Sunday, May 13, 2012

Difference between epic poem and the movie of Cyclops from the Odyssey

There are much difference between the movie and the epic poem laid out by master Homer. In the epic poem, Odysseus and his men waited in the cave for one full night before striking. In other words, they stayed in the cave for one night and one morning until Cyclops returned the next day. In the movie, however, the entire event of the eye-stabbing and escaping happened within the same night. Only two men were devoured in the movie when in the poem, six were. The first two were sacrificed in the first evening, two more for breakfast, and two more for the following evening when Odysseus planned his escape. Cyclops in the movie also didn't let any of his sheep into his cave, and therefore, Odysseus and his men did not escape the way they did in the book- by riding on the belly of one sheep chained to two other ships.He in the movie, escaped by putting sheep fur on top of his body.  Cyclops, of course, did not touch any of the sheep's head the way he touched it in the poem. In the epic poem, Odysseus also presented to Cyclops several bowls of wine( three?) before Cyclops passed out, and in the movie, only one bowl was presented. In the epic poem, Odysseus encouraged his four other men and they lunged the stick into Cyclops's eye together,  in the movie, only four men finished the task. When Cyclops screamed for help in the movie, his dialogue was shortened. Instead of saying " Nohbdy's Nohbdy's tricked me. Nohbdy's ruined me." in the movie, his dialogue was shorten into simply: " Nobhbdy's blinded me!" Quite interesting. Also, at the end of this story in the epic poem, Odysseus ordered his men to drive Cyclops's sheep onto his ship and row away quickly, the movie, nothing like that happened. After Odysseus and his men escaped and Cyclops launched his rock( in the story it was a hilltop)  at their ship, Odysseus's men complained to him for not being discreet but Odysseus did not listen. This part of the dialogue was cut out from the movie. Finally, in the end of the poem, Cyclops once begged Odysseus to return, that part was cut from the movie as well. Cyclops in the epic poem cursed Odysseus directly only after Odysseus provoked him further by saying if he could take Cyclops's life he would throw him into hell where Posiden cannot save it. In the movie, this part was eluded. I could go on and on about the major differences but the rest are mainly the elude of dialogue to make the movie a bit less tiring and ransom. Just another note, in the poem, Odysseus drove a steaming pike into the Cyclops eye while in the movie that wasn't exactly the case. There was also a guy in the movie that plays an instrument and was not mentioned in the poem.

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