Bought at the Rossiya Mall, Erevan
ThIt is the tale of the hardship and voyage inflicted on Odysseus and other Atrides by Zeus. On his journey, Odysseus survives the battle with the Cicones in Ismarus, sails past Cythera, halts at the land of the lotus eaters and eventually reaches the land of the cyclops.
Spoilt by the gods and backward are the Cyclops in the eyes of Odysseus.
Interestingly, as he criticises the cyclops, Odysseus mentions the system of law and government before he mentions any other “earthlier” consideration like shipwrecks, artisans or plowing the land.
They have no meeting place for council, no laws either,
no, up on the mountain peaks they live in arching caverns –
each a law to himself, ruling his wives and children,
not a care in the world for any neighbour
Homer, In the One-Eyed Giant’s cave
Odysseus eventually triumphs over Polyphemus, using his civilised man’s cunning trick on the naive violent savage.
All over his journey, Odysseus craves the homeland, that homeland that was beautiful enough to renounce the lustrous goddess Calypso.
Day after day or as…
Young Dawn with her red-rose fingers shone once more
Homer, In the One-Eyed Giant’s cave
Odysseus triumphs over every difficulty.
As the German historian Raimund Schulz puts it in “Geschichte des antigen Grienchenlands”, Odysseus is polytropous : intelligent, cunning, able to adapt, tenacious.