Polyphemus

Polyphemus (Greek Πολύφημος, ancient greek pronunciation Polyphemus, " the much-vaunted " ) in Greek mythology, a Cyclops (or Cyclops ), a one-eyed giant. He was a son of Poseidon and the sea nymph Thoosa, daughter of Phorkys.

Polyphemus in the Odyssey

The oldest depiction of Polyphemus is found in the Odyssey of Homer. According to this epic lived the giant Cyclops with others at a coast, before some distance lay a wooded island on which inter alia many goats lived. He lived apart from the rest Cyclops in a cave and tended sheep and goats. Only in later sources Polyphemus residence is identified with Mount Etna in Sicily. Odysseus landed during his wanderings ( "Odyssey" ) following the Trojan War on the island, drove over with one of his ships to the coast and walked with twelve companions of Polyphemus cave. When the Cyclops drove his sheep to his habitation, and the invaders noticed Odysseus presented as shipwrecked Greek and asked for hospitality. Polyphemus granted no right to hospitality, but rolled a huge rock in front of the exit and ate two of Odysseus. When the giant put to sleep then, the leader of the Greeks did not dare to kill him, because he could not wegzuwälzen the stone with the help of his friends.

The next day the Cyclops ate human flesh again, but Odysseus then served him strong wine. The drunken giant wanted to learn the name of Odysseus, in cunning caution as " Outis " ( Οὖτις ) designated ( to German Nobody, Nobody ) - a play on his real name. When Polyphemus had fallen into a deep sleep, blinded him, the Greeks captured by they came to him a glowing pile in his only located at convenient middle of the forehead eye (the " Cyclops "). In his pain Polyphemus shouted induce the other Cyclops. On their questions he cried, no one had blinded him, nobody tried to assassinate him. In response, the other Cyclopes care not about him.

As the blinded had also let his sheep to pasture the next morning, he felt from everyone. Odysseus and his companions were able to escape from the cave by clinging in the peritoneum of the sheep. Odysseus taunted by his ship from the blind giant who had almost hit him with a rock throw. When Polyphemus ' learned its true name from the mouth of Odysseus, he remembered that the seer Telemos had once warned him about the loss of his eye by the Greek hero. The giant then prayed to his father Poseidon Odysseus already hostile to revenge and asked to leave never to return Odysseus to his home. This led to the ten-year odyssey of Ulysses, and only through the intervention of Pallas Athena and Zeus the mistaken party finally came home again.

Later traditions

Greek poets and visual artists followed in the centuries that followed essentially the story of the Odyssey. These are some representatives of the older comedy as Epicharmos and Cratinus or Satyrdrama Cyclops by Euripides.

A new burlesque motif brought a native of the Greek island of Kythera poet Philoxenus forth in a dithyramb in which Polyphemus is portrayed as unfortunate suitor of Nereid Galatea. Polyphemus courted patiently but hulking rejected by the nymph who spurned him and archly. The lovesick giant sought solace in song and dance. The love of the Cyclops went Odysseus for his cunning advantage. The episode of Polyphemus and Galatea was picked up in the middle Greek comedy and of known Alexandrian poets such as Callimachus and Theocritus. Ovid created on this story by introducing the figure of Acis also a tragic moment. Acis was the son of Faunus and the nymph Symaethis. Galatea lost her heart to the handsome Acis until it was shattered by Polyphemus from jealousy with a boulder.

In the modern literary and artistic reception not the Homeric narrative, but did not return the love of the nymph of Polyphemus is in the foreground.

See also: Galatea

Others

One of the two doors in the Reichstag building, which were used to " Hammelsprung ", wore a inlay work which took up the name of this voting procedure and Polyphemus was a shepherd with his crook when counting sheep.

Swell

  • Homer, Odyssey 9, 105-564
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses 13, 750-897
  • Euripides, Cyclops ( Cyclops )
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