![]() The Cyclopes, who were regarded as skilful architects in later accounts, were a race of men who appear to be different from the Cyclopes whom we have considered hitherto, for they are described as a Thracian tribe, which derived its name from a king Cyclops. 420.) Two of their names are the same as in the cosmogonic tradition, but new names also were invented, for we find one Cyclops bearing the name of Pyracmon, and another that of Acamas. ![]() Their number is, like that in the Homeric poems, no longer confined to three, but their residence is removed from the south-western to the eastern part of Sicily (Virg. As the assistants of Hephaestus they are no longer shepherds, but make the metal armour and ornaments for gods and heroes they work with such might that Sicily and all the neighbouring islands resound with their hammering. Volcanoes were the workshops of that god, and mount Aetna in Sicily and the neighbouring isles were accordingly considered as their abodes. 53.)Ī still later tradition regarded the Cyclopes as the assistants of Hephaestus. Polyphemus.) The Homeric Cyclopes are no longer the servants of Zeus, but they disregard him. 200.) Homer does not distinctly state that all of the Cyclopes were one-eyed, but Polyphemus, the principal among them, is described as having only one eye on his forehead. They had no laws or political institutions, and each lived with his wives and children in a cave of a mountain, and ruled over them with arbitrary power. They neglected agriculture, and the fruits of the field were reaped by them without labour. In the Homeric poems the Cyclopes are a gigantic, insolent, and lawless race of shepherds, who lived in the south-western part of Sicily, and devoured human beings. § 4.) According to others, however, it was not the Cyclopes themselves that were killed, but their sons. 503.) Henceforth they remained the ministers of Zeus, but were afterwards killed by Apollo for having furnished Zeus with the thunderbolts to kill Asclepius. But Cronus again threw them into Tartarus, and as Zeus released them in his war against Cronus and the Titans, the Cyclopes provided Zeus with thunderbolts and lightning, Pluto with a helmet, and Poseidon with a trident. Together with the other Titans, they were cast by their father into Tartarus, but, instigated by their mother, they assisted Cronus in usurping the government. According to the ancient cosmogonies, the Cyclopes were the sons of Uranus and Ge they belonged to the Titans, and were three in number, whose names were Arges, Steropes, and Brontes, and each of them had only one eye on his forehead. The tradition about these beings has undergone several changes and modifications in its development in Greek mythology, though some traces of their identity remain visible throughout. BRONTES, STEROPES, ARGES, EURYALOS, ELATREUS, TRAKHIOS, HALIMEDES (Nonnus Dionysiaca 14.52)ĬYCLO′PES (Kuklôpes), that is, creatures with round or circular eyes. BRONTES, STEROPES (Statius Silvae 1.1.3) BRONTES, STEROPES, PYRAKMON (Virgil Aeneid 8.414) BRONTES, STEROPES, AKMONIDES (Ovid Fasti 4.287) BRONTES, STEROPES, ARGES (Hesiod Theogony139, Apollodorus 1.1 Callimachus Hymn to Artemis) OURANOS & GAIA (Hesiod Theogony 139, Titanomachia Frag 1, Apollodorus 1.1, Hyginus Pref) NAMES The tribe of younger Kyklopes which Odysseus encountered on his travels were a different breed. The lesser four, sons of the first, were slain by Apollon to avenge the death of his son Asklepios (Asclepius), who had been slain by Zeus with a Kyklops-forged lightning-bolt. Some say there were a total of seven forging Kyklopes. Zeus and his brothers later released them and in return they provided the god with his thunderbolts, Poseidon with his storm-raising trident, and Haides with a helm of invisibility. ![]() ![]() When the Titanes overthrew Ouranos, they drove the giants into the pit of Tartaros. THE ELDER KYKLOPES (Cyclopes) were three, orb-eyed, immortal giants who forged the lightning-bolts of Zeus.Īs soon as they were born, their father Ouranos (Uranus, the Sky) locked them away inside the belly of Earth, along with their stormy brothers, the hundred-handed Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires). Orb-Eyed ( kyklos, ops) Hephaestus and the Cyclopes at the forge, Greco-Roman fresco from Pompeii C1st A.D., Naples National Archaeological Museum
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |