So howls Polyphemus the Cyclops to the other cyclopses outside his stone door. He’s been blinded by a giant spear in his one eye as he slept, a spear carved from a tree by Odysseus and his men. Now thrashing in agony in the darkness, the monster has attracted the other monsters with his howls.
“I’m blinded! I am killed!” he screams.
“Who did this to you, Polyphemus?” calls one outside.
“No Man did it! No Man killed me!”
“Well, if it is no man, then it is the work of the gods. Good bye!”
Polyphemus has been cruelly fooled, doubly so. For as Odysseus has poured brandy into the monster’s bowl and fooled him into drunkenness, and the monster has asked him his name, Odysseus has replied, “My name is No Man,” fooling him again.
Come hear this and other adventures from Odds Bodkin’s adult storytelling, THE ODYSSEY: BELLY OF THE BEAST, this coming Sunday in Cambridge, MA.
“a consummate storyteller” — The New York Times
“a modern-day Orpheus” — Billboard
Grendel’s Den on Harvard Square
Feb. 9 at 5:30 p.m.
Doors open at 5 p.m. for dinner.