Cyclopes in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Cyclopes

16 passages from 9 ancient authors that tell of Cyclopes, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. The Cyclopes were one-eyed giants, sons of Uranus and Gaea: Hesiod's smiths who sided with Zeus, and Homer's Polyphemus. Origin, works, death & story. For the story in one place, read our article on Cyclopes.

Hesiod (2)

Hesiod, Theogony 130–174Gaia and Uranus: the Titans, Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers (130-174)Gaia bears Pontus, the sea, and then lies with Uranus and bears the twelve Titans, among them Oceanus and Cronus, followed by the three Cyclopes and the three Hundred-Handers. Uranus hates his children and hides them in Gaia's depths, so she groans, plots against him and makes a sickle of grey flint. Only Cronus has the courage to answer her, and she sets him in ambush with the sickle.
Hesiod, Theogony 480–504Zeus hidden in Crete; Cronus vomits up his children (480-504)Gaia takes the infant Zeus to a hidden cave on Mount Aegeum and gives Cronus a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallows. When Zeus is grown, Gaia's counsel tricks Cronus into vomiting up his children, the stone first, which Zeus sets up at Pytho. Zeus also frees his father's brothers, the Cyclopes, who give him thunder and the lightning bolt.

Homer (3)

Homer, Odyssey 9.105–230The land of the Cyclopes; the caveThe ships come to the land of the Cyclopes, who plant nothing, have no assemblies or laws, and live in caves, and Odysseus lands on a wooded island near by where goats run wild. In the morning he takes twelve men and a skin of Maron's wine and finds a cave filled with cheeses and lambs. The men urge him to take what they can and go, but he waits to see the owner.
Homer, Odyssey 9.231–344Odysseus and the Cyclops PolyphemusThe Cyclops comes home with his flocks and rolls a great stone across the mouth of the cave. He sees the men, and Odysseus begs for hospitality in the name of Zeus, but the giant says that the Cyclopes care nothing for Zeus and eats two of the men. Odysseus sees that they could not move the stone, and in the morning, after the giant has eaten two more and gone out with his flocks, he prepares a sharpened olive trunk and chooses four men by lot to help him. The Cyclops returns at evening and again seizes two men for his supper.
Homer, Odyssey 9.395–472The blinding and escape from the caveThe Cyclops bellows, and the other Cyclopes come to ask who is hurting him, and he answers that Noman is, so they go away. In the morning the blind giant feels the backs of his rams as they go out, and Odysseus and his men escape tied under their bellies, Odysseus clinging to the largest ram. They drive the flock down to the ship.

Apollodorus (3)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.1.1–7Uranus, the Titans and the birth of ZeusSky (Uranus) and Earth have the Hundred-handers, the Cyclopes and the Titans, and Sky casts the Cyclopes into Tartarus. At Earth's urging the Titans attack their father, and Cronus mutilates him with an adamantine sickle, so that the Furies are born from the blood. Cronus takes the sovereignty, binds his brothers again, marries Rhea and swallows his children at birth, until Rhea hides the infant Zeus in a cave in Crete among the Curetes and nymphs and gives Cronus a stone to swallow.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.7.1–40The wanderings of Odysseus, the suitors and his deathOdysseus leaves Troy and meets the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters and Polyphemus the Cyclops, then Aeolus, the Laestrygonians and Circe. After the visit to Hades, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis and the cattle of the Sun, he reaches Calypso and then the Phaeacians and Ithaca, where the suitors are named and killed. The section ends with his later life among the Thesprotians and the variant accounts of his death at the hands of Telegonus, and of Penelope's fate.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.2.1–7Zeus and the Titanomachy; the children of the TitansZeus takes Metis as his ally, and she gives Cronus a drug that makes him disgorge the stone and his swallowed children. In the ten-year war the gods win once Zeus frees the prisoners in Tartarus and the Cyclopes give him thunder and lightning, Pluto a helmet and Poseidon a trident; the Titans are shut in Tartarus and the three brothers draw lots for sky, sea and the underworld. The rest of the section lists the offspring of the Titans, of Styx, and of Sea and Earth, ending with the Nereids.

Euripides (1)

Euripides, Cyclops 96–162First episode: Odysseus meets Silenus and learns of the CyclopesOdysseus asks Silenus where to find water and food. Silenus tells him that this is Mount Aetna in Sicily and that the Cyclopes live on milk, cheese and the flesh of sheep, and that they kill and eat strangers. The Cyclops himself is away hunting.

Apollonius Rhodius (1)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.721–909Jason and Hypsipyle on LemnosJason puts on the purple mantle that Athena gave him, woven with scenes such as the Cyclopes at their forge, and goes to the city. Hypsipyle tells him how the women drove out the men and offers him her father's rule. The Argonauts linger on Lemnos until Heracles rebukes them, and Hypsipyle bids Jason a tearful farewell.

Callimachus (1)

Callimachus, Hymns 3.1–268Hymn to Artemis: the goddess's childhood wishesAs a small girl on her father's knees, Artemis asks Zeus to let her stay a maiden for ever and to give her a bow, a short tunic, sixty nymphs of Oceanus for her choir and twenty nymphs of Amnisus to tend her hounds, and Zeus smiles and grants it, adding cities. She visits the Cyclopes on Lipara for her arrows, takes hounds from Pan in Arcadia and captures four golden-horned deer for her chariot. The poet praises her favourite places and companions, among them Britomartis, Cyrene and Atalanta, and her shrines at Miletus and Ephesus. He ends with a warning to those who wronged her, such as Oeneus, Otus and Orion.

Pausanias (1)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.2.1–8Corinth: Palaemon’s shrine, the ports, the tomb of Lais and the market-placeWithin the Isthmian precinct Pausanias describes the temple of Palaemon and the altar of the Cyclopes, and the conduct of the Isthmian games after Mummius. He then describes Lechaeum and Cenchreae with their sanctuaries and the bath of Helen, and on the road to Corinth the tomb of Diogenes and the Craneum, where the grave of Lais lies. In the market-place he lists images of Artemis, Dionysus and others, with the story of the images made from Pentheus’ tree.

Nonnus of Panopolis (3)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 28.172–256Book 28: The Cyclopes join the battle; Brontes fells DeriadesThe Cyclopes fight for Zeus' side with false thunder and lightning and burn Indians with firebrands. Brontes hurls a crag that knocks Deriades from his car, though Hydaspes saves him, and Zeus laughs at the mock thunder. Other Cyclopes cut down the enemy with tree trunks and boulders.
Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 14.0–104Book 14: Rheia arms the gods; Cabeiroi, Telchines, Cyclopes and PansRheia summons all the gods and nature spirits. The Cabeiroi, the Cretan Corybants, the Telchines of Rhodes, the Centaurs and the Cyclopes come to join Dionysos, though Polyphemos stays behind for love of Galateia. The twelve horned Pans are named, and old Seilenos arrives with his three sons.
Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 27.75–143Book 27: Deriades' threats; the Indians march outDeriades goes on to threaten Aiacos, the Cyclopes, the Telchines and Erechtheus, and imagines forging his own thunderbolts. He tells his men to cut down the Bassarids while he and Morrheus deal with Dionysos and Aristaios, and the Indians march out on elephants, horses and foot.

Epic Cycle (1)

Epic Cycle, Summaries and Fragments 1.1–2.3Titanomachy and OedipodeaThe Epic Cycle begins with the union of Heaven and Earth, who make three hundred-handed sons and three Cyclopes. The fragments of the War of the Titans name Aether, Aegaeon and Zeus dancing, and the Oedipodea fragments say that Oedipus' sons were born of Euryganeia, not Iocasta, and that the Sphinx killed Haemon.