10th Standard English, NON-DETAIL
Ulysses and the Cyclops
II. COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS:
Answer briefly the following questions.
- Who were Cyclops?
Answer: The Cyclops dwell, a sort of giant shepherds who lived in caves, on the steep heads of mountains. - Pick any five details to show that they were not civilized.
Answer: neither sow nor plough, but the earth untilled produces for them rich wheat and barley and grapes, yet they have neither bread nor wine, nor know the arts of cultivation, nor care to know them for they live each man to himself, without laws or government or anything like a state or kingdom; but their dwellings are in caves, on the steep heads of mountains, every man’s household governed by his own caprice or not governed at all. Ships or boats they have none, no trade or commerce, or wish to visit other shores; yet they have convenient places for harbours and for shipping. - Why did Ulysses and his men enter the habitation of the Cyclop?
Answer: Ulysses, with a chosen party of twelve followers, landed, to explore what sort of men dwelt there,-whether hospitable and friendly to strangers, or altogether wild and savage, for as yet no dwellers appeared in sight. - Read the last four sentences of paragraph 2 and try to draw the picture of Polyphemus (savage face, massive body, one eye….)
Answer: Student - How strong was the Greek wine?
Answer: Greek wine was so strong that no one ever drank it without an infusion of twenty parts of water to one of wine, yet the fragrance of it even then so delicious, that it would have vexed a man who smelled it to abstain from tasting it; but whoever tasted it, it was able to raise his courage to the height of heroic deeds. - How did Ulysses introduce himself and his group to the Cyclop?
Answer: Ulysses introduced himself and said that they came nei¬ther for plunder nor business, but were Grecians, who had lost their way, returning from Troy. Yet now they prostrated themselves humbly before his feet. - What horrid response did the Cyclop give to Ulysses, request for hospitality?
Answer: Cyclop was response nothing, but gripping two of the nearest of them as if they had been no more than children, he dashed their brains out against the earth, and (shocking to relate) tore in pieces their limbs, and devoured them, yet warm and trembling, making a lion’s meal of them, lapping the blood. - What prevented Ulysses from attacking the Cyclop with his sword?
Answer: Ulysses drew his sword, and half resolved to thrust it with all his might in at the bosom of the sleeping monster; but wiser thoughts restrained him, else they had there without help all perished, for none but Polyphemus himself could have removed that mass of stone which he had placed to guard the entrance. - How did Ulysses prove that “manly wisdom excels brutish force”?
Answer: Ulysses hatched a plot to incapacitate the Cyclop and escape from the cave alive. Ulysses waxed bold with the contemplation of his project, and took a bowl of Greek wine, and merrily dared the Cyclop to drink. He chose a stake from among the wood which the Cyclop had piled up for firing, in length and thickness like a mast, which he sharpened, and hardened in the fire; and selected four men, and instructed them what they should do with his stake and made them perfect in their parts. - What ‘gift’ does the Cyclop offer Ulysses in return for the wine?
Answer: Cyclop offer a gift to Ulysses in return for the wine and said “this is the kindness I will show thee, Noman: I will eat you last of all your friends.” He had scarce expressed his savage kindness when the fumes of the strong wine overcame him. - How do the brave Greeks blind the Cyclop?
Answer: They placed the sharp end of the stake in the fire till it was heated red-hot; and some god gave them a courage beyond that which they were used to have, and the four men with difficulty bored the sharp end of the huge stake, which they had heated red-hot, right into the eye of the drunken cannibal. He becomes a blind. - Why didn’t the fellow Cyclops help Polyphemus when he cried out for help?
Answer: When the fellow Cyclops came flocking from all parts to inquire what trouped Polyphemus, Polyphemus replied that that Noman had hurt him. Noman had killed him, Noman was with him in the cave. They replied, “If no man has hurt thee, and no man is with thee then thou art alone; and the evil which affects thee is from the hand of Heaven, which none can resist or help.” So they left him and didn’t help Polyphemus. - How did Ulysses help his men escape from the cave?
Answer: Ulysses made knots of the osier twigs upon which the Cyclop commonly slept, with which he tied the fattest and fleeciest of the rams together, three in a rank; and under the middle ram he tied a man. And now the sheep began to issue forth very fast: as they passed, he felt the backs of those fleecy wools, never dreaming that they carried his enemies under them. So they passed on till the last ram came loaded with his wool and Ulysses together. - How did Ulysses himself escape from the cave?
Answer: Ulysses wrapping himself fast with both his hands in the rich wool of one, the fairest of the flock. Polyphemus removed the stone, and sat in the threshold, feeling if he could lay hold on any man going out with the sheep. They passed on till the last ram came loaded with his wool and Ulysses together. He stopped that ram, and felt him, and had his hand once in the hair of Ulysses, yet knew it not. But he didn’t recognize Ulysses. - How did Ulysses introduce himself to the Cyclop at the end of the story?
Answer: Ulysses introduce himself to the Cyclop at the end of the story as “if any ask thee who imposed on thee that unsightly blemish in thine eye, say it was Ulysses, son of Laertes, the King of Ithaca am I called, the waster of cities”.
III. NOTE ON THE AUTHOR:
Charles Lamb (1775-1834) born in London, was a great essayist (Essays of Elia), a poet and a much loved story teller. He, with his sister Mary Ann Lamb, wrote Tales from Shakespeare designed to make Shakespeare familiar to the young. His Adventures of Ulysses from which Ulysses and the Cyclops is an extract, was another successful attempt aimed at familiarising the Greek epic The Odyssey to the young.
