In the original Odyssey by Homer we read about the conflict between Odysseus and Polyphemus. Polyphemus is the son of Poseidon and lives in Sicily, which happened to be one of the places that Odysseus landed during his travels. In the original Odyssey when Odysseus lands in Sicily it seems that Polyphemus is the villain. Polyphemus captures Odysseus and some of his men and locks them all away in a cave with a gigantic rock blocking their only way out. Homer then makes it seem that Odysseus gets Polyphemus drunk and stabbed his eye out as an act of self defense. However, this does not seem to be the same story we get in Mason's retelling of the myth. Rather than Polyphemus being the villian, which Homer made him out to be, Odysseus is the real villain. Before Odysseus and his men came along, Polyphemus was living a peaceful life alone. He lived in the cave which was lovely to stay in both in the winter and the summer. His normal life consisted of taking care of his goats, making cheese, fishing, and cutting firewood. When Odysseus and his men landed on Sicily, they all just invaded Polyphemus' home when he was not home. Polyphemus was in shock when he returned to his humble home to find strangers sitting within his cave. In an attempt to scare them off he struck one of the men with his staff. Then after the man fell to the floor injured, Odysseus tried to apologise for intruding. All of them then enjoyed a nice dinner, where Odysseus said his name was Nobody. Eventually, Polyphemus fell asleep as Odysseus dragged on about his adventures. While Polyphemus was asleep Odysseus stabbed him in the eye with a spear. When Polyphemus awoke out of his sleep he was then embarrassed as he yelled "Nobody stabbed me". It is completely clear that Odysseus is the villain of the story. The pain that Odysseus and his men caused to Polyphemus was extremely uncalled for. All Polyphemus wanted to do was live a happy and peaceful life. Odysseus is a cold hearted, evil, and wick man who only focuses on himself, which is clearly painted in the interaction between Odysseus and Polyphemus. Aside from this incident with Polyphemus there are multiple other times we see Odysseus being cold hearted and self centered. Throughout his adventures his men get themselves into situations that Odysseus needs to help them get out of, but when he helps he does not focus on saving his men, rather he focuses on saving himself. When Odysseus' men get into trouble with Circe, and are transformed into pigs, Odysseus is not focused on saving his men but rather he is focused on Circe. This pattern continues until Odysseus returns home with virtually no men. He always made it seem like he sacrificed himself for his men, but it was really his curiosity getting the best of him, like when he allowed himself to hear what the sirens were saying as his men rowed the ship through the territory. We need to start looking at Odysseus like the villain he is and less like the hero he pretended to be. It has gone on long enough that Polyphemus has been seen as the villian, he deserves justice.
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"So much has slipped away, but the smell of death lingers. Maybe the smell has entered my body and been welcomed there like an old friend come to visit" (House of Names, pg. 3). Death has plagued the house of Atreus, and it does not stop with those who are related by blood to the family but also those who married into the family. Clytemnestra allowed the curse to consume her every being even welcoming it into her life, which ended in her murder. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra were married and had three children Iphigenia, Electra, and Orestes. As Agamemnon prepared his army for war against Troy, he was told to sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, to Artemis to lift the curse of terrible weather. Clytemnestra and the children were brought to the camp where Agamemnon was preparing his soldiers for war, excitedly waiting for what they believed was the wedding of Iphigenia and Achilles. Upon arrival however, it was made clear they were not there for a wedding but rather a sacrifice of Iphigenia's murder. This anger from that day on only fueled Clytemnestra everyday while Agamemnon was away at war. Her anger stemmed from the lie she was told about her daughter being brought to the camp to be married, and then was fueled as she watched her daughter be dragged to her death. Clytemnestra never wanted to see her daughter die, but the blood curse was still going strong in the family. The curse got to Clytemnestra from the moment she witnessed the sacrifice. As it is written, "Murder makes us ravenous, fills the soul with satisfaction that is fierce and then luscious enough to create a taste for further satisfaction" (House of Names, pgs. 3-4). Clytemnestra's witness of the murder of her daughter made her ravenous for revenge against her husband, which she methodically plotted while he was away in Troy. She used Aegisthus to find the woman who could weave poison into fabrics, and she had the woman make a robe that when put onto Agamemnon would paralysis him. The day Agamemnon returned from battle, when he went to bathe himself, Clytemnestra followed him into the room and placed the robe on him and took a knife to his neck and killed him on the spot. Her passion to avenge her daughter drove her to murder her husband. Without the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Agamemnon may have never died at the hands of his own wife, but because of the choices he made the blood curse came back at him with vengeance. Now her murder had to serve it's own consequence, just as Agamemnon served his. Not only was Clytemnestra driven to murder, but so was her daughter, Electra, who wanted to revenge on her mother for how she was raised and the lack of power she had. Electra used her brother, Orestes, to murder her mother rather than get her own hands dirty. Orestes waited in the garden while his mother picked flowers and as she attempted to get back inside after seeing a guard being stopped by two others she was murdered by her own son. He stabbed her in the back while attempting to cut her neck. It wasn't Orestes' own anger that led to the death of his mother, but rather his sister's anger that she implanted into him. The story of Clytemnestra started with the murder of her daughter and ended in her own murder. Murder, bloodshed, and death haunts the House of Atreus and all who enters it's doors.
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November 2021
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