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In a more direct fashion, Polyphemos is representative of specific aspects of his father, the god Poseidon. Polyphemos's name means, roughly, "many fames-, and he is portrayed as crude and uncouth, a savage who practices cannibalism. He is also egotistical and sacrilegious, scorning Zeus and the gods by claiming that the Kyklopes "have more force by far- (p.153) than the Olympians. Poseidon, to the ancient Greeks, was a nearly unfathomable deity, a force of nature represented by the thundering waves, earthquakes, and disaster. In the mind of a man, this force could be reflected as the destructive chaotic impulses which can lead to mental confusion and eventually insanity. If Polyphemos is Poseidon's son, then the clear implication is that the "many fames- he represents are the result or fruition of acts of chaos and destruction. Polyphemos is the embodiment of Odysseus's experience during and after the Trojan War, or on a larger scale, of war in general. He is a cannibal because the fame that Odysseus and others have gained in ransacking Troy has come at the cost of many good men's lives. The Kyklops kills and devours Odysseus's shipmates, just as the war consumed many that sailed with him to Troy. The Kyklopes were "giants, louts, without a law to bless them- (p.148). This lack of civilization or regulation implies the barbarity and lawlessness of war.
If the "many fames- gained by bloodshed and war are closely related to the forces of Poseidon, as implied by Homer, then Odysseus's attempt to escape the clutches of Polyphemos was really his attempt to free himself from the madness that can be brought about by the experience of brutal combat. He is able to manage this escape through the use of a carefully devised plan. Since strategy and cunning are traits that belong to Athena, who has long been absent from Odysseus, this can be seen as the return of some degree of clarity to Odysseus's mind.
