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Polyphemus

Polyphemus (/ˌpɒliˈfiːməs/; Greek: Πολύφημος, translit. Polyphēmos, Epic Greek: [polýpʰɛːmos]; Latin: Polyphēmus [pɔlʏˈpʰeːmʊs]) is the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes described in Homer's Odyssey. His name means "abounding in songs and legends", "many-voiced" or "very famous".[1] Polyphemus first appeared as a savage man-eating giant in the ninth book of the Odyssey. The satyr play of Euripides is dependent on this episode apart from one detail; Polyphemus is made a pederast in the play. Later Classical writers presented him in their poems as heterosexual and linked his name with the nymph Galatea. Often he was portrayed as unsuccessful in these, and as unaware of his disproportionate size and musical failings.[2] In the work of even later authors, however, he is presented as both a successful lover and skilled musician. From the Renaissance on, art and literature reflect all of these interpretations of the giant.

For other uses, see Polyphemus (disambiguation).

Grouping

Cyclopes

Poseidon and Thoosa (Parents)

Greek mythology

Sicily

The blinding, Laconian black-figure cup, 565–560 BC

The blinding, Laconian black-figure cup, 565–560 BC

Flemish Jacob Jordaens' depiction of Odysseus escaping from the cave of Polyphemus, 1635.

Flemish Jacob Jordaens' depiction of Odysseus escaping from the cave of Polyphemus, 1635.

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein's 1802 head and shoulders portrait of the giant

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein's 1802 head and shoulders portrait of the giant

Arnold Bocklin, Polyphemus attempts to crush the boat of the escaping Odysseus,

Arnold Bocklin, Polyphemus attempts to crush the boat of the escaping Odysseus,

Other uses[edit]

Polyphemus is mentioned in the "Apprentice" chapter of Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma (1871), as, within Scottish Rite Freemasonry, Polyphemus is regarded as a symbol for a civilization that harms itself using ill directed blind force.[84]


The Polyphemus moth is so named because of the large eyespots in the middle of the hind wings.[85]


A species of burrowing tortoise, Gopherus polyphemus, is named after Polyphemus because of their both using subterranean retreats.[86]


In folkloristics, the episode of the blinding of Polyphemus is also known as Polyphemsage and classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 1137, "The Ogre Blinded (Polyphemus)".[87]

In popular culture[edit]

Polyphemus features in Rick Riordan's Greek mythology fantasy series Percy Jackson & the Olympians and serves as an antagonist in the second installment, The Sea of Monsters.[88][89]

Telemus

Cyclopean Isles

Aristophanes (1896). Quinn, M. T. (ed.). . London: George Bell and Sons. Retrieved 2 March 2020.

Plutus

Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). "Polyphemus". The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.  978-1-4214-0135-5.

ISBN

Bempéchat, Paul-André (2009). . Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7546-0683-3. Retrieved 11 March 2020.

Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters

Bion; Moschus; Theocritus (1870). . Translated by Banks, J. London: W. Clowes and Sons. Retrieved 11 March 2020.

The Idylls of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus: And The Warsongs of Tyrtæus

Carey, Sorcha (2002). "A Tradition of Adventures in the Imperial Grotto". Greece & Rome. 49 (1): 44–61. :10.1093/gr/49.1.44. JSTOR 826881.

doi

Brooks, Francis (1896). . D. Nutt. Retrieved 2 March 2020.

Greek Lyric Poets

Cornwall, Barry (1820). . London. Retrieved 12 March 2020.

A Sicilian Story: With Diego De Montilla, And Other Poems

Creese, David (2009). "Erogenous Organs: The Metamorphosis of Polyphemus' "Syrinx" in Ovid, "Metamorphoses" 13.784". The Classical Quarterly. 59 (2): 562–577. :10.1017/S0009838809990188. ISSN 0009-8388. JSTOR 20616706. S2CID 161519889.

doi

Dugaw, Dianne (2001). . University of Delaware Press. ISBN 978-0-87413-731-6. Retrieved 11 March 2020.

"Deep Play": John Gay and the Invention of Modernity

Elsen, Albert E.; Haas, Walter A.; Frankel Jamison, Rosalyn (2003). Barryte, Bernard; Haas, Walter A.; Gerald, Iris; Gerald, B. (eds.). Rodin's art : the Rodin collection of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. Oxford University Press.  9780198030614.

ISBN

Euripides (1994). Euripides. Cyclops. Alcestis. Medea (Loeb Classical Library No. 12). Translated by Kovacs, David. Harvard University Press.  9780674995604.

ISBN

Euripides (2020). Coleridge, E. P. (ed.). . ISBN 979-8664122046. Retrieved 25 September 2022.

They Cyclops

Farmer, Matthew C. (2017). . Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-049207-6.

Tragedy on the Comic Stage

Faulkner, Andrew (2011). "Callimachus' "epigram" 46 and Plato: The Literary Persona of the Doctor". The Classical Quarterly. 61 (1): 178–185. :10.1017/S000983881000039X. ISSN 0009-8388. JSTOR 41301523. S2CID 170522606.

doi

Fowler, R. L. (2013). Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary. Oxford University Press.  978-0198147411.

ISBN

Glenn, Justin (1971). "The Polyphemus Folktale and Homer's Kyklôpeia". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 102: 133–181. :10.2307/2935942. ISSN 0065-9711. JSTOR 2935942.

doi

Langdon, Helen (2012). Van Eck, Caroline; Bussels, Stijn; Delbeke, Maarten; Pieters, Jürgen (eds.). . BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-22955-6. Retrieved 12 March 2020.

Translations of the Sublime: The Early Modern Reception and Dissemination of Longinus' Peri Hupsous in Rhetoric, the Visual Arts, Architecture and the Theatre

Glenn, Justin (1978). "The Polyphemus Myth: Its Origin and Interpretation". Greece & Rome. 25 (2): 141–155. :10.1017/S0017383500020246. ISSN 0017-3835. JSTOR 642285. S2CID 162775936.

doi

de Góngora, Luis (2008). Dent-Young, John (ed.). . University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-14062-9. Retrieved 2 March 2020.

Selected Poems of Luis de Góngora: A Bilingual Edition

Green, Rebecca (1997). Sisman, Elaine R. (ed.). . Haydn and His World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-05799-6. Retrieved 2 March 2020.

"Representing the Aristocracy: The Operatic Hadyn and Le pescatrici"

Griffin, Alan H. F. (1983). "Unrequited Love: Polyphemus and Galatea in Ovid's "Metamorphoses"". Greece & Rome. 30 (2): 190–197. :10.1017/S0017383500027145. ISSN 0017-3835. JSTOR 642570. S2CID 162837388.

doi

Heubeck, Alfred; Hoekstra, Arie (1990). . Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-872144-7.

A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey

Hordern, J. H. (1999). "The Cyclops of Philoxenus". The Classical Quarterly. 49 (2): 445–455. :10.1093/cq/49.2.445. ISSN 0009-8388. JSTOR 639870.

doi

Hunt, David (2012). . Saqi. ISBN 978-0-86356-823-7.

Legends of the Caucasus

Jackson, Lucy C. M. M. (2019). . Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192582881.

The Chorus of Drama in the Fourth Century BCE: Presence and Representation

Junker, Klaus (2012). . Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-89582-8.

Interpreting the Images of Greek Myths: An Introduction

Kleiner, Fred S. (2008). . Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Boston: Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-495-57355-5. Retrieved 12 March 2020.

"Odilon Redon"

Lucian of Samosata (1820). . Translated by Tooke, William. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. Retrieved 2 March 2020.

Lucian of Samosata

LeVen, Pauline A. (2014). . Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-01853-2.

The Many-Headed Muse: Tradition and Innovation in Late Classical Greek Lyric Poetry

Mondi, Robert (1983). "The Homeric Cyclopes: Folktale, Tradition, and Theme". Transactions of the American Philological Association. 113: 17–38. :10.2307/284000. ISSN 0360-5949. JSTOR 284000.

doi

Montemorra Martin, Roberta (2006). "Handel's Acis and Galatea". In Cowgill, Rachel; Rushton, Julian (eds.). . Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7546-5208-3. Retrieved 2 March 2020.

Europe, Empire, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-century British Music

Newlands, Carole E. (2015). . Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85772-660-5. Retrieved 2 March 2020.

Ovid

Nonnus of Panopolis (1940). Frye, Northrop Marginalia; Rose, Herbert Jennings; Lind, Levi Robert (eds.). . Translated by Rouse, William Henry Denham. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Retrieved 3 March 2020.

"Dionysiaca"

Ovid (1922). . Translated by More, Brookes. Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co. Retrieved 2 March 2020.

Metamorphoses

Ovid (2000). Dyck, Andrew R.; Hopkinson, Neil; Easterling, P. E. (eds.). Metamorphoses Book XIII. Cambridge University Press.  9780521554213.

ISBN

Ovid (2000b). . University of Virginia Library. Translated by Kline, A.S. Retrieved 12 March 2020.

"Metamorphoses"

Pausanias (1898). . Translated by Frazer, James George. New York: The Macmillan Company. Retrieved 11 March 2020.

Description of Greece

Pike (1871). Pike, Albert (ed.). . Charleston. ISBN 9781592328154. Retrieved 13 March 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Morals and dogma of the Ancient and accepted Scottish rite of freemasonry. Prepared for the Supreme council of the thirty-third degree, for the Southern jurisdiction of the United States, and published by its authority

Propertius (2008). . Poetry in Translation. Translated by Kline, A. S. Retrieved 11 March 2020.

"The Elegies: Book III"

Rankin, David (2012). Green, Miranda (ed.). The Celtic World. Routledge.  978-1135632434.

ISBN

Roman, Luke; Roman, Monica, eds. (2010). . Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology. New York, NY: Infobase. pp. 123–27. ISBN 978-1-4381-2639-5.

"Cyclops"

Rosen, Ralph (2007). . Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-804234-1.

Making Mockery: The Poetics of Ancient Satire

Theocritus (1947). . Translated by Trevelyan, R. C. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-43219-2.

A Translation of the Idylls of Theocritus

Theocritus (2004). . Project Gutenberg. Translated by Calverley, C.S. Retrieved 11 March 2020.

"Theocritus"

Thompson, Stith (1977). . University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03537-9.

The Folktale

Virgil (2002). . Translated by Kline, A. S. Retrieved 11 March 2020.

Aeneid: III

at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Polyphemus and Galatea depicted in statues with a golden harpsichord by Michele Todini, Rome, 1675

Specific artworks discussed above