This is kind of a throwback blog for me. Below is a one-day writing assignment that I did for my Great Books class. An encomium is a speech or piece of writing that praises someone who maybe doesn't get praised often. We read "The Odyssey" last fall and I think the cyclops deserves some praise after getting a bad review from Odysseus. This is my encomium:
The cover is not the book, even when the cover is a man-eating monster. To take a single glimpse of a single being in a single society favored greatly by all the gods and define the being as just an obstacle is callous. Monsters are Odysseus’s obstacles, yes, but the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, the Cyclops, is not a monster in being, even if he is in form. Thus, he cannot be defined as just Odysseus’s second obstacle and first failure. Looking to the gods who hold all power and to cunning Odysseus, brash and deceiving, I vindicate blind Polyphemus from his own reputation as the monstrous obstacle he is not. His father is Poseidon, a god forever yearning for justice in battles and life. Polyphemus too has this virtue.
The gods who never die bless the land of the Cyclops, fulfilling always the never fading trust of her inhabitants. Though they do not fear the gods as the mortals do, perhaps the trust and faith in their power is greater principled. The land flourishes for these lonesome creatures caring for their livestock, Polyphemus, lacking a wife and children, perhaps the loneliest of all. Yet, he governs himself peacefully among the creatures on the island, caring carefully for each of his rams, even as they are already blessed by the gods, able to know them by touch alone in his blindness. In a community known by Odysseus and his crew as not caring for any neighbor, the one who does care for their neighbor as their friend is praiseworthy. As Polyphemus cried out in pain, his neighbors called to him asking of his ailment and the one-eyed giant could call back ‘friends’ in his time of greatest need, though duped by Odysseus he was. The cheese-eating, wine-loving Polyphemus cannot be blamed for his fearful acts of violence or his hideous appearance. Instead, he must be praised for his gentleness to his creatures in all his power and his neighborliness in all his desire to be in solitude.
Finding fault in the hero Odysseus may not be easy to do, remembering his crew mates snatched up by the man-eating Cyclops, but we must justly do so in order to properly celebrate Polyphemus. Odysseus sees a monster that looks by his eyes to be cruel and disabling and he turns into that cruel beast in heart, deceiving and disabling them in vaunting laughter. His curious spirit drives him and his crew into Polyphemus’s dwelling: intruders and thieves. They do not deserve the mortal hospitality they beg for and do not receive. Polyphemus knows not of their customs, but Polyphemus knows what is his and what is not theirs. Thus he yearns for justice. Yet, he does not enact immediate justice. Indeed, he does eat one of Odysseus’s men, but they are food to him, making this action almost normal in an odd sense. The most praiseworthy action of the man-eating creature is his dedication to listen to Odysseus. This action, meeting the warrior halfway in his demands for gifts, leads him down a road to be deceived. The deceiver who deceives the one who does not know deceit is wicked; Odysseus is the deceiving one. Praise the one who seeks to enact fair judgement and not the one who seeks to avoid it! This is a way to liberate Polyphemus from the reputation Odysseus spread.
How can one call Polyphemus a lawless brute? He is governed by his own laws; he is gentle, trusting, and just. How can one say Polyphemus’s actions were monstrous and evil? He extended grace to a trespasser, listening to only be deceived. Ultimately, how can one call Polyphemus an obstacle? He is a being with his own life, ruined in part by Odysseus. He is lonesome but happy and far from an obstacle; he is praiseworthy.
Check out another throwback to school on my YouTube channel! Posted just this Tuesday, it's a fun (and funny) video of my Rube Goldberg Physics Project.
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