Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.'We are from Troy, Achaeans, blown off courseby shifting gales on the Great South Sea;homeward bound, but taking routes and ways uncommon; so the will of Zeus would have it.We served under Agamemnon, son of Atreus—the whole world knows what cityhe laid waste, what armies he destroyed.It was our luck to come here; here we stand, beholden for your help, or any giftsyou give—as custom is to honor strangers.We would entreat you, great Sir, have a carefor the gods' courtesy; Zeus will avenge the unoffending guest.'He answered thisfrom his brute chest, unmoved:'You are a ninny,or else you come from the other end of nowhere,telling me, mind the gods! We Cyclopes care not a whistle for your thundering Zeusor all the gods in bliss; we have more force by far.I would not let you go for fear of Zeus—you or your friends—unless I had a whim to.
Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.but Cyclops went on filling up his bellywith manflesh and great gulps of whey,then lay down like a mast among his sheep.
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Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.My heart beat high now at the chance of action,and drawing the sharp sword from my hip I wentalong his flank to stab him where the midriffholds the liver. I had touched the spotwhen sudden fear stayed me: if I killed him we perished there as well, for we could nevermove his ponderous doorway slab aside.So we were left to groan and wait for morning.
Based on this excerpt, what inference can be made about Odysseus? Select two options.
Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.Neither reply nor pity came from him, but in one stride he clutched at my companions and caught two in his hands like squirming puppies to beat their brains out, spattering the floor.
Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.'AyeHe'll smash our timbers and our heads together!'I would not heed them in my glorying spirit, but let my anger flare and yelled:'Cyclops,if ever mortal man inquirehow you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes' son, whose home's on Ithaca!'
Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.At this he gave a mighty sob and rumbled: 'Now comes the weird upon me, spoken of old.A wizard, grand and wondrous, lived here—Telemus,a son of Euryinus; great length of dayshe had in wizardry among the Cyclopes,and these things he foretold for time to come: my great eye lost, and at Odysseus' hands.Always I had in mind some giant, armed in giant force, would come against me here.But this, but you—small, pitiful and twiggy—you put me down with wine, you blinded me. Come back, Odysseus, and I'll treat you well, praying the god of earthquake to befriend you—his son I am, for he by his avowalfathered me, and if he will, he mayheal me of this black wound—he and no other of all the happy gods or mortal men.’
Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.'My ship?Poseidon Lord, who sets the earth a-tremble, broke it up on the rocks at your land's end. A wind from seaward served him, drove us there. We are survivors, these good men and I.'
Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.'O Cyclops! Would you feast on my companions? Puny, am I, in a Caveman's hands?How do you like the beating that we gave you,you damned cannibal? Eater of guestsunder your roof! Zeus and the gods have paid you!'
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