Polites hadn't been hit by the cyclops, but that isn't exactly a black and white good or bad thing. He didn't die, but he saw just as many horrors as everybody else on the crew, and now at Mutiny, he's seeing Odysseus and Eurylochus fight in real time. He, of course, wants to break it up, but what would he do? It's the captain, and second in command, there's not much to be done. That's when Odysseus was going to defeat Eurylochus only for Perimedes to stab him from behind; Polites was horrified.