Cyclops

The first and second episodes of the play flesh out the key characters, developing their personalities and motivations. As in many of his plays, Euripides showcases his interest in The Nature of Masculinity. In Cyclops, not all of Euripides characters are human, but Euripides uses even mythical creatures such as Silenus and the Cyclops to reflect on how men are supposed to behave. Silenus and the Chorus of satyrs, for example, are increasingly highlighted as representatives of cowardice and greed. Though Silenus expresses compassion for Odysseus and his men when they arrive on the island of the Cyclopes, this does not prevent him from betraying them to save himself, telling Polyphemus a lie about how Odysseus and his men tried to rob him. Odysseus, reprising his role in Homeric epic, is cunning and level-headed. When Polyphemus captures Odysseus and his men, Odysseus devises a plan to escape, enlisting the help of the satyrs to do so. Polyphemus himself, meanwhile, is the image of uncivilized impiety. He and the Cyclopes are characterized as “savages” (120) who live without agriculture (a tell-tale sign of an uncultured society to the ancient Greeks). Moreover, Polyphemus does not honor or fear the gods, remarking that “Money’s the wise man’s religion […] / The rest is mere bluff and purple patches” (316-17).

The Uses of Language also continues to be an important theme. Silenus recognizes Odysseus right away as “a glib sharper” (104), and Odysseus does indeed manipulate language to his own ends on several occasions. His attempts to persuade Polyphemus to show mercy to him and his men are crowned by set speeches that he exchanges with his captor. This debate scene, known as an agon, was an important trope in Attic drama. Odysseus’s speeches place a premium on piety, with Odysseus making the clever if xenophobic case that the Greeks saved the temples of all the gods from barbarian aggression by defeating the Trojans. Polyphemus has no interest in such things, so his own speech is full of insolent blasphemies that cast the Cyclops in the role of an impious braggart. Silenus, not unlike Odysseus, also shows himself gifted at manipulating the truth to suit his ends. He convinces Polyphemus that his fabricated story about Odysseus’s attempted robbery is true by making an emphatic, but false, oath. Silenus’s self-serving bid to win over the Cyclops proves more effective than Odysseus’s misguided attempt to inspire in the creature a fear of the gods.

As in the prologue and parodos, natural imagery is used to stress the diverging views and motivations of the characters. The Cyclopes’ lack of interest in taming nature by developing agriculture and building houses becomes the principal evidence for their savagery. On the other hand, nature has no power against the Cyclops: He boasts that Zeus’s storms cannot touch him when he takes shelter in his cave, and even sets the gastronomic processes of his belly as rivals to Zeus’s thunder:

When Zeus

Pours down rain, I take shelter in this cave

And feast myself on roast veal or venison.

Then I stretch myself and wash down the meal,

Flooding my belly with a vat of milk.

Then I strike it with my hand, louder than ever

Zeus can thunder (323-29).

Polyphemus views nature as subservient to him, something he has no need to fear or tame. However, in the end, the Cyclops is destined to discover that civilization and its clever arts, symbolized by Odysseus, are a force to be reckoned with—even if nature is not.

This section displays the humor and lampoonery that marked satyr plays. The elevated agon oration of Odysseus comes across as bombast when countered by the earthy interjections of Polyphemus. Similarly, by making ribald jokes about the sexual availability of Helen to all the Greek soldiers returning her from Troy, the play ridicules the lofty ideals of loyalty and honor that mark the most important narrative of the Trojan War—Homer’s Iliad. Finally, even the somber genre of the tragedy itself is mocked, as the Chorus’s second stasimon—a song meant to crystallize the emotional and moral tenor of a tragic play—is here undercut by the Cyclops singing drunkenly and off-key. His bad performance takes a swipe at theatrical tradition.