Who Is Polyphemus (Polyphemos)?
The one-eyed giant son of the sea god
Polyphemus is one of the Cyclopes, a race of one-eyed giants, and the son of the sea god Poseidon and the nymph Thoosa. He lives alone in a cave on an island, keeping sheep and goats.
In this story, he traps Odysseus and his men in his cave behind a huge boulder and eats the men one after another. But after drinking the strong wine they offer him, he falls into a drunken sleep, and they blind his eye with a heated olive-wood stake. When the other giants ask who hurt him, he answers "Nobody," so no help comes. When he finally learns Odysseus's real name, he prays to his father Poseidon to curse him.
That curse is the reason Odysseus's homecoming is delayed for so long. In Hesiod's Theogony, by contrast, the Cyclopes are smith giants who forged Zeus's thunderbolts, so they are portrayed differently from one work to another.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 2
The Man Who Said His Name Was NobodyThe Cyclops Polyphemus
Trapped in the cave of a one-eyed giant, Odysseus survives by giving up his own name. But once safe aboard his ship, he shouts his real name back at the shore — and brings the sea god's curse down on himself.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 5
What the Greatest Hero Said After DeathThe Nekyia — Journey to the Underworld
At the lightless edge of the world, Odysseus summons the dead—yet even when his own mother appears, he keeps his sword raised so the prophet can drink the blood first. Three times her shade slips through his arms, and the heroes of Troy speak their hearts. Odysseus learns what it truly means to come home alive.
19 pages