Source A: Homer, Odyssey 9
Odysseus and twelve companions reach the Cyclops' cave while its owner is out.
'We soon reached the cave, but did not find him inside; he was grazing his fat flocks in the pasture. We went into the cave and looked at everything. There were racks loaded with cheeses, and pens crowded with lambs and kids. Each kind was penned separately: the older ones in one place, the middle ones in another, and the newborn in another. All his well-made vessels, the pails and bowls he milked into, were brimming with whey.'
Later Polyphemus returns, drives his flocks inside and blocks the entrance with a huge stone.
'He sat down and milked the ewes and bleating goats, each in its turn, and put a young one under each mother. Then he curdled half of the white milk, gathered it up and laid it in woven baskets, and put the other half in bowls, to drink with his supper.'
To what extent is Polyphemus presented as a monster? Use Source A as a starting point and your own knowledge.
Model answer
Source A presents Polyphemus as a careful and skilled shepherd rather than a monster. His cave is orderly: racks 'loaded with cheeses', pens 'crowded with lambs and kids', each age group penned separately, and pails and bowls brimming with whey. He milks his ewes and goats 'each in its turn', puts a young one under each mother, and makes cheese from half of the milk. This is the routine of a hard-working farmer.
Elsewhere, though, Polyphemus is clearly a monster. Odysseus describes him as 'a monstrous marvel', not like a bread-eating man but like a wooded mountain peak, living alone with lawlessness in his heart. He blocks the cave with a stone that twenty-two wagons could not have moved. He scorns Zeus and the rules of xenia, and he eats six of Odysseus' men, dashing them to the ground 'like puppies' and eating them 'like a mountain lion', entrails, flesh and bones. His 'guest-gift' is to eat Nobody last. After the blinding he hurls rocks at the ship and prays to Poseidon to ruin Odysseus' homecoming.
Yet Homer also makes him pitiable. When the great ram leaves the cave last, Polyphemus speaks to it tenderly, 'My dear ram', imagining it is grieving for its master's eye. He is blind and in pain, and he has been tricked by a man he calls a worthless weakling. Some readers feel sympathy for him, especially since Odysseus entered his cave uninvited and ate his cheese.
In conclusion, Polyphemus is presented as a monster to a great extent - his cannibalism and contempt for the gods put him outside civilisation - but the source and the ram scene show that he is also a skilled keeper of livestock with real feelings for his animals. Homer makes him more complex than a simple beast, which makes his savagery towards humans all the more shocking.
