Polyphemus

Polyphemus

by Ignazio Caloggero

Reference page: Repertory of Cults and Myths

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.

Piazza Armerina: Villa Romana del Casale - Vestibule of Polyphemus

There are those who say that the Cyclops had only one eye due to the habit of hunting with one eye closed because in this way they were facilitated when throwing spears. Their seat was in the regions of Etna and the Homeric legend of Ulysses is linked to the most famous of them, Polyphemus.

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

Polyphemus was a shepherd and lived with his flock in a cave. Ulysses, having landed in Sicily together with his twelve companions, asked him for hospitality. Instead of harboring them, Polyphemus captured them with the intention of devouring them, which he immediately began to do with some of them. However, he promised Ulysses that he would be the last to be devoured to thank him for the wine that he had given him and also asked him what his name was. Ulysses cleverly replied that his name was Nobody. At night, while Polyphemus was asleep under the influence of wine, Ulysses and his men sharpened a large stake and drove it into the Cyclops' only eye, blinding him. 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 Cyclopes, believing him crazy, left. Ulysses, to try to get out of the cave without Polyphemus noticing, tied himself under the belly of a big ram and invited his companions to do the same, so when the following morning Polyphemus let out the flock, while checking the rams, he did not notice that Ulysses and his men were fleeing safely from the cave. 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 rock and threw it, almost succeeding to hit Ulysses' ship.

Polyphemus throws a boulder at Acis, detail from the fresco "history of Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus" by Annibale Carracci (1597 -1600)

According to tradition, the islands of the Cyclops, known as the stacks of the Cyclops that are located in front of Acitrezza are precisely the stones thrown by Polyphemus towards the ship of Ulysses

The Sicilian popular tradition wanted to somehow keep the memory of the Giants who in some popular stories are seen as very large men, man-eaters, but, like their predecessor Polifemo, endowed with a "minchionaggine" no less than their stature.

Pitrè recalls a tale by Serafino Amabile Guastella about the giant of Cabballastru: “eater of animals and men, tamer of wolves; and he was destroyed by an old man, and thrown into a river that sank into a well, in the district of Cientu Mangiaturi in Chiaramonte” [2]

Polyphemus is linked to the legend of the nymph Galatea with whom he had fallen in unrequited love because the nymph loved the young Acis who was killed by Polyphemus for this reason.

[1] Thucydides VI.2.

[2] Giuseppe Pitrè: Customs, beliefs and prejudices of the Sicilian people. p. 205

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