Polyphemus in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Polyphemus

29 passages from 6 ancient authors that tell of Polyphemus, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Polyphemus, the Cyclops son of Poseidon, trapped Odysseus, who blinded him with the Nobody trick. Read the blinding, escape, and curse. For the story in one place, read our article on Polyphemus.

Homer (8)

Homer, Odyssey 9.473–566Odysseus taunts the CyclopsOdysseus shouts back to the Cyclops from the ship and tells him that Zeus has punished his wickedness. The Cyclops tears off a hill-top and hurls it so that it nearly strikes the ship, and he does so again after Odysseus, against the pleading of his men, shouts out his own name. The Cyclops prays to Poseidon, his father, that Odysseus never reach home, or that he come late and alone, in a stranger's ship, and find trouble in his house. The ships rejoin the rest of the fleet, and they sail on.
Homer, Odyssey 9.345–394The wine and the name NomanOdysseus offers the Cyclops a bowl of the strong wine, and the giant drinks three times and asks his name. Odysseus says it is Noman, and the Cyclops promises to eat him last and falls asleep drunk. Odysseus and four men heat the stake in the fire and drive it into the giant's eye.
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.
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 23.288–372Odysseus tells his tale; the dawnThey go to bed, and Odysseus tells Penelope the story of his wanderings, the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, Circe, Hades, the Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, the cattle of the Sun, Calypso and the Phaeacians. At dawn he tells Penelope to stay in her room and goes out to the country with Telemachus and the two herdsmen, to see his father, with Athena casting night about them.
Homer, Odyssey 1.1–95Invocation; the gods in councilThe poet asks the Muse to sing of the man who wandered long after the sack of Troy and lost his comrades through their folly in eating the cattle of the Sun. Odysseus is held on Calypso's island, longing for home, while Poseidon, who is angry with him, is away among the Ethiopians. In the council of the gods Zeus speaks of Aegisthus, and Athena pleads for Odysseus and obtains leave to send Hermes to Calypso and to go herself to Ithaca.
Homer, Odyssey 10.133–209Circe's island; the stagThey come to the island of Aeaea, where the goddess Circe lives, and Odysseus lands and kills a great stag, which the men carry down to the ship for a meal. The men weep, remembering the Cyclops and the Laestrygonians, and Odysseus divides them into two companies, led by himself and by Eurylochus, and the lot falls to Eurylochus to go inland.
Homer, Odyssey 11.90–149Teiresias prophesiesThe ghost of Teiresias comes, drinks the blood, and tells Odysseus that Poseidon is angry with him for the Cyclops, but that he may still reach home if his men leave the cattle of the Sun alone. He foretells trouble in his house, the death of the suitors, a last journey inland with an oar until he comes to men who do not know the sea, and a gentle death in old age. He then tells Odysseus how to let the other ghosts speak.

Apollodorus (1)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.9.16–22Jason and the Argonauts: the voyage to PhineusPelias is warned against the man with one sandal and sends Jason to fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis. Argus builds the Argo, the crew is listed, and the ship calls at Lemnos, at the land of the Doliones where Cyzicus is killed by mistake, and at Mysia, where Hylas is lost and Heracles is left behind. Polydeuces kills Amycus of the Bebryces, and at Salmydessus Zetes and Calais drive the Harpies from the seer Phineus, who tells the crew how to pass the Clashing Rocks.

Euripides (13)

Euripides, Cyclops 503–575Fourth episode: Odysseus gets the Cyclops drunk and tells him he is NomanThe Cyclops comes out merry with wine and calls for more, and Odysseus persuades him not to share it with his brothers. Silenus sneaks sips as cup-bearer, until the Cyclops takes the wine-skin back. The Cyclops asks the stranger's name, and Odysseus says that it is Noman, and the Cyclops promises to eat him last.
Euripides, Cyclops 663–709Exodos: the Cyclops is blinded and Odysseus names himselfThe Cyclops cries out that his eye is burnt, and says that Noman has blinded him, and the Chorus mocks him, and then misdirects him as he gropes for the Greeks. Odysseus reveals his real name, and the Cyclops says that an old oracle has come true, and threatens to crush the ship with a boulder. The Chorus declares that it will go with Odysseus and serve Bacchus.
Euripides, Cyclops 203–252Second episode: the Cyclops returns and hears Silenus' liesThe Cyclops enters, scolds the satyrs for idling, and asks about his lambs and his milk. He sees the strangers near the folds, and Silenus pretends to have been beaten and says that the strangers robbed the Cyclops' goods. The Cyclops orders his cleavers sharpened and the fire lit to cook them.
Euripides, Cyclops 253–312Second episode: Odysseus and Silenus quarrel before the CyclopsOdysseus tells the Cyclops that they came to buy food and that Silenus sold them the lambs behind his master's back. Silenus protests and swears by Poseidon, but the Chorus says that it saw him sell them. The Cyclops asks who the strangers are, and Odysseus says that they are Ithacans on their way home from Troy, and he begs for mercy as suppliants.
Euripides, Cyclops 437–502Third episode: Odysseus plans to blind the CyclopsOdysseus tells of his scheme to keep the Cyclops from his brothers and make him drunk, and then to burn out his eye with a blazing olive-branch. He says that he will then carry the satyrs and Silenus away in his ship, and the satyrs offer eagerly to help hold the brand. The drunken Cyclops is then seen leaving his cave, singing.
Euripides, Cyclops 576–623Fourth episode: the Cyclops carries off SilenusThe Cyclops, reeling with wine, takes Silenus for Ganymede and drags him inside, while Silenus protests. Odysseus tells the satyrs that the Cyclops is sunk in slumber and the brand is already smoking in the cave. He prays to Hephaestus and Sleep, and the Chorus longs to see Bromius again.
Euripides, Cyclops 1–40Prologue: Silenus laments his servitude to the CyclopsSilenus calls on Bromius and recalls the toils he has borne for the god, including the battle with the giants and the voyage in search of him after Tyrrhenian pirates carried him off. He says that an east wind drove them near Malea to Aetna, where they are slaves of the Cyclops Polyphemus. He is sweeping out the cave for his master when he sees his sons, the satyrs, driving the flocks home.
Euripides, Cyclops 313–374hSecond episode: the Cyclops rejects hospitality; first choral songSilenus advises the Cyclops to eat every morsel of the strangers, and the Cyclops answers that wealth is the god of the wise, that he does not fear Zeus, and that his belly is his god. He drives the Greeks into the cave, and Odysseus prays to Athena and Zeus. The Chorus sings in horror of the feast of human flesh.
Euripides, Cyclops 375–436Third episode: Odysseus reports the Cyclops' feastOdysseus comes out of the cave and tells how the Cyclops seized two of his comrades, killed them and cooked them. He then served the Cyclops Maron's wine until he began to sing drunkenly. Odysseus offers to save the satyrs and win them back to Dionysus.
Euripides, Cyclops 163–202First episode: Odysseus' wine buys food; the Cyclops returnsOdysseus lets Silenus taste Maron's wine and offers it in exchange for lambs and cheese, and Silenus agrees, saying that he would give up the flocks of every Cyclops for a single cup. The Chorus asks Odysseus about Troy and Helen, and Silenus brings out the food. The Cyclops is then seen coming, and Odysseus says that the Greeks must not flee from a single man.
Euripides, Cyclops 41–95Parodos: the satyrs herd the flocks and long for DionysusThe Chorus of satyrs drives in the flocks, calling to the sheep, and laments that on Aetna they have no wine, no dances and no Bacchantes. Silenus tells them to fold the flocks in the cavern, and says that he sees a ship from Hellas at the shore. Its crew carry empty vessels for water and need food.
Euripides, Cyclops 624–662Fifth episode: the satyrs shrink back from the brandOdysseus calls for silence and tells the satyrs to go in and grip the red-hot brand, but one after another they find excuses, one claiming to have gone lame and another to have dust in his eyes. The Chorus offers instead a spell of Orpheus. Odysseus calls them worthless allies and says that he will use his own men, while the Chorus promises to encourage him from outside.
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.

Theocritus (2)

Theocritus, Idylls 11.1–81Idyll 11: The Cyclops' love for GalateaThe poet tells his friend, the physician Nicias, that the only cure for love is song. It tells how the Cyclops Polyphemus, in love with Galatea, sat by the sea and sang to her and was eased by it. He praises his flocks and his cave and reproaches himself for pursuing her.
Theocritus, Idylls 6.1–46Idyll 6: Daphnis and Damoetas sing of the CyclopsThe herdsmen Daphnis and Damoetas sit down by a spring at noon and sing in turn. Daphnis sings of Galatea pelting Polyphemus with apples, and Damoetas answers in the voice of Polyphemus himself, who pretends not to care. They kiss and exchange a pipe and a flute, and neither is judged the winner.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.748–899Acis and GalateaGalatea, a sea-nymph, tells how she was loved by the shepherd Acis and wooed by the Cyclops Polyphemus, who sings a rough love-song to her. Polyphemus, discovering the two lovers, throws a huge rock at Acis, who dies, and Galatea changes his blood into a river. She ends the tale on the shore, and the sea-nymphs scatter.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.158–220AchaemenidesAt Caieta Macareus, an old companion of Odysseus (Ulysses), recognises Achaemenides, whom the Greeks had left behind when they fled from the Cyclops and who now follows Aeneas, and asks how he came there. Achaemenides tells of the cave of Polyphemus, of how Odysseus blinded the giant, and how he himself, left behind, was saved by a Trojan ship.

Nonnus of Panopolis (3)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 39.212–294Book 39: The fight at sea; the gods look onAres, Rout and Terror join the sea fight, which fills the water with blood and corpses. The Nereids watch, Galatea fears for Polyphemos, and Poseidon complains to Dionysos that his son the Cyclops is not in the battle.
Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 6.258–388Book 6: The flood; Pan and Galateia; the earth renewedLand and sea creatures mingle in the flood, and Pan and Galateia talk as she swims past him. The rivers Nile, Alpheios and Pyramos wander in search of their loves. Deucalion floats in his ark, and Poseidon splits a mountain to let the water run off, so that cities are built again.
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.