Polyphemus

• Ody first aware of the Cyclopes when hearing sheep and smoke
• says they are fierce, have no laws or assemblies, live in mountain caves and don't cultivate any crops
• clearly barbarians and opposite of Ody's audience
• Odysseus' reason for staying in the cave is to exchange gifts
• Polyphemus dismisses xenia and suppliants
• claims that Cyclopes are stronger than the gods, and car nothing for Zeus
• when drunk, Polyphemus says his gift will be that he eats Ody last
• he isn't clever enough to detect Ody's lie about his lost ship
• not cunning enough to see the 'Nobody' name or see the fatal effects of the wine
• he is a monster
• he is a remarkably good housekeeper who has baskets full of cheese he has produced, keeps his lambs and kids secured in their own pens
• when he groans with agony, Ody's remark that he laughed at the way he tricked him perhaps reveals a callous side to Ody and highlights P's vulnerability
• he is a pathetic sight, sitting in the cave entrance in excruciating pain, imaging that his favourite ram is grieving for him
• his rock-throwing provokes Ody into revealing his identity
• uses the identity knowledge to pray to Poseidon for his and his crew's downfall
• in a perversion of xenia, the guest receives his parting gift
• gory detail of him smashing men's heads on the floor until brains run out and vomiting wine mixed with men's flesh or of Ody plunging a red-hot poker into his eye until it boils and sizzles is very vivid imagery
• the popularity of the Cyclops episode owes much to the strong visual possibilities of the drama
• his blinding and the escape under the sheep are favourites for sculpture and vase painting