The Cyclopes were one-eyed beings in Greek mythology, with different traditions referring to different types. Hesiod told of three sons of Uranus and Gaea who created thunderbolts and other weapons for the gods. Homer’s Odyssey features the Cyclops Polyphemus, who imprisons Odysseus and his men but is eventually defeated. Polyphemus also appears in other myths, including his failed attempts to woo the nymph Galatea.
In Greek mythology a cyclops was a one-eyed being, but there are different traditions that refer to different types of cyclops. Hesiod told of three sons of Uranus and Gaea, the Cyclopes – which is the plural form – who each had one eye. They were thrown into Tartarus, but were freed by Zeus during the overthrow of Cronus.
These three Titans were called Brontes, which means “thunder”; Steropes, meaning “thunderbolt” or creator of lightning; and Arges, which means “brilliant.” In Hesiod, they were the creators of the thunderbolts and thunderbolts of Zeus, the helmet of Hades and the trident of Poseidon.
Another tradition has it that the Cyclops serve Hephaestus in his forge. In this tale, they are blacksmiths, stoking the volcanic fires at which Hephaestus makes armor for the gods and goddesses. For example, in a hymn by Callimachus, Artemis asks Zeus for arrows and a bow forged by the Cyclopes. Yet another tradition considers them a Thracian tribe, named after their king and the builders of the Cyclopean walls.
But perhaps the best-known version of a cyclops is that of Homer’s Odyssey. On Odysseus’ return journey, he comes across a gigantic race of shepherds who live in lawless caves. Interested to see what kind of gift they will give him, Odysseus takes twelve of his men’s gods to visit them and waits in the cave of one of them for the return of their host. The Cyclops they meet is the one called Polyphemus. When Polyphemus returns home with his flocks, which spend the night with him in the cave, instead of greeting them and sharing food and gifts and waiting for them, he imprisons them in the cave and eats two of the men. Odysseus devises a cunning plan to escape. He gets Polyphemus drunk, gouges out his eye, and helps his men escape by clinging to the bottom of the flock as they emerge from the cave in the morning.
Since Odysseus told Polyphemus his name is “No man,” when the Cyclops cries for help, it seems to his fellow Cyclops that he’s saying “no man is killing me” — that’s no cause for concern. But aboard his ship, Odysseus reveals his true name, which allows Polyphemus to call upon his father, Poseidon, to avenge him, resulting in a very, very long journey for Odysseus and his shipmates, as Poseidon prevents their return. At home.
This particular Cyclops, Polyphemus, also appears in a poem by Theocritus and an account by Ovid, which tell of the Cyclops’ attempts to woo a nymph named Galatea, after killing her lover Acis. Galatea managed to turn Acis into a river while she was dying, but she was never interested in Polyphemus. This myth is told in John Gay’s libretto for Georg Friederich Handel’s opera Aci e Galatea. It was also the subject of an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully with a libretto by Jean Galbert de Campistron called Acis et Galatée.
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