Cults Myths and Legends of Ancient Sicily
6.7 The Erhey: Polyphemus

Polyphemus is a Cyclops, son of Poseidon and the nymph Thoosa. Classical mythology calls Cyclopes both the sons of Uranus and Gaia, and the members of a very ancient population. The Cyclopes are remembered by the historian Thucydides [1] and, according to Homer, were a people of cannibalistic Giants, strong and devoted to pastoralism, characterised, in addition to their tall stature, by the fact that they had a single eye in the middle of their forehead.

Villa Romana del Casale - Polyphemus and Ulysses

There are those who affirm that the Cyclops had a single eye for the habit of hunting keeping one eye closed because in this way they were facilitated during the launch of the spears. They were based in the regions of Etna and the most famous of them, Polyphemus, is linked to the Homeric legend of Ulysses.

Polyphemus was a shepherd who lived with his flock in a cave. Odysseus, having landed in Sicily with his twelve companions, asked for hospitality. Instead of taking them in, Polyphemus captured them with the intention of devouring them, which he immediately began to do with some of them. However, he promised Odysseus that he would be the last to be devoured as a thank you for the wine he had given him, and also asked him his name. Odysseus cunningly replied that his name was Nobody . That night, while Polyphemus was asleep under the influence of wine, Odysseus and his men sharpened a large stake and drove it into the Cyclops's single eye, blinding him.

Odysseus and his men blind the Cyclops Polyphemus, detail from a proto-Attic amphora, about 650 BC, Eleusis

Polyphemus shouted for help calling the other Cyclops, but when they asked him what was happening he replied that Nobody had tried to kill him by deception, so the other Cyclops, believing him crazy, left. Ulysses, in order to try to get out of the cave without Polyphemus noticing it, tied himself under the belly of a large ram and invited his companions to do the same, so, when the following morning Polyphemus let the flock out, while controlling the rams, he did not notice that Ulysses and his men were fleeing the cave safe and sound. Once he believed himself safe on his ship, Ulysses shouted his real name to the Cyclops, but it almost cost him and his companions their lives, as Polyphemus, a little angry, took a cliff and threw it, almost succeeding to hit the ship of Ulysses.

Acitrezza: Faraglioni of the Cyclops

The legend of the nymph Galatea with whom he fell in love unrequited as the nymph loved the young Aci is linked to Polyphemus. One day, while Galatea and Aci were resting together, Polyphemus, blinded by jealousy, takes a large rock and throws it against the two. But, before the rock hits Aci, Galatea transforms it into a river, and that's how Aci becomes the god of the river that flows at the foot of Etna.

Polyphemus throws a boulder against Aci, detail of the fresco "History of Aci, Galatea and Polyphemus" by Annibale Carracci (1597 -1600)

Antoine Jean Gros - Aci and Galatea (1833)

[1] Thucydides VI.2.