• lawless — no central government

• dirty — smashes brains on the floor

• isolated — lives alone

• working class — shepherd

• stupid — fails to trick Odysseus

Alas, Odysseus does not go so far. Aside from the passing remark about cannibalism, he refuses throughout his telling to conceive of Polyphemus as a true person. Polyphemus is but a lower monster which has been bested by Odysseus in a righteous quest. Continually Polyphemus is contrasted binarily with the Greeks and Phaeacians, degraded on the basis of difference. The product is an unpersoned Polyphemus who, even as he shows anger, sorrow, and lucidity, is detached from his humanity. "A monster" (211), Odysseus calls Polyphemus, "a man-mountain" (213), "some giant" (239), "the ruthless brute" (323).

In "A Glossary of Haunting" from the Handbook of Autoethnography, Eve Tuck and C. Ree explore the concept of "making-killable", or dehumanizing a people so much that killing them becomes acceptable, and specifically why this is done to Polyphemus. Odysseus, through degradation of the Cyclops in his account, and the way that his blinding of Polyphemus is brushed aside as the justified and natural way of things, show how "[m]aking-killable turns people and animals into always already objects ready for violence, genocide, and slavery" (649).

Odysseus tells others as less than human, while building up his own personhood from the same dichotomies. Of course, he contrasts the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops with himself to show how much better he is, but in many places he also commits the same supposed crimes that define inhumanity. Of these contradictions Homer seems self-aware. However, they appear to function in the text not to condemn Odysseus's beliefs but to grant him endearing flaws and let the reader doublethink their way into loving him.

In Book VIII, in an epic simile, Homer compares Odysseus's tears over the memory of war to the sobbing of a woman of a city which has been sacked. The reader is clearly conscious that Odysseus has sacked several cities himself along with the very men he is crying about. If the reader has been following the entire poem, though, then Odysseus's actions were mechanisms of an honorable war. The irony celebrates, not condemns, the consequences of war. It allows the reader to feel sympathy for the woman while at the same time believing that the sacking simply had to be done. The same illogic follows in Book IX when Odysseus discusses how he sacked the city of the Cicones with gusto, only to then mourn his "poor" comrades who were killed in retaliation (74).

Book IX of The Odyssey spends a great deal of substance asserting the superiority of Greek cultures. Odysseus can seemingly do everything—communicate with the gods, steer ships, manage a company of troops, perform superhuman feats of strength. The comparisons between "civilized" and "uncivilized" people establish agriculture, central governments, republics, and etiquette as desirable, almost inherent traits. This definition of goodness may be interpreted as the main purpose of The Odyssey, and indeed it has been one of its largest legacies. The Homeric works had an enormous impact on Mediterranean educations, later Greek educations, and still today's educations, acting as indoctrinating material into the Greek standards of etiquette, civilization, religion, and personhood. In a way, by producing by far the most lasting account of the Cyclops with so little sympathy for them, Odysseus has killed Polyphemus and other non-Western people in real life, breaking the reader-facing wall of his world.

However, the critical reader is encouraged to view Book IX as a story created from both sides. To assume the true eye of Polyphemus is to realize that Odysseus is, to him, a fiction, no doubt replayed endlessly in his memory. Keeping with the interpretation of memory as story and life, Tuck and Ree enunciate the personal narrative of Odysseus, not the story he tells to the Phaeacians, but his own memory of Polyphemus. "A Glossary of Haunting" is an intriguing work about the concept of haunting, and imagines the Odysseus that is a little more guilt-ridden than he lets on. The ghosts of Polyphemus and all other victims of Odysseus take revenge in Odysseus's head as a subconscious karmic anxiety. As punishment, Odysseus inadvertently placed Polyphemus in all of our heads as well, extending the lifespan of the Cyclops potentially for eternity.

Upon my first rereading of Book IX, I immediately noticed with dismay the uncanny resemblance between Odysseus and many colonizing thinkers. A common theme across most imperial motivations (Chinese, Japanese, European) is the assumption of superiority of one's own culture over another, and this case in The Odyssey is discussed above. Odysseus reminded me specifically of a couple of examples from European literature which express many of the same sentiments he does about foreigners.

Firstly, John Locke's Second Treatise of Government envisions a pre-social structure similar to that of the Cyclops. Every person lives alone and manages their own property without government. The Greeks and Europeans, however, live under centralized rule that protects them better than they could themselves and that is the natural outcome of complete anarchy. Since the Cyclops have not yet passed this stage in Odysseus's worldview, he considers their society lawless and less civilized.

Secondly, Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden" urges the United States (we'll discuss that soon) to civilize, by colonizing, the Philippines. Odysseus makes brief attempts to threaten Polyphemus into "civility", citing the godly consequences of not following Greek guest-host protocol, but ultimately gives up and resorts to figuratively killing Polyphemus, deeming Cyclops culture not worth living in and not worth saving.

Where Odysseus really shines is as an American. Confronted with a new land inhabited by indigenous people, he aligns remarkably well with the settler-colonial ideals of the United States.

The lush natural paradise of the Cyclops calls to him, a taunting oasis that he does not yet command. He yearns for a more civilized people to control the land so that they might exploit it better. It pains him to see the Cyclops underutilize this prize resource that has been given to them and, even worse, prosper anyway. According to the principle of manifest destiny, the Cyclops do not deserve to live on this land, and the Greeks, as their god-chosen superiors, may take what they please, starting with the cheese from Polyphemus's home. Like in manifest destiny again, Odysseus calls upon the god Athena for the wisdom and courage to blind Polyphemus, legitimizing his violence as God's will.

Odysseus's sentiments on the ease with which the Cyclops sustain themselves also mirror the American capitalist ideals of hard work. Labor is honorable—you should have to work to get what you have. The Cyclops don't have to work to grow food, but the Greeks do. How is that fair? This is a fundamental effect of envy in worlds built around ambition as success. Odysseus's treatment of the Lotus-eaters reminded me of how the United States retaliated to the caricature of the lazy person. Just as the United States criminalized marijuana for its association with Mexican immigrants, Odysseus criminalizes lotus for its association with the Lotus-eaters. The product of both stories is the reduction of the "other" to a mindless addict.

Odysseus neither anticipates nor receives legal punishment for sacking cities and blinding Polyphemus. In fact, he is regarded as a brave hero for both. Like state-sponsored murders of indigenous people in the United States, Odysseus's crimes bring him honor because the people he perpetrates them against are not full humans, but lesser pests taking up the land. He can use any dirty tactic against Polyphemus: take advantage of his hospitality, ply him with alcohol, blind him with his own club.

A project in humanizing Polyphemus. Since I don't want to sing, the lyrics will be shown, and it is up to you to put them to music in your head. Listening the first time, pair the high melody to the lyrics shown in the top half of the screen. On the second, pair the low melody to the lyrics shown in the bottom half of the screen.