The Odyssey Group

Question:

mh515
mh515
Teacher
High School - 9th Grade

Looking for the answer to a bit of trivia: In book 9 of "The Odyssey", how heavy is the door of the Cyclops's cave?

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Posted by mh515 on Tuesday August 5, 2008 at 6:54 PM and tagged with book 9, cave, cyclopes, odyssey, the odyssey.

Answers:


  1. urthona

    eNotes Editor

    Best answer as selected by question asker.

    Homer does not provide an exact weight for Polyphemus's cave door (actually a large boulder). Odysseus describes the door as:

    • “a tremendous, massive slab -- no twenty-two wagons, rugged and four-wheeled, could budge the boulder off the ground” [Fagles translation]
    • “no twenty-two of the best four-wheeled wagons could have taken that weight off the ground and carried it” [Lattimore translation]
    • “so huge that two and twenty strong four-wheeled waggons would not be enough to draw it from its place against the doorway” [Butler translation]

    (Note that the singular form is Cyclops and the plural form is Cyclopes.)

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/odyssey

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    Posted by urthona on Wednesday August 6, 2008 at 5:03 AM