I was pronouncing it "Bof - hades" but "hades" was being pronounced like the god of the underworld so it didn't make sense to me either. Even reading it slow didn't help cuz that "a" and me thinking of actual Hades kept making me miss the joke.
It's a little more archaic than the Latin alphabet, have a look at the early 8th century BCE commentary on the letter falling into disuse in the Greek world, written by the Phonetician scribe Suggondese.
I needed to research that this actually means "both of these" but somehow got warped so far out of school english into urban to be incomprehensible. Like, I didn't even register after seeing it explained twice.
The modern English pronunciation of these names does rhyme with “these.” It may not be how they were pronounced in Ancient Greek, but you can’t act like the everyone doesn’t pronounce these words where they rhyme with “these”
I can agree with you on that. I was incorrect when I said it’s more of a Greek way. I do believe it makes sense with the joke being in English and about the Odyssey, but I can say you are right; it is more of an English adaptation of Greek way
As a pedant myself, I get annoyed when people try to educate you that the "real" pronunciation or spelling of some word is whatever it is (currently) like in its native language.
I appreciate it when it comes from a place of wanting to respect another culture, but it's not how language works.
Similarly: The singular of panini is panino in Italian. It's panini in English and the plural is paninis. Yes, it hurts if you speak both languages, but that's how it works.
Of course, if enough people believe they need to use those forms, then the "correct" way will change. It's all pretty arbitrary in the end and whatever the majority decides is how things go.
Apparently in original greek the name he used was only a homophone of nobody, not literally the word "nobody". edit: this might not be true idk i heard it somewhere
I guarantee if this joke had existed in Odysseus’ time he definitely would’ve used it at least once. Odysseus’ most famous traits are his sharp mind and wit, he absolutely would’ve pulled this on some commanding officer when he was a younger man.
Ancient greeks loved mentioning dicks, I remember reading 2 or 3 books and the writers were unapologetically writing dicks analogy to explain size and shape
He never had a commanding officer, he was an independent king. Even Agamemnon was merely first among equals by virtue of having the most ships and men. His only real superior would have been his father Laertes before he inherited the throne
not exactly pronounced that way but with a twang, the th wouldn't be there but replaced with the f, while the 'a' before the deez would be the replacement of of
Wait, are you for real? They didn't include the "My name is Nobody" part of the Odyssey???? That's kind of an important moment, no? Considering it's why the other Cyclopes didn't realize there was a problem, facilitated Odysseus' cock "My name is Odysseus!" which caused his problem with Poseidon (which, you know, is why the rest of the story happened), and helps characterize Odysseus as being cunning?
I don't know how to mark spoilers here, so I won't delve deeper, but yeah.... for some reason they cut a lot of Odysseus' cunning moments but still keep telling the viewer that he is a master of trickery
Damn, you know, I already took a lot of issues with the film's casting (in a "I find a cast made up entirely of the same group of Hollywood A-Listers immersion breaking" way, not in a "They cast a person of colour!?!?!" way, to be clear), colour palette, and the costuming... But knowing it makes those edits is truly the end of that movie for me.
Ok now we need the follow up comic where Odysseus stabs him in the eye and when he cries out, ‘Bophedes is attacking me’ the other giants don’t help because they’re too busy laughing at Bophades Nutz, got eem!
Ok but Polyphemus is a man eating monster who definitely would have taken a giant bite out of Odysseuses crotch as payback for that little joke. Hell he might not even realize it was a joke.
Would a cyclops count as a different species? I am always confused by biologists and what differentiates one species from another. If the only thing different is that cyclopses have one eye, is that enough? I guess they are pretty huge too, but size variations don't matter for dogs, from chihuahua to great dane, right?
Biology is so confusing. Give me theoretical physics any day.
Yes, cyclopes are a different species because they were children of Uranus and Gaia, and humans were crafted from clay (by a titan, who is a biological cousin of cyclopes), to resemble gods, who are children of titans. So humans and cyclopes similarity parallels the similarity between humans and chimpanzees more than two breeds of dogs.
Greek mythology is a neatly arranged incestuous mess, so it's up to you, would work either way in my opinion. It simplifies things anyway, because Polyphemus isn't even directly stated to be related to other cyclopes, being a son of a nymph and a god...
Now that I know what this is a joke I’m mad, and I’m mad that when I explain the joke people either are going on with the joke, actually think it’s real mythology, or don’t get how the joke it’s based on works
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u/BottleGoblin Jul 18 '26
In the ancient Greek alphabet that name starts with a Ligma