- Polyphemus
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/pol'euh fee"meuhs/, n. Class. Myth.a Cyclops who was blinded by Odysseus.
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In Greek mythology, a Cyclops.He was the son of Poseidon and the nymph Thoösa. When Odysseus and his companions were cast ashore on the coast of Sicily, Polyphemus imprisoned them in his cave with the intention of eating them. Odysseus got the giant drunk and then blinded him by plunging a burning stake into his single eye. When Polyphemus opened his cave in the morning, Odysseus and the six men the giant had not yet devoured made their escape by clinging to the bellies of sheep let out to pasture.* * *
in Greek mythology, the most famous of the Cyclopes (Cyclops) (one-eyed giants), son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the nymph Thoösa. According to Ovid in Metamorphoses, Polyphemus loved Galatea, a Sicilian Nereid, and killed her lover Acis. When the Greek hero Odysseus was cast ashore on the coast of Sicily, he fell into the hands of Polyphemus, who shut him up with 12 of his companions in his cave and blocked the entrance with an enormous rock. Odysseus at length succeeded in making Polyphemus drunk, blinded him by plunging a burning stake into his eye while he lay asleep, and, with six of his friends (the others having been devoured by Polyphemus), made his escape by clinging to the bellies of the sheep let out to pasture.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
