Reading Notes: Homer's Odyssey, Part A

In Homer's Odyssey, I would like to have more information about the backgrounds of the men that were with Homer. When reading, you get the whole story from one point of view. You see the way that Homer thinks, the plans he has and the way he sees things around him. However, the men that are with him are almost silent characters. I realized this specifically when they were in the giant's cave. It is interesting to me that Homer is the only one talking to the giant and that a) he lies to the giant and everyone seems to just understand his reasoning for this and b) that two men were the ones killed and eaten by the giant when they weren't the ones speaking to him. I would like to have seen more into the reactions from the men not only when Homer is speaking to the giant but also when their friends die in front of them. 

Again, when they are leaving the island after escaping the cyclopes, Homer is yelling and taunting the cyclopes while the cyclopes is throwing things at their ships. I would have loved to see inside the minds of the men that were begging him to stop. They must have thought that he was incredibly dumb to be taunting something that could honestly still kill them. 

(Odysseus and Polyphemus, by Bocklin)