Greek PantheonCave
Cave of Polyphemus
The cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus in Odyssey 9, where Odysseus, calling himself Nobody, blinded the one-eyed son of Poseidon and escaped beneath his sheep; later tradition placed it in Sicily.
About Cave of Polyphemus
Polyphemus's fold
The cave in Odyssey 9 is a dairy and a prison: Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, eats six men, Odysseus names himself Nobody, blinds the eye, and rides out under the sheep. Homer places the Cyclopes on a lawless shore opposite a goat island; later tradition says Sicily. There is no hero-cult of the cave. Poseidon's anger in the rest of the poem starts here. The architecture is a single blocked door and a sharpened olive stake.
On the map
Cave of Polyphemus among other places of the Greek Pantheon.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Homer, Odyssey 9
About this entry
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.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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