Polyphemus the Cyclops

Sailing home from the ruins of Troy, Odysseus and a company of his men put ashore on an island inhabited by the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants who lived apart from ordinary society, tending flocks of sheep and goats. Curious and hoping for hospitality, Odysseus led a dozen men into the cave of one such giant, Polyphemus, son of the sea god Poseidon.

Polyphemus returned to find the Greeks inside his home, sealed the cave shut behind him with a boulder no ordinary man could move, and began devouring Odysseus's crew two at a time. Trapped with no way to fight a creature of such size and strength directly, Odysseus offered the giant strong wine, and when Polyphemus asked his name, Odysseus answered cleverly: "Nobody."

Once the wine had put the giant into a drunken sleep, Odysseus and his remaining men sharpened a wooden stake, heated its point in the fire, and drove it into Polyphemus's single eye. Blinded and screaming in agony, the giant called out to his fellow Cyclopes for help, but when they asked who had hurt him, he could only answer "Nobody," and his neighbors, hearing this, left him alone.

The next morning, Odysseus and his men escaped by clinging to the bellies of Polyphemus's own sheep as the blind giant felt along their backs, searching in vain for the men riding beneath. Safely aboard his ship, Odysseus could not resist shouting his true name back at the shore in triumph: a fatal mistake, since Polyphemus prayed to his father Poseidon to curse Odysseus with a long, disastrous journey home, a curse the sea god would spend the next ten years fulfilling.