Source-groundedThe Odyssey
All entities

Published entity metadata

Read-only identity and editorial metadata.

Canonical name
Cyclopes
Disambiguator
None
Kind
Monster
Scope
Class
Editorial note
No editorial note published.

Aliases

1

lawless and inhuman Cyclopes

Epithet · Remembered

Location presence

Phase 6 currently covers 24 processed books.

0

No presence observations in the processed scope.

Claims

6
·Reported

Polyphemus is king of the Cyclopes.

See evidence text
“Polyphemus king of the Cyclopes”
·Direct

The lawless Cyclopes were stronger than the Phaeacians and plundered them.

See evidence text
“near the lawless Cyclopes. Now the Cyclopes were stronger than they and plundered them”
·Reported

The Cyclopes are described as near kin to the gods.

See evidence text
“for we are as near of kin to the gods as the Cyclopes and the savage giants are”
·Remembered

The Cyclopes are lawless and inhuman: they neither farm nor hold assemblies, live in mountaintop caves, and each rules his own family without regard for neighbours.

See evidence text
“the lawless and inhuman Cyclopes. Now the Cyclopes neither plant nor plough, but trust in providence, and live on such wheat, barley, and grapes as grow wild without any kind of tillage, and their wild grapes yield them wine as the sun and the rain may grow them. They have no laws nor assemblies of the people, but live in caves on the tops of high mountains; each is lord and master in his family, and they take no account of their neighbours.”
·Remembered

The Cyclopes have neither ships nor shipwrights, preventing them from voyaging or colonising the nearby fertile island.

See evidence text
“For the Cyclopes have no ships, nor yet shipwrights who could make ships for them; they cannot therefore go from city to city, or sail over the sea to one another’s country as people who have ships can do”
·Reported

Polyphemus claims the Cyclopes disregard Jove and the blessed gods because they are much stronger.

See evidence text
“We Cyclopes do not care about Jove or any of your blessed gods, for we are ever so much stronger than they”

Additional evidence

Evidence records not already represented by a claim.

4
·Reported
“the Cyclopes”
·Direct
“the lawless Cyclopes. Now the Cyclopes were stronger than they and plundered them”
·Reported
“we are as near of kin to the gods as the Cyclopes and the savage giants are”
·Remembered
“the lawless and inhuman Cyclopes”

Passage preview

Book 1 · Passage 6

And Jove said, ‘My child, what are you talking about? How can I forget Ulysses than whom there is no more capable man on earth, nor more liberal in his offerings to the immortal gods that live in heaven? Bear in mind, however, that Neptune is still furious with Ulysses for having blinded an eye of Polyphemus king of the Cyclopes. Polyphemus is son to Neptune by the nymph Thoosa, daughter to the sea-king Phorcys; therefore though he will not kill Ulysses outright, he torments him by preventing him from getting home. Still, let us lay our heads together and see how we can help him to return; Neptune will then be pacified, for if we are all of a mind he can hardly stand out against us.’