Las Vegas Odyssey
149
A troubled sail then takes the men to their adventures with a savage
monster, Polyphemus, leader of the Cyclops. The group of Cyclops, in stark
contrast to the Greeks or the Phaeceans, is not civilized:
Now the Cyclopes neither plant nor plough, but trust in
providence, and live on such wheat, barley, and grapes as
grow wild. . . They have no laws nor assemblies of the
people . . . (Homer, Australia. Book DC, para 6).
The one-eyed Cyclops match the most simplistic gambling machine, the onearmed Las Vegas bandits: slot machines for the basest form of Las Vegas
gambling. Like Polyphemus, the slots are merciless and devour the lives of those
who cannot resist their seductive nature. Slots, synecdoche for all gambling, are
located not only in every casino, but also in Vegas supermarkets and drug stores.
They are readily available and make gambling an easy diversion. Off-Strip
casinos have brought gambling into residential neighborhoods, making the
temptation omnipresent. Gambling suggests the arbitrary forces of nature, thenpromise of abundance, and their toying with human desire. Gambling is the
popular metaphor that embraces entrepreneurial energy and complexity.
Gambling on an investment, a company, or a sports event are all signs of virility,
self-confidence, and belief in the system that governs all layers of human
intercourse. Talk to a gambler and you’ll appreciate how the win or loss of a
wager reflects the self-esteem of the gambler. Talk to a gambler and you’ll hear,
‘T must have done something right.” Beating the odds means fate is rewarding
not only the gambling skill but the gambler as well.
Ulysses outwits the Cyclops with a gamble. Ulysses is rewarded for not
trusting the gods to save him. He uses his wits to gamble on an emancipatory
enterprise. Not only are the men able to escape the monster’s voracious appetite,
but Ulysses also gets Polyphemus drunk. Polyphemus’ drunkenness is another
sign that the monster stands for the gross lack of self-control ontologically
required of all civilized Las Vegas visitors: another of those obsessions that
nature serves up to test reason.
Like the many comedians who play Vegas, Ulysses tricks Polyphemus
with a play on words. When Polyphemus asks Ulysses’ name, Ulysses says,
“Nobody.” When Polyphemus is assaulted by Ulysses and screams for help,
when the other Cyclops ask him who is harming him, Polyphemus responds,
“Nobody.” He is never rescued (Homer 147). Although his wails for help can be
heard by his neighboring fellows, Polyphemus is ignored.
Ulysses is punished for having outwitted the gross Polyphemus when
his ship is blown to the island of the cannibals, the Laestrygonians. Consuming
the spiritual body of the Cyclops, as Ulysses had done, differs little in the mythic