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Cyclops

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   In Greek mythology a Cyclops, or Kyklops ( Greek Κύκλωψ), is a member
   of a primordial race of giants, each with a single round eye in the
   middle of its forehead. The plural is Cyclopes or Kyklopes ( Greek
   Κύκλωπες). The name means "round-" or "wheel-eyed".

   Hesiod describes one group of cyclopes and Homer describes another. In
   Hesiod's Theogony, Zeus releases the Cyclopes, the sons of the sky (
   Uranus) and the earth ( Gaia), from the dark pit of Tartarus. They
   provide Zeus's thunderbolt, Hades' helmet of invisibility, and
   Poseidon's trident, and the gods use these weapons to defeat the
   titans. In a famous passages of Homer's Odyssey, the hero Odysseus
   encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and a nereid (
   Thoosa), who lives with his fellow Cyclopes in a distant country. The
   connection between the two groups has been debated in antiquity and by
   modern scholars.

Hesiod's Cyclops

   The Cyclops, a 1914 painting by Odilon Redon.
   The Cyclops, a 1914 painting by Odilon Redon.

   In the Theogony, the Cyclopes— Brontes (thunderer), Steropes () and
   Arges (brightener)—were the sons of Uranus ("Sky") and Gaia ("Earth").
   Like their brothers, the Hecatonchires ("hundred-handed ones"), they
   were primordial sons of Sky and Earth. They were giants with a single
   eye in the middle of their forehead and a foul disposition. According
   to Hesiod, they were strong, stubborn, and "abrupt of emotion".
   Collectively they eventually became synonyms for brute strength and
   power, and their name was invoked in connection with massive masonry
   and especially well-crafted weapons.

   Uranus, fearing their strength, locked them in Tartarus. Cronus,
   another son of Uranus and Gaia, later freed the Cyclopes, along with
   the Hecatonchires, after he had castrated and overthrown Uranus. But
   Cronus then placed them back in Tartarus, where they remained, guarded
   by the she-dragon Campe, until freed by Zeus. They fashioned
   thunderbolts for Zeus to use as weapons, and helped him overthrow
   Cronus and the other Titans. The thunderbolts, which became Zeus'
   signature weapons, were forged by all three Cyclopes: Arges added
   brightness, Brontes added thunder, and Steropes added lightning.

   These Cyclopes also created Poseidon's trident, Artemis' bow and arrow,
   and the helmet that Hades gave to Perseus on his quest to kill Medusa.
   According to a hymn of Callimachus, they were Hephaestus' helpers at
   the forge. The Cyclopes were said to have built the "cyclopean"
   fortifications at Tiryns and Mycenae in the Peloponnese. The noises
   proceeding from the heart of volcanoes were attributed to their
   operations.

   It is said that these Cyclopes were later killed by Apollo after Zeus
   killed his son, Asclepius, with a Cyclopes-forged thunderbolt.

Homer's Cyclopes

   The Cyclopes were huge one-eyed monsters that resided on an island with
   the same name. Commonly, the term "Cyclops" refers to a particular son
   of Poseidon and Thoosa named Polyphemus who was a Cyclops. Another
   member of this group of Cyclopes was Telemus, a seer.

Polyphemus

   In Book 9 of Homer's Odyssey, a scouting party led by Odysseus lands on
   the Island of the Cyclopes and discovers a large cave. They enter into
   the cave and feast on food they find there. This cave is the home of
   Polyphemus, who soon returns and traps the trespassers in the cave. He
   proceeds to eat several crew members, but Odysseus devises a cunning
   plan for escape.

   To make Polyphemus unwary, Odysseus gives him a skin of very strong,
   unwatered wine. When Polyphemus asks for Odysseus' name, he tells him
   that it is 'Outis', Greek for 'no man' or 'nobody'. Once the giant
   falls asleep drunk, Odysseus and his men take the spit from the fire
   and drive it through Polyphemus' only eye. Polyphemus' cries of help
   are answered by the others of his race; however, they turn away from
   aiding him when they hear that "Nobody" is the cause of his woes.

   In the morning, Odysseus ties his men and himself to the undersides of
   Polyphemus' sheep. When the Cyclops lets the sheep out to graze, the
   men are carried out. Since Polyphemus has been blinded, he doesn't see
   the men, but feels the tops of his sheep to make sure the men aren't
   riding them. As he sailed away, Odysseus shouts "Cyclops, when your
   father asks who took your eye, tell him that it was Odysseus, Sacker of
   Cities, Destroyer of Troy, son of Laertes, and King of Ithaca," which
   proves to be a catastrophic example of hubris. Now knowing his
   attacker's name, Polyphemus asks his father Poseidon to prevent
   Odysseus from returning home to Ithaca, or to at least deprive him of
   his ship and crew.

   This tale from the Odyssey is more humorously told in the only
   surviving satyr play, entitled Cyclops by Euripides.

   The Sicilian Greek poet Theocritus wrote two poems circa 275 BC
   concerning Polyphemus' desire for Galatea, a sea nymph. When Galatea
   instead was with Acis, a Sicilian mortal, a jealous Polyphemus killed
   him with a boulder. Galatea turned Acis' blood into a river of the same
   name in Sicily.

Origins

   Walter Burkert among others suggeststhat the archaic groups or
   societies of lesser gods mirror real cult associations: "it may be
   surmised that smith guilds lie behind Cabeiri, Idaian Dactyloi,
   Telchines, and Cyclopes." Given their penchant for blacksmithing, many
   scholars believe the legend of the Cyclopes' single eye arose from an
   actual practice of blacksmiths wearing an eyepatch over one eye to
   prevent flying sparks from blinding them in both eyes. The Cyclopes
   seen in Homer's Odyssey are of a different type from those in the
   Theogony; they were most likely much later additions to the pantheon
   and have no connection to blacksmithing. It is possible that legends
   associated with Polyphemus did not make him a Cyclops before Homer's
   Odyssey; Polyphemus may have been some sort of local daemon or monster
   originally. The Triamantes in Cretan legend have been suggested - they
   were a rural race of man-eating ogres who had a third eye on the back
   of their head. Other than the detail of the eyes, they sound very
   similar to the Cyclopes of Homer.

   Another possible origin for the Cyclops legend is that prehistoric
   dwarf elephant skulls - about twice the size of a human skull were
   found by the Greeks on Crete and Sicily. Due to the large central nasal
   cavity (for the trunk) in the skull, it might have been believed that
   this was a large, single, eye-socket. The smaller, actual, eye-sockets
   are on the sides and, being very shallow, hardly noticeable as such.
   Given the paucity of experience that the locals likely had with living
   elephants, they were unlikely to recognize the skull for what it
   actually was.

"Cyclopean" walls

   After the "Dark Age", when Hellenes looked with awe at the vast dressed
   blocks, known as Cyclopean structures that had been used in Mycenaean
   masonry, at sites like Mycenae and Tiryns or on Cyprus, they concluded
   that only the Cyclopes had the combination of skill and strength to
   build in such a monumental manner.

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