Cyclops << SY klops >> (plural Cyclopes), in Greek mythology, was any of a race of giants with one eye in the middle of the forehead. Three Cyclopes—Arges, Brontes, and Steropes—were sons of the sky god Uranus and the earth goddess Gaea. The three were smiths and made the thunderbolts carried by Zeus, king of the gods.
The best-known of the Cyclopes was Polyphemus. In the epic poem the Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus and his men sailed to an island inhabited by Polyphemus. The Cyclops imprisoned the Greeks and ate six of them. After Odysseus made Polyphemus drunk, he and his surviving men put out the giant’s eye with a red-hot stake and escaped. The blind Polyphemus prayed to his father, the sea god Poseidon, to punish Odysseus. As a result, Odysseus suffered many hardships and delays before reaching his home. Another story tells how Polyphemus attempted to win the love of the sea nymph Galatea and killed his rival, the Sicilian youth Acis.
