Polyphemus

“But since we’ve chanced on you, we’re at your knees

In hopes of a warm welcome, even a guest gift,

The sort that hosts give strangers. That’s the custom.

Respect the Gods, my friend. We’re suppliants – at your mercy!

Zeus of the strangers guards all guests and suppliants:

Strangers are sacred – Zeus will avenge their rights!”

(The Odyssey, Book 9, Lines 300-305)

     The Odyssey is a vast and sprawling epic which defies an easy summary. Thematically, it embraces practically the whole of human experience. Among its many repeated themes is the sacred duty of Hospitality to Strangers. (Something it has in common with the Hebrew Scriptures, a.k.a., the “Old Testament”. Contrary to popular misconception, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not sexual depravity, but their inhospitality toward and mistreatment of “the stranger in their midst”.) It’s not difficult to understand how important such a concept would be in a world with nothing even analogous to our modern state, with no “international law” and no diplomatic support, where to venture outside the narrow confines of one’s home was to leave all security behind. The traveler (and even more so, the refugee) was totally dependent upon the good will and kindness of strangers.

     Thus the Cyclops is not condemned for being a monster per se, but for failing to give welcome to Odysseus and his crew, who find themselves his unwilling “guests”.

     Now we see Seaton and his companions literally washed ashore (they land in the ocean) on the planet Osnome. In short order they find themselves the “guests” (or more properly, the captives) of Nalboon, the King (Domak) of Mardonale. At first, all seems well. The party of Earthmen and women are treated to a state banquet in their honor and, outwardly at least, are given every courtesy due to visiting dignitaries. But under the surface, their erstwhile host is plotting to murder his guests and steal their spacecraft with all its secrets (a common theme in mid-20th Century Science Fiction). For Dunark’s kingdom is engaged in a pitiless war against Osnome’s other great power, Kondal, and the possession of a fleet of such crafts would give Mardonale a decisive advantage. After fortuitously learning of the nefarious designs against himself and his companions, Seaton plots his escape. But unlike Odysseus’s reliance on craftiness and deception in his escape from the cyclops, Seaton basically blasts his way out, leaving a trail of destruction behind, and taking with him a number of high ranking Kondalian prisoners, whom he rescued from their captivity.

Odysseus's son Telemachus welcomed by Nestor

     The welcome in Kondal could hardly be more different, as the terrestrial party is given a hero’s welcome. It turns out that the captives Seaton rescued from Mardonale were all high ranking royalty, to include the crown prince himself. (Did I not warn you that The Skylark of Space was riddled with improbable coincidences?) The following two chapters are among the most “domestic” of the entire novel, and center around the marriages of Dick Seaton with Dorothy Vaneman, and Martin Crane with Margaret Spencer. For a time, it appears our little adventure might be over, as the Skylark is repaired from the heavy damage it suffered during the escape from Mardonale, and our travelers prepare for their homeward voyage. That is, until war erupts once again…