Week 3 Storytelling: The Cyclopes That Wasn't

Yes, it's true. All of it is true. Cyclopes have no laws and no rules and no codes. We do not care about the incredibly rich soil we have been given by the gods. It does not matter to us that the rich soil sits alone, never to be tended by any one of us. The gods give us everything we want or need.

Wheat, barely and grapes of all sorts grow steadily everywhere. Zeus supplies us with an abundance of rain so plentiful that we can sit happily while food grows itself. We do not have to worry about anything.

But this... this life I lead is very dull and very boring. I am a lonely Cyclopes on this island of ours. I sit apart from the others, for I do not enjoy just sitting all day. I know I am far different from the others. I wish sometimes that I wasn't. I wish I could be lazy. I wish that I didn't care about not lifting a finger to do anything all day. I want to be like the others so I could fit in... but that will never happen.

Polyphemus by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein

(Source: Wikipedia)

I love waking up in the morning to the beautiful sun coming up over the mountains. I love watching and listening to the waves slap against the rocks near the shore. I love the feeling of accomplishing something. It fills my heart with happiness to know that when I get back my gave at night, after working in the fields all day, that I have done good work. Of course, I know the fields don't need my help but it's fun all the same.

The others have seen me working day in and day out in the fields. They joke and laugh at me. They think there is something wrong with me. At times I wonder if they'r right. I don't know why I can't be like them. Is there something wrong with me? I realize am very lucky. I live on the most incredible island, protected and supplied by the gods, yet I am not happy. I am not content. My heart aches for something it can't have.

I still have my sheep however. I tend to them throughout the day. I care for them as I would a friend. They bring me so much joy and without them, I would be completely alone. I know life will get better. This can't be all the gods have in store for me. So for now, I will wait for that change to come...

~~~

After many, many years later my life had changed, but not in the way I had hoped. I had finally changed into the monster I was born to be. When I got back to my cave, I tended to my sheep. After I finished getting my milk ready for supper, I looked up to a surprise in my cave... 

~~~

Then he lifted his door, a huge stone, and set it in place. Twenty-two four-wheeled wagons could not have carried it, yet such was the great rocky mass he used for a door. Then he sat and milked the ewes, and bleating goats in order, putting her young to each. Next he curdled half of the white milk, and stored the whey in wicker baskets, leaving the rest in pails for him to drink for his supper.

When he had busied himself at his tasks, and kindled a fire, he suddenly saw us, and said: "Strangers, who are you? Where do you sail from over the sea-roads? Are you on business, or do you roam at random, like pirates who chance their lives to bring evil to others?"

Author's Note: I chose to to talk more about the cyclopes than about Odysseus' journey back home. I like to learn about the backstory of characters which includes the monsters that fill his journey. My story talks about the cyclopes that Odysseus and his men encounter on the island. I decided to show why the cyclopes, Polyphemus, reacted the way he did. 

Bibliography: I chose to do my story over Odyssey: Prisoners of the Cyclopes. It is Homer's Odyssey translated into English by Tony Kline (2004).