What Can Be Inferred about the Cyclops? The Cyclops is a one-eyed mythological creature in Homer’s Odyssey, He is an uncivilized, brutal, and rude giant living in a cave. The Cyclops does not adhere to any rules or traditions to which the Greeks are accustomed.
He represents a creature with a primitive mindset and barbaric habits. Detailed answer: In ancient Greek mythology, the cyclops are portrayed as cruel giants. One of the cyclops described in is Polyphemus. One of its dramatic episodes in involves Polyphemus. He plays an essential role in the poem. During the journey back home, king Odysseus landed with his companions on the island of Cyclops.
They ended up in a cave, the dwelling of Polyphemus. As the Cyclops discovers the invaders, he devours some men. Then, he captures the others. Throughout this episode, the reader learns about Cyclops’ barbarity and cruelty. The world of the Cyclops in Odyssey lacks civilization and hospitality.
In the poem, the concept of civilization appears to be necessary. The author indicates its presence in certain people. He points whether they have any rules of hospitality. The Cyclops shows no compassion to his guests. Thus, the reader can conclude that the creature’s ideas of life are simplistic. Polyphemus farms sheep and collects milk, cheese, and fruit.
This can sound rather idyllic. However, he is hostile to any stranger and attacks without hesitating. Considering the Cyclops’ strength and lack of wit, Odysseus realizes how dangerous he is to his crew. Nevertheless, Odysseus does not use Polyphemus’ strong points against him.
The hero refrains from killing the sleeping Cyclops. Instead, the King of Ithaca takes advantage of the caveman’s ignorance. He makes him drink wine and then blinds his only eye with fire. In doing so, Odysseus enables his men to leave the cave unnoticed by the giant. The ease with which Odysseus tricks Polyphemus shows how witless the Cyclops is.
The king is afraid to reveal his real name to the giant. Instead, Odysseus tells a lie to the Cyclops. He introduces himself as “Nobody.” So, when Polyphemus is blinded, he will say to his brothers that “Nobody” blinded him. The creature does not see the trick and frees them from the revenge of other cyclops.
Despite the Cyclops’ anger, he eventually invites Odysseus back to the island. Such a change in attitude is due to the giant’s fear of worse consequences if he does not accept his fate. Therefore, Cyclops tries to follow the Greek traditions of hospitality. He wants to offer food and shelter. It shows how Polyphemus becomes more open to the idea of improving his primal customs.
To sum up, the Cyclops portrayed in Homer’s Odyssey is an embodiment of pure physical strength, barbarism, and lack of wit. He lives a simple life. Some of his behaviors are primitive and uncivilized toward his guests. Polyphemus intends to eat the men of Odysseus.
- However, the cunning king of Ithaca tricks him.
- As the story develops, Polyphemus accepts his fate.
- Later, attempts to befriend Odysseus to avoid more harm in the future.
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Contents
- 0.1 What can be inferred about the Cyclops he lives in fear?
- 0.2 What can be inferred about the Cyclops edgenuity?
- 1 What are 3 facts about Cyclops?
- 2 How would you describe the Cyclops way of life?
- 3 What are 2 characteristics of Cyclops?
- 4 What did Odysseus lie about?
- 5 What prevents Odysseus from killing the sleeping Cyclops?
- 6 What does Odysseus symbolize in The Odyssey?
- 7 Are Cyclops evil or good?
- 8 What are Cyclops most known for?
- 9 What is the Cyclops poem about?
- 10 What did the Cyclops do that terrified Odysseus and his men?
What can be inferred about the Cyclops he lives in fear?
Instant Text Answer – Instant Answer: Step 1/4 1. The Cyclops says, “We Cyclopes care not a whistle for your thundering Zeus or all the gods in bliss; we have more force by far.” This statement shows that he does not live in fear of Zeus or the other gods.
- Step 2/4 2.
- There is no mention of the Cyclops fighting in the Trojan War or siding with the Trojans.
- Step 3/4 3.
- The Cyclops does not show any eagerness to provide food and shelter to his guests.
- Instead, he says, “I would not let you go for fear of Zeus— you or your friends—unless I had a whim to.” : Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.
‘We are from Troy, Achaeans, blown off course by shifting gales on the Great South Sea; homeward bound, but taking routes and ways uncommon; so the will of Zeus would have it. We served under Agamemnon, son of Atreus— the whole world knows what city he laid waste, what armies he destroyed.
It was our luck to come here; here we stand, beholden for your help, or any gifts you give—as custom is to honor strangers. We would entreat you, great Sir, have a care for the gods’ courtesy; Zeus will avenge the unoffending guest.’ He answered this from his brute chest, unmoved: ‘You are a ninny, or else you come from the other end of nowhere, telling me, mind the gods! We Cyclopes care not a whistle for your thundering Zeus or all the gods in bliss; we have more force by far.
I would not let you go for fear of Zeus— you or your friends—unless I had a whim to. What can be inferred about the Cyclops? He lives in fear of Zeus and all the rest of the Greek gods. He sided and fought with the Trojans during the war. He is eager to provide food and shelter to his guests.
What can be inferred about the Cyclops edgenuity?
What can be inferred about the Cyclops? He is savage and brutal like a wild animal.
What can be inferred about Odysseus?
What can be inferred about Odysseus? Detailed answer: Odysseus is a complex character in “The Odyssey,” and many things can be inferred about him based on his actions and motivations. One of the key moments in the story where we see Odysseus’s character on display is his encounter with the Cyclops, Polyphemus.
- After being trapped in Polyphemus’s cave with his men, Odysseus devises a plan to blind the Cyclops and escape.
- However, before leaving, Odysseus tells Polyphemus that his name is “Nobody,” so that when the other Cyclopes ask who hurt him, Polyphemus will say that “Nobody” did it.
- This lie sets off a chain of events that ultimately leads to Odysseus and his men being pursued by Polyphemus and his fellow Cyclopes.
So what motivates Odysseus to tell a lie to the cyclops? One possibility is that it is simply a clever strategy to ensure that Polyphemus does not come after them once they escape. By tricking Polyphemus into thinking that “Nobody” hurt him, Odysseus ensures that the other Cyclopes will not be able to identify him as the culprit.
However, there may also be a deeper motivation at play. Throughout the story, Odysseus is driven by a desire for glory and recognition. By claiming that his name is “Nobody,” he is able to outsmart the powerful Cyclops and cement his reputation as a legendary hero. This desire for fame and glory is a recurring theme in the story, as Odysseus seeks to prove himself to both the gods and his fellow mortals.
: What can be inferred about Odysseus?
What are 3 facts about Cyclops?
Abilities – The Cyclopes were known for their great strength, and also their ability of craftsmanship. They created lightning bolts, in return for freeing them, while he was fighting the Titans. They also forged trident. They were also known for going around eating humans.
What did Cyclops symbolize?
In the Odyssey and in other Greek myths, the Cyclopes ultimately represent forces of nature because of their extraordinary power and strength.
How would you describe the Cyclops way of life?
Cyclops, (Greek: “Round Eye”) in Greek legend and literature, any of several one-eyed giants to whom were ascribed a variety of histories and deeds. In Homer the Cyclopes were cannibals, living a rude pastoral life in a distant land (traditionally Sicily), and the Odyssey contains a well-known episode in which Odysseus escapes death by blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus, The walls of several ancient cities (e.g., Tiryns) of Mycenaean architecture were sometimes said to have been built by Cyclopes. Hence in modern archaeology the term cyclopean is applied to walling of which the stones are not squared.
Britannica Quiz From Athena to Zeus: Basics of Greek Mythology This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper,
What are 2 characteristics of Cyclops?
Cyclops – The Cyclops is an aquatic non-insect whose name is taken from a character in classical Greek mythology (the BugLady trusts that BugFans will dust off the tattered Edith Hamilton mythology paperbacks they’ve been carting around since high school and will look up the story of Cyclops).
- The BugLady has always viewed cyclops as tiny, benign critters that twitch through their watery lives at the very limits of her vision, but it turns out that they have a dark side.
- These pear-shaped critters are related to fairy shrimp, daphnia, scuds, sowbugs, and water sowbugs—all of previous BOTW fame.
As crustaceans, they number shrimp, crayfish and lobsters among their distant relatives, too. The Subphylum Crustacea is in the huge phylum Arthropoda; arthropoda also includes insects and spiders, and the phylum may account for 80% of known, living species of animals.
Within the crustacea, cyclops (which is both singular and plural) are in the class Maxillopoda and in the subclass Copepoda (a diverse group comprised of about 13,000 species). Cyclops and the rest of their copepod brethren are everywhere on the globe, mainly in calm waters, cold or warm, from the water traps of bromeliads to roadside ditches to underground caves to oceans.
They migrate passively, caught up in the feathers of waterfowl, stuck to aquatic insects that move from pond to pond, or in dust clouds that blow encysted larvae across the landscape from a dried up pond. They are among the most numerous of multi-celled animals in any body of water.
Yes, they are small—the average cyclops needs to stand on tiptoes to reach 2mm. Though they can scarcely be seen in a basin of pond water, cyclops are instantly recognizable because of their jerky movements and because the female is almost always toting around an egg sac or two. They come in a variety of neutral colors, plus transparent (and according to Elsie B.
Klots in The New Field Book of Freshwater Life, some species that dwell at pond edges may be bright pink, green or blue in spring). Like other copepods they have five pairs of legs attached to the thorax, and their heads have mouthparts and two pairs of antennae.
Cyclops have a single black or red eye that distinguishes light from dark (see: mythology, Cyclops, above). The antennae are sensory organs, and the first pair is also used in locomotion. The forked tail is adorned with spines, bristles and hairs that aid in locomotion, balance, feeding, and in sensing the nuances of their environment.
They exchange gases through their body surface and are tolerant of low oxygen concentrations. The actions of a number of appendages combine to cause their characteristic gait. When they begin to row with their five pairs of legs ( copepod means paddle foot), the antennae are tucked against the body at the start of the leg stroke but are extended at the end of the stroke, which acts to put on the brakes but also helps to keep the tiny critter from sinking (all this in less than 1/12 of a second).
They use the abdomen as a rudder. About those egg sacs. While mating, he passes one or more sperm packets to her, enough to fertilize several broods. Five to 40 eggs hatch inside the egg sacs and the young exit within five days. The used egg sac is immediately replaced by a new one that fills with new eggs.
The young that hatch from the eggs go through five stages in a form called a before assuming a more cyclops-like larval form called a cyclopoid. Some species pop out little nauplii all summer; some breed just once. Other kinds of copepods can produce “summer eggs” and then form special thick-walled winter eggs that can withstand harsh environments like the annual drying of an ephemeral pond.
- Cyclops don’t have “winter eggs,” but they can aestivate (rest in suspended animation) in drought-resistant cysts or cocoons in one of the pre-adult, cyclopoid stages.
- What fuels cyclops? Depending on the species, they are powered by plankton and other organic matter, algae, detritus, or by eating animals even tinier than themselves.
Some are parasites. They form a link in the food chain between the even-tinier algae and bacteria that they consume and the larger plankton predators that are eaten by fish. One of cyclops’ predators is a plant—carnivorous Bladderworts catch and digest them in underwater bladders.
Cyclops are sometimes introduced into aquaria to provide food for fish, but they may reproduce faster than the fish can eat and overrun the tank. And the dark side? Cyclops can be an intermediate host to some pretty nasty parasites including the Guinea worm in Africa and Asia, a fish tapeworm that makes eating sushi and ceviche a potentially risky business, and a roundworm in Asian countries that can infect humans with a condition with the awesome name of gnathostomiasis (the Asian swamp eel that is the main host for this nematode has found its way to the Americas, so the stage is set).
There’s a link between copepods and cholera in some tropical countries – the cholera germ hitches a ride on the tiny, swimming critters. Interesting cyclops fact—Cyclops are present in the water supply of some large American cities, where routine treatment renders them harmless (dead) but does not filter them from the system.
What is the lesson of the Cyclops story?
Because Polyphemus underestimates Odysseus, he is tricked and then blinded by Odysseus and his men. The lesson in Cyclops is to treat others the way you want to be treated, or that you get what you give.
What can be inferred about Odysseus based on his response to Cyclops?
Based on his response to the Cyclops, what can be inferred about Odysseus? Answer: ✔ He has put himself and his men in even more danger. Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.
What did Odysseus lie about?
In the proem of Book 1, Homer describes Odysseus as “the man of twists and turns,” an epithet that sets our expectations of the protagonist for the rest of the poem. As “the man of twists and turns,” Odysseus’s shape-shifting allows him to escape death multiple times, but it also defines his identity as a cunning trickster and a storyteller.
Most literally, we can understand “twists and turns” as a description of Odysseus’s physical movement across the sea. His miserable experiences at sea are both a punishment devised by Poseidon and a trial that he willingly endures to return home. When we first meet Odysseus in Book 5, we find him at his furthest remove from Ithaca and his former life as a husband, father, warrior.
In a literal “twist of fate,” he can no longer be any of these things, and must play the passive role of Calypso’s consort, separated from his true wife and his son. He longs to correct the turns of fate that landed him in this situation, so he willingly braves the open sea and the anger of Poseidon on a makeshift raft for the chance of rejoining society and regaining his identity as head of his household.
Odysseus can also be called “the man of twists and turns” because of the twists and turns of his mind, a trait that frequently gets him out of dangerous situations. For example, in Book 9 Odysseus tells of his encounter with the Cyclops, a one-eyed monster who transgresses all Greek social norms by murdering nearly all of Odysseus’s men.
To get out of this situation, Odysseus craftily lies to the Cyclops about his identity, saying his name is “Nobody,” and only revealing his true identity once he’s escaped the Cyclops’s cave. He also lies about who he is to Athena, the swineherd Eumaeus, Telemachus, and Penelope, claiming to be a shipwrecked man from Crete who fought in the Trojan War and spent years in Egypt.
- These deceitful stories allow Odysseus to work his way back into his household and test the suitors and servants’ hospitality.
- Disguises also let Odysseus test his friends’ and family’s loyalty.
- As the man from Crete he claims to have met Odysseus in his travels abroad, and by bringing Odysseus up with Eumaeus and Penelope he learns what these characters truly think about him.
Odysseus’s “twists and turns” reflect the motif of storytelling that reappears multiple times in the poem, most notably during Odysseus’s own retelling of his experiences at sea. In Books 9–12 Odysseus himself narrates his adventures to his hosts and audience, the Phaeacians, giving him the epithet “the great teller of tales.” Like the poem itself, the shape of Odysseus’s narrative is not straightforward, but has many twists and turns, starting in the middle and doubling back on itself.
This reinforces the idea that a “twisty” story is more interesting and entertaining than one told straight through, and also enables Odysseus to reference important events more than once. When he finishes his story, he says, “It goes against my grain to repeat a tale told once, and told so clearly.” As well as being a narrative device for Homer to fill in earlier details of the story, the act of storytelling is important for Odysseus to process his experiences before returning home.
For this reason, Scheria acts as a midway point between the fabulous world of the hero’s travels and the real world of his country with all its political and familial conflicts. Through storytelling, Odysseus both confirms and constructs his own identity as father and husband and as tactician and survivor.
What prevents Odysseus from killing the sleeping Cyclops?
Updated 8 November, 2023 Answer: Odysseus decided not to kill the Cyclops as he was aware that the huge rock blocking the cave’s exit was beyond their capabilities to shift by themselves. Detailed answer: The story of Odysseus begins in Homer’s The Iliad, but his second poem, The Odyssey, recounts the tale of Odysseus’ ten-year journey across the seas in search of the home after the Trojan War.
For strategy and guile, Odysseus was favored by Athena. After their long journey, the main character and his crewmates discovered an island where they decided to relax. They soon discovered a vast cave – the home of the enormous Cyclops – son of Poseidon – which was inhabited by a single family. The crew had no idea who lived in the cave, nor would they have waited outside for him if he did not appear immediately.
Odysseus and his fellow soldiers became the prisoners of the cyclops, he kept them in his cave day and night by rolling a massive boulder in front of the entrance. Every morning the cyclops would roll the boulder away for his sheep to exit the cave and then roll the boulder back.
So if Odysseus killed the cyclops in his sleep then they would forever be stuck in the cave, because they didn’t have the strength to roll the boulder away themselves. What Odysseus did instead was blind the cyclops and when the cyclops went to open the boulder for his sheep to go out, he listened for the footsteps of men among the sheep, when he heard non he was satisfied that the prisoners had stayed inside the cave.
However, they held onto the bottom of the sheep and the sheep carried them out of the cave and so they escaped. Did you like this answer?
What does Odysseus symbolize in The Odyssey?
Odysseus, Latin Ulixes, English Ulysses, hero of Homer ‘s epic poem the Odyssey and one of the most frequently portrayed figures in Western literature, According to Homer, Odysseus was king of Ithaca, son of Laertes and Anticleia (the daughter of Autolycus of Parnassus), and father, by his wife, Penelope, of Telemachus,
(In later tradition, Odysseus was instead the son of Sisyphus and fathered sons by Circe, Calypso, and others.) Homer portrayed Odysseus as a man of outstanding wisdom and shrewdness, eloquence, resourcefulness, courage, and endurance. In the Iliad, Odysseus appears as the man best suited to cope with crises in personal relations among the Greeks, and he plays a leading part in achieving the reconciliation between Agamemnon and Achilles,
Odysseus’s bravery and skill in fighting are demonstrated repeatedly, and his wiliness is shown most notably in the night expedition he undertakes with Diomedes against the Trojans. Britannica Quiz A Study of Greek and Roman Mythology Odysseus’s wanderings and the recovery of his house and kingdom are the central theme of the Odyssey, an epic in 24 books that also relates how he accomplished the capture of Troy by means of the wooden horse,
Books VI–XIII describe his wanderings between Troy and Ithaca: he first comes to the land of the Lotus-Eaters and only with difficulty rescues some of his companions from their lōtos -induced lethargy; he encounters and blinds Polyphemus the Cyclops, a son of Poseidon, escaping from his cave by clinging to the belly of a ram; he loses 11 of his 12 ships to the cannibalistic Laistrygones and reaches the island of the enchantress Circe, where he has to rescue some of his companions whom she had turned into swine.
Next he visits the Land of Departed Spirits, where he speaks to the spirit of Agamemnon and learns from the Theban seer Tiresias how he can expiate Poseidon’s wrath. He then encounters the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, and the Cattle of the Sun, which his companions, despite warnings, plunder for food.
- He alone survives the ensuing storm and reaches the idyllic island of the nymph Calypso,
- After almost nine years, Odysseus finally leaves Calypso and at last arrives in Ithaca, where his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, have been struggling to maintain their authority during his prolonged absence.
Recognized at first only by his faithful dog and a nurse, Odysseus proves his identity—with the aid of Athena —by accomplishing Penelope’s test of stringing and shooting with his old bow. He then, with the help of Telemachus and two slaves, slays Penelope’s suitors.
Penelope still does not believe him and gives him one further test. But at last she knows it is he and accepts him as her long-lost husband and the king of Ithaca. In the Odyssey Odysseus has many opportunities to display his talent for ruses and deceptions, but at the same time his courage, loyalty, and magnanimity are constantly attested.
Classical Greek writers presented him sometimes as an unscrupulous politician, sometimes as a wise and honourable statesman. Philosophers usually admired his intelligence and wisdom. Some Roman writers (including Virgil and Statius ) tended to disparage him as the destroyer of Rome’s mother city, Troy ; others (such as Horace and Ovid ) admired him. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn,
Was the Cyclops killed?
Apollo killing the Cyclops – Domenichino and assistants – Google Arts & Culture For the subject of this fresco see Apollodorus, ‘Library’ (3: 10). Apollo slew the one-eyed race of giants, the Cyclops, because they had provided Zeus with the thunderbolts which killed his son, Aesculapius.
- The fresco (transferred to canvas) comes from a series painted in the Stanza di Apollo in the garden pavilion at the,,
- The classical scene was painted as a trompe-l’oeil tapestry, probably by assistants.
- ‘s participation in the painting was likely limited to the portrait of the dwarf in chains at lower right.
This member of the Aldobrandini household was depicted in this derisive fashion for his insolence. An autograph life study of the dwarf (Windsor, Royal Collection) is the only drawing to survive for this composition. : Apollo killing the Cyclops – Domenichino and assistants – Google Arts & Culture
What is a Cyclops with 3 eyes called?
One noticeable trait of many of these depictions of Polyphemus the Cyclops is that he has three eyes.
Was the Cyclops real?
Can A Human Cyclops Exist? Historians, Paleontologists, And ‘Ancient Aliens’ Weigh In Cyclops skull film prop by Skulls Direct Skulls Direct at Deviant Art / CC BY-SA 3.0 The cyclops has been a staple of the human imagination, from Polyphemus’s appearance in The Odyssey nearly three millennia ago to a 2014 episode of Ancient Aliens,
- But there is also a medical condition called cyclopia that can result in one eye positioned along the midline of the face.
- The mythological depiction of cyclopses is far different than reality – and quite unlikely to ever exist.
- Ancient sources for the depiction of a cyclops – literally ‘wheel-eyed’ in Greek – are numerous.
Homer’s Odyssey appears to be the earliest, but Greek authors such as Hesiod and Euripedes, as well as Latin authors such as Virgil and Pliny, mention this group of oddly visaged giants with one large eye in the middle of their foreheads.S. Münster on India (1488-1552), Book V of the Cosmographia depicting a variety of mythical ‘races’,
- That lived in Southeast Asia.
- The medical condition cyclopia, however, is the exact opposite of these powerful giants.
- It is a rare version of holoprosencephaly, in which the forebrain of a fetus does not properly develop into two hemispheres.
- This lack of division occurs early in development, around 6 weeks, and the vast majority of fetuses affected by this condition die before birth.
As is quite rare and incompatible with life, most of the examples of it known to modern medicine are of miscarried or stillborn fetuses preserved in medical museums. A recent example of cyclopia comes from 2011, where a mother in India who lived only 24 hours.
If adult cyclopes cannot possibly exist, where did the ancient Greeks and Romans get this idea? The answer is unclear, although researchers in a variety of fields have several hypotheses. One suggestion is that the legend of the cyclops came from blacksmiths, who would often wear an eye patch in their dangerous jobs, so that only one eye would be blinded if something went wrong.
A quote from Pliny in his Natural History seems to lend support, as he mentions the cyclopes as the first to perfect the art of working iron. Elephant skull from South Africa Bernard Dupont / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY SA 2.0 Another suggestion comes from an early paleontologist, Othenio Abel, who noted the resemblance of the elephant skull to that of a cyclops.
Specifically, the dwarf elephant skull – larger than a human’s but smaller than African elephants – may have confused early Greeks who had no experience with the living creatures. Although the purported literary connection between the ancient Greeks and cyclops bones has been debunked by historian Adrienne Mayor in her book First Fossil Hunters, the existence of dwarf elephant bones on islands like Sicily could lend support to this link to cyclopes.
A third suggestion for the origin of the cyclops myth involves ancient Greek pharmacology, or the administration of drugs. It is well known that certain plants cause physical defects in grazing animals and can produce cyclopia. One particular plant, white hellebore, was used sparingly in Greek medicine as an emetic to induce vomiting.
But hellebore can also cause holoprosencephaly in a fetus if ingested by a pregnant woman, potentially producing a stillborn baby with cyclopia. And finally, another possibility for the origin of the giant cyclopes is the medical condition, a hormone disorder that can result in enlarged hands, feet, and facial characteristics.
Paleopathologist and author Francesco Galassi tells me that acromegaly can also cause loss of peripheral vision in an affected individual. This central vision coupled with the enlarged body could have generated the metaphor of a single eye – and acromegaly has been diagnosed in Greco-Roman skeletal remains.
While the History Channel’s offers, of course, an extraterrestrial connection between cyclopes and archaeological remains (specifically on the island of Malta), for understanding the myth of the cyclops. Although there is as yet no consensus among researchers, and additional study is always needed, those explanations grounded in medicine and paleontology provide the strongest support for the most likely origin of these wheel-eyed giants.
: Can A Human Cyclops Exist? Historians, Paleontologists, And ‘Ancient Aliens’ Weigh In
Are Cyclops evil or good?
Overprotective of those close to him, amoral in his new, Magneto-like view of humanity, and mentally ambiguous, Cyclops is viewed as an antihero and occasionally even a villain in the minds of his fellow superheroes.
What are Cyclops most known for?
Cyclops (Creature) A (meaning ‘circle-eyed’) is a one-eyed giant first appearing in the of ancient, The Greeks believed that there was an entire race of cyclopes who lived in a faraway land without and order., in his, describes the Cyclopes as pastoral but savage, typical of the strange creatures the Greeks created to represent foreign societies not regarded as civilised as themselves.
The Cyclopes are not without talents, though, and are credited with manufacturing the thunderbolts which used as a terrible throwing weapon and as the builders of gigantic fortification walls such as those still seen at sites today. The most famous cyclops is Polyphemus, who captured the hero and his men only for them to escape by blinding the poor giant.
Cyclopes, and particularly the Odysseus story, were popular and enduring subjects in all forms of Greek and,
What kind of person is the Cyclops?
What Are the Character Traits That the Cyclops Has in the Book “The Odyssey”? By Jana Sosnowski In the ninth chapter of Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Odysseus tells of arriving on an island inhabited by Cyclops described as “lawless and inhuman.” After landing on the island, Odysseus and his men make their way to the cave of the Cyclops named Polyphemus and await his arrival.
- As Odysseus and his men hide in the Cyclops’ cave and eventually meet him, the reader learns that the Cyclops is loud, extraordinarily strong, inhospitable and both murderous and violent.
- When the Cyclops returns home to his cave, he throws his firewood onto the ground, scaring Odysseus and his men.
- The Cyclops also moves a stone over the opening of his cave, which Odysseus says “two and twenty strong four-wheeled wagons” would be unable to move.
When the Cyclops notices Odysseus and his men, he does not express any sympathy for the lost crew and immediately grabs two of the men and kills and eats them. He kills several more men before Odysseus and the other survivors are able to escape. : What Are the Character Traits That the Cyclops Has in the Book “The Odyssey”?
What are Cyclops weaknesses?
308 Reading 3: Euripides’ Cyclops, Classical Drama and Theatre
- ©, 2021
- Classical Drama and Theatre
- SECTION 3: ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY
- Reading 3: Satyr Plays
- TEXT: Euripides, Cyclops 543-607
- Questions to Ponder Concerning This Text:
• What are satyrs? Why did satyrs merit their own brand of drama? Why do you think plays about them were so successful and popular? • How are satyr plays different from and similar to tragedy? Why would this sort of drama be regularly coupled with tragedy in production? • What production elements (scenery, actors, special effects, costumes, etc.) do you imagine would have been required for staging satyr plays? • Does this play uphold or undermine Aristotle’s contention that tragedy arose from satyr plays? Can you see any clear, proto-tragic elements in The Cyclops ? Or can this play which may have been written as late as 408 BCE be used at all to argue for the evolution of early Greek drama? Introduction: Euripides’ satyr play The Cyclops is a parody of a famous episode in Homer’s The Odyssey in which the hero Odysseus is trapped in the cave of a man-eating monster, a so-called Cyclops (“round-eye”) named Polyphemus (“Big-Talker”).
Huge, he can clearly overwhelm any man or group of men with his strength, but he has two great weaknesses: first, he has only one eye which limits his vision; and second, because he is largely unskilled, he has no familiarity with the habits of civilization such as drinking and lying, and thus is easily duped.
The plot of the play follows the general contours of Homer’s story. After Odysseus and his men are trapped in the Cyclops’ cave, Polyphemus devours several of them. When the Cyclops asks Odysseus his name, he says it is “Nobody” and persuades Polyphemus to drink wine which he happens to have brought with him from his ship.
- The Cyclops does and falls into a drunken stupor.
- Odysseus and his remaining men put out the monster’s single eye with a sharpened olive branch, the point hardened by fire, and escape by clinging underneath the bellies of the Cyclops’ long-haired sheep.
- Finally, when Polyphemus screams for help from his fellow Cyclopes, they ask him who is hurting him.
He answers, of course, “Nobody,” so none of them comes to help him, assuming he is joking with them. The play departs from Homer’s narrative in only one major respect. Like all satyr-plays, it introduces into the story a chorus of lusty, tippling, bestial satyrs who interfere with the action, though not the outcome, of the story.
We join the drama at the point where Polyphemus is conducting a drinking party with Odysseus and the father of the satyrs, Silenus. The scene is a spoof of a traditional Greek banquet at which handsome boys customarily served wine to sophisticated, rich, older men who sought the pleasure of their company and lusted after them.
Here the usual situation is upside-down: the old, pug-nosed, hairy, tumescent Silenus plays cup-bearer to the crude and rustic erastes (“lover”) Polyphemus. SILENUS ( to the Cyclops ) Lie down now for me. Rest your side on the ground. CYCLOPS Okay! ( Silenus slips the Cyclops’ drinking cup behind him and takes a quick sip.) Hey, why did you put my drinking cup behind me? SILENUS Someone might walk by and knock it over.
- CYCLOPS You, last of all your friends, will I eat.
- ( The Cyclops laughs, and Silenus laughs, too.)
- SILENUS That’s a nice thing to do for the stranger, Cyclops.
- ( Silenus drains the Cyclops’ cup.)
CYCLOPS Hey you! What are you doing? You’re drinking up my wine behind my back. SILENUS No, I’m not. The wine kissed me, because I’m so beautiful. CYCLOPS Be careful! You love the wine, but it doesn’t love you. SILENUS Oh, but it does! It says it loves me for my looks.
CYCLOPS Pour! ( Silenus pours him some wine.) Give me a little more. ( The Cyclops drinks.) SILENUS Like the mixture? ( reaching for the Cyclops’ cup ) Come on, let me try it. ( Silenus grabs the cup and drinks it down.) CYCLOPS You little, ! Give it here! SILENUS No, no! Not before I put this wreath of flowers on you,
( Silenus hands the Cyclops a party garland, then says to himself.), and have another drink on you. ( Silenus pours himself another drink.) CYCLOPS As a cupbearer, you stink. SILENUS ( aristocratically ) Not at all! ( smelling the wine ) The wine has an excellent bouquet.
- CYCLOPS Hey, hey, what do you think you’re doing?
- SILENUS Well-chugged, if I say so myself.
- ( The Cyclops snatches the cup and the wine from Silenus and hands them to Odysseus.)
- CYCLOPS ( to Odysseus ) You take this, stranger, and be my cup-bearer.
- ODYSSEUS ( taking the cup and wine ) The wine recognizes a familiar hand.
- CYCLOPS
Come on, pour it! ( yelling ) NOW! ODYSSEUS ( pouring ) I’m pouring. Don’t yell. CYCLOPS ( still yelling ) It’s not so easy to stop yelling when you drink too much! ODYSSEUS Fine then! Take it and drink it up! And leave nothing behind! One, Two, Three, Go! ( aside ) To hell and die! ( The Cyclops downs the whole cup.) CYCLOPS Yow! There’s really something to this, this wine stuff! ODYSSEUS If you drink a lot and have a big dinner, stoke a full stomach, you’ll fall fast asleep.
But if you leave anything behind, Bacchus will drain you dry. CYCLOPS ( staggering to his feet ) Whoopee! ( falling flat on his face ) Whoops! I fell on my face. But I feel good. Really good! ( rolling onto his back ) The whole sky looks like it’s ( waving his hands in the air ) commingling with the earth.
I can see the throne of Zeus and the whole holy moly of the gods. ( The satyrs begin to dance around the Cyclops suggestively.) CYCLOPS (con’t.) ( to the satyrs ) What do you want? ME to want YOU? The way you dance makes me think you do. ( grabbing Silenus who is about to steal another cup of wine ) NO! I don’t want you.
- I’m saving myself for my little Ganymede here.
- Silenus gags and drops the cup.
- The Cyclops kisses him.) CYCLOPS (con’t.) ( to the satyrs ) He’s prettier than you.
- I find that I prefer boys to girls, anyway.
- SILENUS You think I am Zeus’ boyfriend, you,
- Cyclops? CYCLOPS ( aristocratically ) Yes, by Jove, I do.
( throwing Silenus over his shoulder ) And I am snatching you from Troy. SILENUS ( hanging over the Cyclops’ shoulder ) My children! It’s your father’s end! I’m going to suffer something awful. CYCLOPS ( carrying Silenus off ) Oh, you’re just making fun of me because I’ve been drinking.
- SILENUS ( as he disappears inside the Cyclops’ cave ) I’m the one who’ll drink a most foul-tasting wine this time.
- ODYSSEUS ( to the chorus of satyrs ) Come now, sons of Dionysus, you noble breed! The man’s inside his cave.
- Soon he’ll succumb to sleep and from his bottomless maw chuck up his dinner.
- Look, a torch inside his cave sends up smoke.
Everything’s going according to plan. All that’s left is to sear shut the Cyclops’ eye with fire. ( The satyrs look around nervously and begin to whistle and walk away.) ODYSSEUS Come on! Act like a man! CHORUS OF SATYRS I’ll show courage as strong as unbreakable stone.
But first, you, go inside the cave before my father suffers something, hard to handle. Everything’s ready out here. ODYSSEUS ( praying ) O Hephaestus, god of fire, lord of Etna, by burning out the shining eye of your evil neighbor here, free yourself once and for all. And you, black progeny of Night, come, Sleep, undiluted on the god-forsaken beast, and do not after those most wonderful Trojan toils sink both his sailors and himself, this Odysseus, at the hands of a man who cares nothing for gods or for men.
Or else Chance is a deity, we must admit, and the matters of heaven lie lower than Luck. This work is licensed under a, : 308 Reading 3: Euripides’ Cyclops, Classical Drama and Theatre
What is one myth about the Cyclops?
Greek Mythology: The Tale of the Cyclops Cyclops Safari Ltd. © Mythical Realms Collection From gods and kings to monsters and beasts, the tales left for us by the ancient Greeks never fail to surprise and excite us! Greek Mythology not only has many great stories, but can also teach valuable lessons.
It’s amazing to think that children thousands of years ago were listening to these same tales, learning the exact life lessons as your child does from these elaborate stories. Want to turn story time into play time? Each tale has a figure from our collection to go along with it, this way you can make the story interactive! This story is about a cruel, one eyed monster called a and how the clever hero Odysseus was able to outsmart him.
The Tale of the Cyclops Once upon a time, there was a very brave soldier name Odysseus who was making his way home from war. Odysseus had been away fighting for a very long time, and faced many scary obstacles on his way home. He sailed with a crew of many brave men, and one day on their journey they came across a very beautiful land.
They decided to set up camp there, and ate roasted goat on the beaches while they relaxed. Across the water was a land thick with forests and beautiful mountains. Odysseus was curious to meet the people who lived over there, and decided that he should go and see what they had to offer. The following day, Odysseus packed a fine wine to bring as a gift for whoever lived there, and sailed across to the beautiful land with a handful of his men.
After a few hours of exploring and not seeing any people, they stumbled across a cave that contained penned up sheep, as well as a large amount of milk and cheese. Odysseus assumed the man who lived here must be very rich, so they waited for the owner to return, helping themselves to milk and cheese.
Right before dark herds of sheep began entering the cave, followed by their shepherd, a giant Cyclops. Angered, the Cyclops asked what they were doing there. Odysseus politely explained to him that they were exploring and wanted to see who lived in this cave. The Cyclops was a cruel giant with one large eye instead of two, and he decided that Odysseus and his men were not leaving.
The Cyclops lifted an enormous boulder and blocked the doorway, then picked up two of Odysseus’s men and ate them for dinner before lying down to sleep. Odysseus and his men mourned the loss of their companions, and Odysseus began to think of ways to get them out of this cave.
The rock was far too big for them to move on their own, so he began to think of other ways to escape. The next morning, the Cyclops ate two more of Odysseus’s men before herding his sheep out the door. Once he was gone, Odysseus ordered his men to find sharp flint and sticks, and tied them together to make a very large spear.
When the Cyclops returned, Odysseus politely offered him the wine he had brought. The Cyclops thanked Odysseus for the wine, ensuring him that since he was kind, he would eat him last. Then, after eating two more of Odysseus’s brave men, the wine took it’s effect and the Cyclops fell into a deep sleep.
- Once asleep, Odysseus and his men lifted the large spear they had made earlier that day and stuck it right into the Cyclops’ eye.
- Enraged, the Cyclops awoke but was unable to find the men for he could no longer see.
- The following morning, the Cyclops moved the rock to allow his sheep to pass, feeling the top of each sheep to make sure no man escaped.
Odysseus had anticipated this, and tied the sheep together with the men clinging to the bottom of them. Once out of the cave, the men scurried back to their boat and sailed back to the rest of the crew on the other side of the island. When the Cyclops realized the men had all escaped, he was furious! He lived the rest of his life in the beautiful mountains and forests, which he could no longer see, since Odysseus had taken his eye.
What is the Cyclops poem about?
Cyclops, like the two other poems included here, is an exploration of the tension between humanity and the natural world.
What is the lesson of the Cyclops story?
Because Polyphemus underestimates Odysseus, he is tricked and then blinded by Odysseus and his men. The lesson in Cyclops is to treat others the way you want to be treated, or that you get what you give.
What did the Cyclops do that terrified Odysseus and his men?
In the epic, The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus develops from being fearful of the Cyclopes to hardly being afraid of them at all as he spends time trying to survive when they are trapped by Polyphemus the Cyclops who is eating his men. First, at the beginning when the Cyclops had devoured two men from Odysseus ‘ crew, the crew then “Cried aloud, lifting hands to Zeus, powerless, looking on at this, appalled” (9).
It is clear that Odysseus is terrified of the Cyclops, He is unable to do anything but pray to Zeus, powerless and afraid. As the story progresses Odysseus develops to be more courageous. At the middle of the story, Odysseus is brave enough to confront the Cyclops right after the Cyclops had helped himself to two members of show more content He is clearly different from the last time the Cyclops ate some of his men.
Odysseus has become more brave from this experience with the Cyclops and shows it at the end, after the crew had escaped the Cyclops, “‘Zeus and the gods have paid you!’ The blind thing in his doubled fury broke a hilltop in his hands and heaved it after us.
Ahead of our prow it struck and sank whelmed in a spuming geyser, a giant black wave that washed the ship stern foremost back to shore” (13). The Cyclops made a very good effort to destroy Odysseus’ crew and probably scared most of them. Odysseus’ crew might not have been so lucky if the Cyclops threw another rock, but Odysseus yells back at him later, “‘If I could take your life I would take your time away, and hurl you down to hell! The good of earthquake would not heal you there!'” (14).
Even after the Cyclops hurled a massive hilltop, Odysseus wasn’t even anxious and yelled back at the Cyclops, crushed, and had given up that Odysseus would gladly kill the Cyclops. Odysseus developed from the beginning of the story to the end by becoming more brave against the
How did Odysseus survive the Cyclops?
Polyphemus, in Greek mythology, the most famous of the Cyclopes (one-eyed giants), son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the nymph Thoösa. According to Ovid in Metamorphoses, Polyphemus loved Galatea, a Sicilian Nereid, and killed her lover Acis,