Mythic Monday: Scary Cyclops
Monday, March 27th, 2017March 27, 2017
The Cyclops of Greek mythology was a member of a race of gruesome, one-eyed giants called the Cyclopes. Gods and mortals alike knew Cyclopes to be short-tempered beings who ate people and lived without order. Though frightening and hideous, the Cyclopes had at least one redeeming quality–they were skilled blacksmiths who made powerful weapons worthy of the gods.
According to myth, the earth goddess Gaea and the sky god Uranus parented many powerful beings, including monsters with three hundred hands, called the Hecatoncheiries, and the first race of gods, called the Titans. The divine pair also produced the first three Cyclopes. These brothers, named Arges, Brontes, and Steropes, were wild and strong.
The Titans hated the violent nature of the one-eyed brothers and were disgusted by their appearance. Cronus, king of the Titans, banished them to Tartarus, a pit deep in the earth that was surrounded by high walls and a river of fire. There they remained for many years. The time came when Zeus, son of Cronus, wanted to remove his father from power and become king of the gods. Gaea advised Zeus to free the Cyclopes and take advantage of their magnificent blacksmith skills.
When the war against Cronus began, Zeus took his grandmother’s advice and freed the Cyclopes from Tartarus. The brothers gratefully forged special weapons for the gods to use against Cronus. They created an invisibility helmet for Hades and a trident for Poseidon. For Zeus, they made a very special and powerful weapon: the thunderbolt. The gods used these weapons to defeat Cronus. In exchange for their help in achieving victory, Zeus gave the Cyclopes forges (blacksmith’s shops) beneath Mount Etna. There, they resumed making special weapons for the gods, including more thunderbolts for Zeus, who continued to use them to subdue and slay his enemies.
One story tells of a great healer named Asclepius, son of the god Apollo, who had the ability to bring the dead back to life. Zeus learned of this unnatural power and killed Asclepius with a lightning bolt. The enraged Apollo exacted revenge on Zeus by killing the Cyclopes, who had forged the lightning bolt used to murder his son.
According to legend, the first three Cyclopes mated with humans to create a new generation of Cyclopes, who were just as horrible and violent as their fathers. In his epic poem the Odyssey, Homer tells of a famous second-generation Cyclops, Polyphemus, who lived in a cave on a Mediterranean island. As the hero Odysseus journeys home from fighting in the Trojan War, he and his sailing companions arrive at Polyphemus’ shore. Searching for food and water, Odysseus and his men enter the cave home of Polyphemus. Upset by the intrusion, Polyphemus blocks the exit of the cave with a boulder and begins to eat the men one-by-one. In order to escape, Odysseus blinds the Cyclops by throwing a hot spear into his single eye. Odysseus and his men are then able to sneak out of the cave.