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Cyclops
Sicily and Volcanic Islands
Danger Level: 8/10
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Abilities
Immense StrengthMaster CraftsmanshipStone Throwing
Lore & Legend
One Eye, Two Stories
Hesiod's Cyclopes — Brontes, Steropes, Arges — forge Zeus's thunderbolt. Homer's Polyphemus is a pastoral giant who cages Odysseus and is blinded for it. Later myth tries to join the smiths to the shepherds; the poems keep them apart.
The Odyssey episode is the one travelers remember: no wine-guest law, a cave, and a name stolen as 'Nobody.'
Primary Sources
“They have no assemblies for making council, nor appointed laws, but they dwell on the peaks of lofty mountains in hollow caves.”