Odyssey 9.500 · Book 9, lines 500–505
Odysseus shouts his name
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ὣς φάσαν, ἀλλʼ οὐ πεῖθον ἐμὸν μεγαλήτορα θυμόν, ἀλλά μιν ἄψορρον προσέφην κεκοτηότι θυμῷ·
Odysseus — Κύκλωψ, αἴ κέν τίς σε καταθνητῶν ἀνθρώπων ὀφθαλμοῦ εἴρηται ἀεικελίην ἀλαωτύν, φάσθαι Ὀδυσσῆα πτολιπόρθιον ἐξαλαῶσαι, υἱὸν Λαέρτεω, Ἰθάκῃ ἔνι οἰκίʼ ἔχοντα.
So they spoke, but they did not persuade my great-hearted spirit; but instead I addressed him back again with a wrathful heart: Cyclops, if ever anyone of mortal men should ask you about your eye's shameful blinding, say that Odysseus, sacker of cities, blinded you — the son of Laertes, who has his home in Ithaca.
Word by word
The setting
Ignoring his crew, Odysseus calls back to the blinded giant — and this time gives his true name, his father, and his home.
A note on this passage
This is the fatal turn of the whole poem. The crew's warning fails; against it Odysseus shouts back his true name and titles — Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, of Ithaca — and hands the giant everything he needs. The man who survived the cave by calling himself 'Nobody' now insists on being someone.
The undercurrent is the price of a name. Earlier the trick of Οὖτις, 'Nobody,' saved them; here the hunger for recognition throws it away. With the address 'Ithaca,' Polyphemus can at last pray to Poseidon by name against a known enemy — the curse that will cost Odysseus his ship, his men, and ten more years. Kleos, the fame he cannot resist, and nostos, the homecoming, pull against each other, and here fame wins.
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