Ego, Polyphēmus
Ego, Polyphēmus (I, Polyphemus) is a sheltered-vocabulary Latin novella published by Andrew Olimpi in 2018. It tells the story of the Cyclops Polyphemus, who is lonely and in search of a friend, but is shunned by all he meets. It is notable for It is notable for its reimagining of a mythological story from a new perspective based on several classical sources, and for being one of the few novellas to portray disability when Polyphemus loses his sight. It also is notable for its simple syntax: it has a very low number of words per sentence, and low number of subordinate clauses per sentence and T-units per sentence (meaning that very few sentences include multiple clauses joined together by conjunctions such as et, sed, and neque).Available from Amazon.
Reading level
The blurb on the back cover states that this novella is "suitable for all beginning readers of Latin"; other works by this author note that the beginning level is appropriate for first-year students. Comprehensible Antiquity puts this novella at Level B, and gives a full review here. It was also reviewed in The Classical Outlook (Vol. 93, No. 4); a link can be found here.
Diverse & Multicultural Identities
For information about how representation of multicultural and diverse identities is analyzed in LNDb, see here.Parallel cultures
No depictions identified.Gender
Features one cis male main character (Polyphemus). Features no cis female main characters or transgender main characters.Sexual identity
Features a depiction of heterosexual identity: Polyphemus falls in love with a female nymph, Galatea, who is in love with a man named Acis.SES/class
No depictions identified.Religion
No depictions identified.Disability
Late in the story, Polyphemus experiences a loss of sight when Ulysses pokes out his eye, and laments the fact that he has become blind. Though his disability is mentioned only at the end of the story, so few novellas feature disability at all that this instance bears mentioning.Language Statistics
Vocabulary
Word List
A complete word list for Ego, Polyphēmus can be found here.
Glosses
This novella contains glosses in the form of both footnotes with English translations and pictures. It also features many illustrations. While they are not glosses of particular words, they are meant to depict the events of the story in a way that supports comprehension on a level broader than individual words.
Of the 181 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 30 of them (16.6%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 2073 total words in the text, 51 of them (2.4%) are glossed.
Of the 181 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 30 of them (16.6%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 2073 total words in the text, 51 of them (2.4%) are glossed.
Glossary
This novella contains a Latin-English glossary, with every form of each word listed separately. The glossary is incomplete; some words used in the text are not found in the glossary. There are also some words found in the glossary that are not used in the text.
Syntax
Summary
Genre & Sources
This novella is in the genre of mythological (Classical).
It is an adaptation of the story of Polyphemus, found in the Odyssey (9.105–566), the Aeneid (3.548–691), and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (13.748–897). It also contains a loose adaptation of Catullus 5 and a few original hexameter verses.
It is an adaptation of the story of Polyphemus, found in the Odyssey (9.105–566), the Aeneid (3.548–691), and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (13.748–897). It also contains a loose adaptation of Catullus 5 and a few original hexameter verses.
CONTAINS SPOILERS
Polyphemus is a Cyclops who lives on Sicily as a shepherd. One day Greek men come into his cave. One of the men introduces himself as "Nobody" and offers offers to become his friend; Polyphemus accepts. There is a nymph named Galatea whom Polyphemus loves and wants to woo. "Nobody" suggests that he give her flowers because they smell good, but Polyphemus gives her sheep and cheese instead, which smell good to him. She does not like these gifts, so he tries to write her poetry, which she does not like either. He sees her with a human named Acis, who recites poetry to her. Polyphemus hears Galatea saying she loves Acis, and in anger, he crushes Acis with a rock, to Galatea’s misery. Back in the cave, "Nobody," wishing to go home, gets Polyphemus to drink wine until he falls asleep. While he is asleep, "Nobody" stabs Polyphemus in the eye and escapes from the cave. The other Cyclopes laugh at Polyphemus when he says that nobody poked his eye out, and Polyphemus is despondent. Then a Greek named Achaemenides tells Polyphemus that "Nobody"'s name was Ulysses and agrees to be Polyphemus's friend. They eat cheese together.
First 100 Words
Underlined words are glossed in the text.ego sum Polyphēmus. ego nōn sum vir hūmānus! rīdiculum est!
ego sum Cyclōps.
ecce oculus meus. ego ūnum oculum habeō.
ego familiam magnam habeō.
ecce frātrēs meī! ego multōs frātrēs habeō.
frātrēs meī sunt magnī. frātrēs meī sunt fortēs.
ego nōn sum magnus et fortis sīcut frātrēs meī.
aliī Cyclōpēs in monte Aetnā labōrant.
Cyclōpēs multās rēs faciunt. frequenter illī rēs metallicās faciunt. Difficile est rēs metallicās facere!
ego nōn sum fortis. ego nōlō rēs metallicās facere. ego nōlō in monte Aetnā labōrāre. mihi nōn placet mōns Aetna!
mihi placet animālia! ego sum pāstor. ego multās ovēs habeō. ecce ovēs meae! …
Supplementary Materials
If you have resources for Ego, Polyphēmus and would like to share them on LNDb, please contact me.Presentation
| Illustrations? | yes |
| Illustrator | Andrew Olimpi |
| Macrons? | yes |
| Font | Garamond, 18 pt |
| Pages of story | 53 |
| Total pages | 80 |
| Chapters | 10 |
Key Information
| Publication date | June 27, 2018 |
| Publisher | Comprehensible Classics (Createspace) |
| ISBN | 1719066434 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1719066433 |
