Analysis of The Cyclops

As a minor part in the Odyssey, the cyclops is mainly a foil to Odysseus's cunning and trickery. When he traps them in his cave, Odysseus quickly thinks up a plan and executes it brilliantly. From first getting the Cyclops drunk on wine, then telling him his name is Nobody, then blinding him. He is then able to escape and avoid being attacked by other Cyclopes, but also carries away sheep with him. Polyphemus is portrayed as simple and easily tricked, because of Odysseus's cunning. This also sets up a foil, but weighs the two for their merit: being deceitful, intelligent, and dishonest, or being ignorant, kind and somewhat tenderhearted. It it first appears that the Cyclops is far from "tenderhearted", but once he is blinded, we see his relationship with his sheep, and how much he loves them, his dejected prayer to his father, and all this casts him in a sympathetic light. Odysseus has however been criticized for his trickery as it is lying and deceitful oftentimes.