReplyDeleteI have to say that the combination of your prose and the character reversal made this read really entertaining. Because, as Nicholas said, of the preconceptions I have regarding these characters, the reversal was super amusing and fun, but your prose is really nice and has a genuineness, or seriousness about it. It's this juxtaposition that I actually really enjoyed. I think your opening line shows this perfectly: "With heavy hearts and many long days at sea, Cyclops and his one-eyed posse sailed upon to the land of the Humans". Great read.