Extract

Cyclopes are one-eyed giants. In *Homer they are savage and pastoral, and live in a distant country without government or laws. Here *Odysseus visits them in his wanderings and enters the cave of one of them, Polyphemus, who imprisons him and his men and eats two of them raw, morning and evening, until they escape by blinding him while in a drunken sleep, and getting out among the sheep and goats when he opens the cave in the morning (Od. 9). Polyphemus is the son of *Poseidon, and the god, in answer to his prayer for vengeance, opposes the homecoming of Odysseus in every possible way, bringing to pass the curse that he may return alone and find trouble when he arrives (ibid. 532–5). The blinding is a popular theme of early vase-painting. Elsewhere (notably Theoc. 11) we find an amorous Polyphemus, who lives in *Sicily and somewhat ludicrously woos the nymph *Galatea, without success.