This is also the genius of the trap Odysseus sets—a trap that is, fundamentally, a social structure. His impunity lies in his ability to dictate the terms of his visibility, his knowability. He makes Polyphemus blind not only physically but socially: for now he can no longer know, or even name, the one who has injured him. Odysseus shows us how to destroy a life without ever having to be accountable for it. Does the life of a savage even count as a life?
