...Answer: You are "Noman" (aka Odysseus)

In the Odyssey of Homer, Book IX, when Odysseus and his men were trapped in the cave by the Cyclops Polyphemus, who alone was strong enough to move the boulder that blocked the opening, Odysseus decided to get the monster drunk, then put his eye out.

From Book IX:

"I then gave him some more; three times did I fill the bowl for him, and three times did he drain it without thought or heed; then, when I saw that the wine had got into his head, I said to him as plausibly as I could: 'Cyclops, you ask my name and I will tell it you; give me, therefore, the present you promised me; my name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends have always called me.'

"But the cruel wretch said, 'Then I will eat all Noman's comrades before Noman himself, and will keep Noman for the last. This is the present that I will make him.'"

[Later after he blinds Polyphemus, the Cyclops cries out for help from his fellow giants:]

"'What ails you, Polyphemus,' said they, 'that you make such a noise, breaking the stillness of the night, and preventing us from being able to sleep? Surely no man is carrying off your sheep? Surely no man is trying to kill you either by fraud or by force?

"But Polyphemus shouted to them from inside the cave, 'Noman is killing me by fraud! Noman is killing me by force!'

"'Then,' said they, 'if no man is attacking you, you must be ill; when Jove makes people ill, there is no help for it, and you had better pray to your father Neptune.'

"Then they went away, and I laughed inwardly at the success of my clever stratagem..."

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...And this concludes our Classical Literature 101 lecture for today.

On Monday we'll be reviewing James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake".

Edited on April 28, 2006, 6:15 pm

Posted by Penny on 2006-04-28 18:13:31