7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

1/12

Cyclopes

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

2/12

Cyclopes

Cyclops in Greek Mythology

The Cyclops were represented as one-eyedgiants in Greek mythology.

Hesiod described one group of cyclopesand the epic poet Homer describedanother; other accounts were written by,

Roman epic poet Virgil and some others.

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

3/12

Hesiod's Theogony

In the Theogony by Hesiod, the Cyclopes werethe primordial sons ofUranus (Sky) andGaia(Earth) and brothers of the Hecatonchires.As such, they were blood-related to the Titanand Olympian gods and goddesses. They weregiants with a single eye in the middle of theirforehead and a foul disposition. According toHesiod, they were strong and stubborn.

Collectively they eventually became synonymsfor brute strength and power, and their namewas invoked in connection with massivemasonry. They were often pictured at theirforge.

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

4/12

Homer's Theogony

In a famous episode ofHomer'sOdyssey, the heroOdysseus encounters thecyclops Polyphemus, the

son ofPoseidon andThoosa (anereid) wholives with his fellowCyclopes in a distantcountry. The connectionbetween the two groupshas been debated inantiquity and by modernscholars

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

5/12

Odysseus

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

6/12

. It is upon Homer's account that Euripides

and Virgil based their accounts of themythical creatures.

The Cyclopes seen in Homer's Odyssey areof a different type from those in the

Theogony and they have no connection toblacksmithing. It is possible thatindependent legends associated withPolyphemus did not make him a Cyclops

before Homer'sOdyssey; Polyphemus mayhave been some sort of local daemon ormonster in original stories.

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

7/12

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

8/12

Uranus, fearing their strength, locked them inTartarus. Cronus, another son of Uranus andGaia, later freed the Cyclopes, along with theHecatonchires, after he had overthrownUranus. Cronus then placed them back inTartarus, where they remained, guarded by

the female dragonCampe, until freed by Zeus.They fashioned thunderbolts for Zeus to use asweapons, and helped him overthrow Cronusand the other Titans. The lightning bolts,

which became Zeus' main weapons, wereforged by all three Cyclopes, in that Argesadded brightness, Brontes added thunder, andSteropes added lightning.

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

9/12

DragonCampe

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

10/12

Virgils Theogony

Virgil, the Roman epic poet, wrote, in book threeof The Aeneid, of how Aeneas and his crew landedon the island of the cyclops after escaping fromTroy at the end of the TrojanWar. Aeneas and hiscrew land on the island, when they areapproached by a desperate Greek man fromIthaca, Achaemenides, who was stranded on theisland a few years previously with Odysseus'expedition (as depicted in The Odyssey).

Virgil's account acts as a sequel to Homer's, withthe fate of Polyphemus as a blind cyclops after theescape ofOdysseus and his crew.

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

11/12

Cyclopean walls

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MicenePortaLeoniMura.jpg

7/28/2019 Cyclopes.pptx

12/12

After the "Dark Age", when Hellenes lookedwith awe at the vast dressed blocks, known

as Cyclopeanstructures, which had beenused in Mycenaean masonry (at sites suchas Mycenae and Tiryns or on Cyprus), they

concluded that only the Cyclopes had thecombination of skill and strength to build insuch a monumental manner