Greek Mythology

The Cyclops Polyphemus

Contents:

o The first part of the story goes back to the story of Homer’s Odyssey.
o The second part is told only by the third-century Alexandrian poet Theocritus.
o The last part could have been written by no one except the satirist Lucian.

Characters:

 Polyphemus
Polyphemus is the one- eyed giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa.
 The Cyclopes
Cyclopes are giant one- eyed creatures. In Homer's Odyssey, the Cyclopes are an
uncivilized group of shepherds.
 Oddyseus
Odysseus, the wise and courageous king of Ithaca who is the hero of Homer's
Odyssey.
 Poseidon
Poseidon was the god of the sea and protector of all water. His weapon was a trident
that had the power to cause earthquakes and break anything.
 Zeus
Zeus is the god of the sky and the chief Greek deity, Zeus is considered the ruler,
protector, and father of all gods and humans. Brother of Poseidon.
 Galatea
GALATEIA (Galatea) was one of the fifty Nereides and the goddess of calm seas. Her
name means either "goddess of calm seas" from galênê and theia or "milky- white"
from galaktos.
 Acis
Acis, in the Greek mythology of Ovid, the son of Faunus (Pan) and the nymph
Symaethis. He was a beautiful shepherd of Sicily, the lover of the Nereid Galatea.
 Doris
Doris from this conversation is not the mother of nereids, but one of her daughters,
who bore the name of her mother. Doris and Galatea therefore sisters.

Polyphemus is famously known as 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“. Polyphemus first appeared as a savage man-eating giant in the ninth
book of the Odyssey. 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. 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.

Homer
- /ˈhoʊmər/; Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος [hó mɛːros], Hó mēros) was the reputed author of
the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two epic poems that are the foundational works of
ancient Greek literature. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential
writers of all time.

Polyphemus was a man-eating kyklops (cyclops) giant--a monster with a single, orb-shaped
eye in the middle of his forehead. Odysseus encountered him on his return from Troy and
became trapped in the giant's cave. To escape the hero plied him with wine and as he slept
plunged a burning stake into his eye. The blinded giant tried to prevent Odysseus' flight by
tossing boulders at his ship but, failing that, prayed to his father Poseidon to exact revenge.

Theocritus
- Theocritus, (born c. 300 BC, Syracuse, Sicily [Italy]—died after 260 BC), Greek poet,
the creator of pastoral poetry. His poems were termed eidyllia (“idylls”), a
diminutive of eidos, which may mean “little poems.”

Idyll XI, otherwise known as Bucolic poem 11, written by Theocritus. Its main character,
the Cyclops Polyphemus, has appeared in other works of literature such as Homer's
Odyssey. Theocritus' Idyll XI, the "Cyclops", relates Polyphemus' longing for the sea-nymph
Galatea, and how Polyphemus' cured himself of the wound of this unrequited love through
song.

Lucian
- Lucian of Samosata born c. 125 A.D. Samosata Roman Syria (Now Turkey) and died
after 180 AD was an ancient Greek satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best
known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently
ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. All of his
extant works are written entirely in ancient Greek.

There are indications that Polyphemus’ courtship also had a more successful outcome in
one of the dialogues of Lucian of Samosata. There Doris, one of Galatea's sisters, spitefully
congratulates her on her love conquest and she defends Polyphemus.

The Dialogue
Galatea: None of your airs, please. He’s the son of Poseidon. There!
 Doris: Zeus’s, for all I care. One thing’s certain— he’s an ugly, ill-mannered brute.
Galatea: Just let me tell you, Doris, there’s something very manly about him. Of
course it’s true he’s got only one eye, but he sees as well with it as if he had two.
Doris: It sounds as if you were in love yourself.
Galatea: I in love—with Polyphemus! Not I—but of course I can guess why you’re
talking like this. You know perfectly well he has never noticed you—only me.
Doris: A shepherd with only one eye thinks you handsome! That’s something to be
proud of. Anyway, you won’t have to cook for him. He can make a very good meal off
a traveler, I un derstand.

From the conversation, one understands that Doris is chiefly jealous that her sister has a
lover. Galatea admits that she does not love Polyphemus but is pleased to have been chosen
by him in preference to all her companions.

The Cyclops Polyphemus

At least a thousand years separate the beginning from the end. Homer’s vigor and power of
storytelling, the pretty fancies of Theocritus, the smart cynicism of Lucian, illustrate in their
degree the course of Greek Literature.

Moral of the Story

represents a person with only one point of view. Beware: If you are monofocused and that
monofocus fails, you will be just like Polyphemus.
Flower Myths
Narcissus, Hyacinth and Adonis

Narcissus
Narcissus is the most beautiful boy whom many have ever seen, but he does not return
anyone’s affections. One of the disappointed nymphs prays to the god of anger, Nemesis,
that "he who loves not others love himself." Nemesis answers this prayer. Narcissus looks
at his own reflection in a river and suddenly falls in love with himself. Echo, a nymph who
falls in love with him. Echo falls under an unfortunate spell cast by Hera, who has suspected
that Zeus is interested in her or, at least, in one of her nymph friends. Hera determines that
Echo will always have the last word but never have the power to speak first. That is, she
only can repeat other people's utterances. When the dying Narcissus calls "farewell" to his
own image, Echo can only repeat the words—a final good-bye. In the place where Narcissus
dies, a beautiful flower grows, and the nymphs call it Narcissus.

Hyacinth
Apollo and Hyacinthus are best friends. They compete to see who can throw a discus the
farthest. In the competition, Apollo accidentally throws his discus into Hyacinthus, killing
him. As Apollo holds the body of his best friend, he wishes that he himself would stop living
so that the beautiful, young Hyacinthus could live on. As he speaks those words, the blood
spilling from the dying youth turns the grass green, and a beautiful flower grows—the
hyacinth.

Adonis
Adonis is an extremely handsome young man, and Aphrodite falls in love with him. She
puts him in Persephone's care, but she also falls in love with him. Finally, Zeus intervenes
and decides that Adonis shall spend half the year with Persephone and half the year with
Aphrodite. One day, Adonis hunts a wild boar and thinks he killed it. But the boar was only
wounded, and it fiercely lunges at Adonis as he approaches. Aphrodite flies to him and
holds him, dying, in her arms. Flowers grow where the blood wets the ground -the
anemone.

“Mythology is studied because myths are ways in which cultures attempt to explain the world
and answer questions of human”