The case study I chose for the Odyssey takes place in book nine when Odysseus and his men encounter the hostile cyclops islands following their departure from the land of Lotus Eaters, where several of his men become essentially hypnotized by the allure of the lotus fruit. After sailing to the cyclops’ island, Odysseus and his men unassumingly enter the cave home of Polyphemus, a cyclops who raises goats on the rocky and desolate island. They slaughter and consume some of the goats around the island, eventually stumbling into the cyclops’ lair, greeted with the sights of goat milk and cheese about the home. Upon the return of Polyphemus, the cyclops notices their presence and consumption of his goods, and eats two of the men in a fit of rage despite Odysseus’ attempts to establish a sense of hospitality between the two. With the crew trapped in the cave now with Polyphemus, Odysseus faced a difficult decision to make, and had considered striking the cyclops in quick fashion, but ultimately chose to be patient. The following day, he presents a gift to Polyphemus, some of the red wine that the crew had brought with them. Polyphemus accept this gift, and becomes intoxicated, asking what Odysseus’s name is. Odysseus responds with “nobody” as his name, and once the cyclops had passed out from his intoxication Odysseus jumped on the opportunity to attack and blind Polyphemus by stabbing his eye. Since he had proclaimed his name to be “nobody,” the cyclops faltered around shouting that “nobody” was attacking him, which provided a further unscathed escape by Odysseus and his men, but not before Polyphemus calls out in anguish for them to be cursed by the gods, thus concluding book nine.

A couple of lines particularly stood out for me when analyzing this book and the instances of hospitality that are prominent. The first of these two instances is Odysseus’s attempt to reason with the cyclops for their presence in his home, stating “Now we beg you, here at your knees, to grant a gift, as is the norm for hosts and guests” (Book 9, 248). This line helped me understand that Odysseus was under the impression that the cyclops could be hospitable and reason with their difficult journey. The narrator depicts his naive decision to take without asking, especially in a foreign land. Just previously, some of his men had become addicted to the lotus fruit, and now they had tried to take the products gathered by the cyclops. Later in his attempts to trick the cyclops, Odysseus proclaims “you have eaten human meat; now drink some wine, sample the merchandise our ship contains. I brought it as a holy offering” (Book 9, 251). Odysseus still attempts to reason with the cyclops in order to trick him into becoming intoxicated, thus allowing his men to escape, which does work in his favor, when he blinds the passed out cyclops and successfully returns to his ship. He remains true to his character of hospitality in some form, but in this case he uses it to his advantage. He still maintains his composure in his second attempt at ‘hospitality.’ His interpretation of hospitality is heavily biased and he does not often take signals of inhospitable situations, especially with the barren desolate land of the cyclops, with goats and the cyclops as the only sustainable life forms, partially showing his tendency to be naive.