The Cyclopes were one-eyed giants of Greek mythology, and they appear in two distinct but related groups. The first were the elder Cyclopes, three primordial sons of Ouranos and Gaia, who were master craftsmen and who forged Zeus’s thunderbolts. The second were the later Cyclopes, a wild and lawless race of one-eyed shepherds and cannibals, the most famous of whom was Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon who was blinded by Odysseus in the most famous episode of Homer’s Odyssey. The name “Cyclopes” means “round-eyed” or “circle-eyed,” and the Cyclopes have become one of the most iconic monsters of Western culture.
The Cyclopes are one-eyed giants of Greek myth, and the Greek tradition distinguishes sharply between the elder Cyclopes (Brontes, Steropes, and Arges, the three primordial sons of Ouranos and Gaia, who forged Zeus’s thunderbolts in the Theogony) and the later Cyclopes (the wild, lawless race of one-eyed shepherds and cannibals, of whom Polyphemus is the most famous). The standard source for the elder Cyclopes is Hesiod’s Theogony (line 140 ff.); the standard source for Polyphemus and the later Cyclopes is the Odyssey (Book IX, the most famous single encounter with a Cyclops in Western literature). The Cyclopean walls of Mycenae and Tiryns are the late-Bronze-Age walls of the Mycenaean civilisation, which the later Greeks believed only one-eyed giants could have built.
The Elder Cyclopes
In Hesiod’s Theogony, the elder Cyclopes were three primordial beings: Brontes (Thunder), Steropes (Lightning), and Arges (Bright). They were the sons of Ouranos (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), and they were the brothers of the Titans and the Hecatoncheires, the hundred-handed giants.
The elder Cyclopes were master craftsmen, particularly of metalwork. They forged Zeus’s thunderbolts, the weapons that allowed him to defeat the Titans. They were also said to have forged the trident of Poseidon and the helm of darkness of Hades. They were the original divine smiths, and their craftsmanship was unrivaled.
Ouranos, fearing the power of the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, imprisoned them in Tartarus, the deep pit of the underworld. When Zeus led the revolt against the Titans, he freed the Cyclopes, who then forged his thunderbolts. With these weapons, Zeus was able to defeat the Titans and cast them into Tartarus, with the Hecatoncheires as their guards. The elder Cyclopes were later killed by Apollo in revenge for the death of his son Asclepius, who had been killed by Zeus’s thunderbolt.
The Later Cyclopes
The later Cyclopes were a wild and lawless race of one-eyed giants, often described as shepherds or cannibals. They were the children of Poseidon and various nymphs, and they lived in a land of caves and rocky outcrops, far from civilization. The most famous of them was Polyphemus, the Cyclops who was blinded by Odysseus.
In Homer’s Odyssey, Polyphemus is described as a “monster of a man, who had no notion of right and wrong, and was, in shape, more like a shaggy mountain than a man.” He lived in a cave on the island of the Cyclopes, where he herded his sheep and goats, and he had no fear of the gods. He was the son of Poseidon, which made him particularly dangerous to the Greek hero.
The later Cyclopes were also the master builders of the mythical “Cyclopean walls” of Mycenae and Tiryns. These walls were so massive that the later Greeks believed only one-eyed giants could have built them. The walls are real, dating to the Late Bronze Age (c. 1400-1200 BCE), and they were built by Mycenaean engineers, not by mythical Cyclopes.
The Blinding of Polyphemus
The most famous myth of the Cyclopes is the blinding of Polyphemus by Odysseus, told in Book IX of the Odyssey. Odysseus and his men landed on the island of the Cyclopes while returning from Troy, and they entered a cave that was filled with cheese and milk. The cave belonged to Polyphemus, who soon returned with his flock.
Polyphemus, a cannibal, immediately ate two of Odysseus’s men. He then sealed the cave with a great boulder, trapping the Greeks inside. Each morning, he would eat two more men, and each evening, he would roll the boulder back into place.
Odysseus, the man of many wiles, devised a plan. He offered Polyphemus some strong wine he had brought from his ship. The Cyclops, drunk, asked Odysseus his name. Odysseus replied that his name was “Nobody” (or “Outis” in Greek). Polyphemus, pleased with the gift of wine, promised to eat “Nobody” last, and then fell asleep.
Odysseus, with his men, heated a sharpened stake in the fire and drove it into the single eye of Polyphemus, blinding him. The Cyclops screamed in pain, but when his neighbors, attracted by the noise, asked who was hurting him, he replied: “Nobody.” They thought he was ill and went away.
The next morning, Polyphemus had to roll back the boulder to let his flock out to graze, but he could not see who passed through. Odysseus tied himself and his men to the bellies of the sheep, so that they would not be felt by the Cyclops’s hands, and they escaped. Once safely away, Odysseus could not resist taunting the Cyclops, telling him his real name. Polyphemus prayed to his father Poseidon to curse Odysseus, and the god agreed.
Polyphemus and Galatea
In a later myth, told by the Hellenistic poet Theocritus and by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, the Cyclops Polyphemus fell in love with the sea-nymph Galatea. Galatea, however, loved a young Sicilian shepherd named Acis. Polyphemus, in a jealous rage, crushed Acis with a boulder, killing him. Galatea, in her grief, transformed Acis into a river-god.
The myth of Polyphemus and Galatea has been a popular subject in Western art, particularly in painting, sculpture, and opera. The image of the lovesick giant serenading the sea-nymph with his panpipes has been a favorite of artists from the Renaissance to the modern day.
The Cyclopes in Other Myths
The Cyclopes appear in several other myths. In the Aeneid, Aeneas and his crew encounter a Cyclops on the coast of Sicily. In the Argonautica of Apollonius, the Argonauts encounter the Cyclopes and are saved by Heracles from the brigand-like giants. In the Odyssey, the Cyclopes are described as a lawless race, each living in his own cave, with no assemblies, no laws, and no agriculture.
The Cyclopes also appear in the myths of the early god Ouranos, who was castrated by his son Cronus, and in the myths of the Titans, who were the elder brothers of the Cyclopes. The Cyclopes are sometimes said to have been the first to work with iron, and they were the original smiths of the gods.
The Cyclopes in Greek Art
The Cyclopes were a popular subject in Greek art, particularly in vase paintings and sculpture. The most famous surviving depiction is the famous Cycladic figurines of the Early Bronze Age, dating to around 3000-2000 BCE, which have a single eye and a stylized human form. These figurines have been connected to the Cyclopes myth, although their actual purpose is unknown.
In Archaic Greek art, the Cyclopes were often shown as giant men with a single eye in the middle of the forehead, in the act of building the walls of Mycenae or Tiryns. The most famous example is a relief from the “Treasury of the Cyclopes” at Mycenae, which shows two Cyclopes carrying stones on their shoulders.
In later Greek art, the Cyclopes were often shown as one-eyed giants with a fierce expression, sometimes with the eye in the middle of the forehead and sometimes with a single eye on one side. The blinding of Polyphemus is subjects in Greek vase painting, with dozens of surviving examples.
The Cultural Legacy of the Cyclopes
The Cyclopes appear in the Percy Jackson series, the God of War franchise, and the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey video game (2018). The word cyclopean has entered English as a description of massive stone construction. Polyphemus has been the subject of paintings by the major artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Velázquez’s Acis and Galatea. For the broader modern reception, see our guide to Greek mythology in modern culture.
A Note on Reading This Profile
A note on reading this profile. The Cyclopes are unusual in that the Greek tradition distinguishes two very different groups of one-eyed giants. The elder Cyclopes (Hesiod’s Theogony 140 ff.) are primordial smiths, the children of Ouranos and Gaia, who forged Zeus’s thunderbolts. The later Cyclopes (Homer’s Odyssey Book IX) are wild, cannibalistic, one-eyed shepherds, the most famous of whom is Polyphemus. The two are not the same figure, and the modern synthesis (a single race of one-eyed giants) is a later development. The standard scholarly reference is the Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology (2014).