"So, you ask me the name I’m known by, Cyclops?
I will tell you. But you must give me a guest-gift
as you’ve promised. Nobody – that’s my name. Nobody –
so my mother and father call me, all my friends."
But he boomed back at me from his ruthless heart,
"Nobody? I’ll eat Nobody last of all his friends –
I’ll eat the others first! That’s my gift to you!"
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 408-414. Odysseus tells Cyclops that his name is "Nobody." This is an example of Odysseus’ characteristic cunning and trickery, probably the most striking example in The Odyssey. The name forms part of a clever plan that Odysseus uses to escape from the Cyclops’ cave. It is also an example of verbal irony because Odysseus is King of Ithaca and not a nobody.