The Odyssey: the Cyclops and Circe (Books 9-10)

Two hosts, one test

Books 9 and 10 give you two encounters that look nothing alike and are the same question asked twice. Odysseus and his men arrive somewhere they were not invited, and in each case the person they meet has to decide how to treat a stranger. Polyphemus decides badly and openly: he eats some of the men, and Odysseus blinds him and escapes by a trick. Circe decides badly and pleasantly: she welcomes the men and transforms them, and Odysseus has to confront her. That is the whole outline, and this module will not add to it, because the detail belongs in your own copy of the poem. What the specification asks you to do with it is think about three things: xenia, deceit, and the line between civilisation and barbarism. Get those three straight and both episodes open up.

Quote your own edition

Something specific to this option that catches people out. Your exam board permits more than one translation of the Odyssey, so there is no single official wording. Two students revising the same episode can be holding sentences that differ in almost every word, and both are correct. That has a practical consequence. Never memorise a quotation from a website, a revision guide, or this module, because it will not match the book in front of you. Learn where the important moments are, and take your quotations from your own edition. It is also why this module narrates the episodes rather than quoting them: printing one translator's wording here would look authoritative and would mislead half of you.

The rules of xenia

Xenia is the single most useful idea for these two books. It is not politeness. It is a set of obligations that both sides owe, and breaking them is a serious matter rather than a rude one.

Who is testing whom

The chain of decisions

Put the stages of the Cyclops episode into order. Each is a decision by somebody, which is why the episode is a test rather than an accident.

• Odysseus and his men enter the home of someone who has not invited them
• The host returns and finds strangers in his house
• The host treats his guests as prey rather than as guests
• Odysseus gives a false name, so that any cry for help will be useless
• The host is blinded and the survivors escape by a trick

Why this episode is set

Of the reasons below, which best explains why the Polyphemus episode is such a useful one for a question about xenia?

• Because it shows every obligation of a host being inverted, so it defines xenia by showing its exact opposite
• Because it is the most exciting episode in the poem
• Because it proves that monsters existed in the world the poem describes
• Because it shows that Odysseus is cleverer than everyone he meets

Two ways to fail a guest

The two episodes mirror each other. Setting them side by side is the fastest route to an argument rather than a retelling.

Which two break xenia?

Select the TWO actions that break the obligations of xenia as this option defines them.

• A host who harms the strangers who have come into his house
• A host who offers a welcome in order to trap the people who accept it
• A guest who gives a false name to a host who has already attacked him
• A host who feeds a stranger before asking who they are

Retelling or arguing

All four sentences are accurate. Select the ONE that argues rather than retells.

• Odysseus gives the host a false name, and later the host calls out for help.
• The false name matters because it makes the host unable to describe what has happened to him, which turns a physical escape into a verbal one.
• After the men are trapped, Odysseus forms a plan and the survivors get away.
• Circe welcomes the men into her house and they are transformed.

Where the deceit sits

Deceit runs through both episodes, but it does not stay with the same person. With Polyphemus, the host is openly _____, and deceit is what _____ the guest. With Circe, the host appears _____, and deceit is what _____ him. Noticing that the theme _____ between the two episodes is worth more in an answer than noticing that it appears in both.

A paragraph that argues

Here is the shape of a paragraph that would score well, with no quotation in it, so that you can see the argument doing the work. The two hosts of Books 9 and 10 fail the same test in opposite ways, and the contrast is what makes the theme visible. Polyphemus breaks xenia by force, and because the breach is open, the reader knows immediately where the danger lies. Circe breaks it by offering exactly what a guest expects and turning it against him, so the danger is invisible until it has already worked. It can be argued that the second is the more troubling of the two, since a host who is obviously hostile leaves the rule intact while a host who weaponises hospitality makes the rule itself unsafe to rely on. Notice three things. It compares rather than narrating in turn. It says it can be argued rather than announcing what the poem proves. And it would be strengthened, not replaced, by a short quotation from your own edition dropped into the middle of it.

What the contrast is built from

The specification names civilisation against barbarism as a theme for these books. When you go to your own copy to gather evidence for it, what should you be looking for?

• How the people Odysseus meets live and organise themselves, and how they treat a stranger who arrives
• How frightening or monstrous each figure is described as looking
• Which side wins each encounter
• Which gods are mentioned in each episode

Build the argument

Assemble a sentence in the register the Literature section rewards.

Judging the evidence

You are answering a Literature question on Books 9 and 10 that asks how far these episodes explore the idea of hospitality. Take the decisions in order.

• How should you structure the answer?
• You want to include a quotation. Where should it come from?
• You want to say something about what the episodes mean. How do you phrase it?
• You have room for one more paragraph. Which addition is worth most?

Plan the answer

Open your own copy of Books 9 and 10. Plan an answer to the question: how far do these two episodes explore the obligations between a host and a guest? Write the plan in prose.

• State the comparison you will build the answer around, in one sentence
• Give one thing Polyphemus does that breaks the obligations of a host, and say which obligation it breaks
• Give one thing about the Circe episode that breaks them differently, and explain the difference
• Explain where deceit sits in each episode, and who is using it
• Name one moment in your own edition you would quote, and say what it would prove
• Finish with a judgement phrased as something that can be argued rather than as a fact