Polyphemus Perverse: Response

'Polyphemus Perverse' is a poem that discusses what the Cyclops Polyphemus thinks about what he felt, thought, and did when Odysseus and his men came to his island. One major thing that he does is totally disregard the extremely important (at least to the Greeks) Greek rule of xenia. The Ancient Greeks were strict in what they called xenia, or what we today would probably call hospitality. They paid it great attention when having any guests at their residence. Polyphemus shows great disrespect to the visitors, Odysseus and his crew, and says he does what he did, such as eating a few of his men, because they had greatly disrespected him as well. He tries to excuse himself further by saying that he does not follow their rules of xenia and does not care about the whole idea at all. He is even angrier when he is blinded, not really understanding why Odysseus did it. . Although it is easily understandable of Polyphemus's greay anger, even by today's standards, eating your guests is taking the entire situation much too far; however, by the Greeks' idea of xenia, eating your guests is incredibly dishonorable, hugely disrespectful, and, to them, would anger Zeus very much.