Biography homer odyssey cyclops

POLYPHEMOS (Polyphemus) was a man-eating kyklops (cyclops) giant--a monster with a single, orb-shaped eye in the middle of his forehead. Odysseus encountered him on his return from Troy and became trapped in the giant's cave. To escape the hero plied him with wine and as he slept plunged a burning stake into his eye. The blinded giant tried to prevent Odysseus' flight by tossing boulders at his ship but, failing that, prayed to his father Poseidon to exact revenge.

Polyphemos also loved the nereid-nymph Galateia and wooed her with music and song. She spurned him for the love of the shepherd Akis (Acis), but when the giant spied the pair together he crushed the boy beneath a stone.

FAMILY OF POLYPHEMUS

PARENTS

[1.1] POSEIDON & THOOSA(Homer Odyssey 1.70, Apollodorus E7.4)
[1.2] POSEIDON(Philostratus Elder 2.18, Ovid Metamorphoses 13.857, Hyginus Fabulae 125, Valerius Flaccus 4.104)

OFFSPRING

[1.1] GALATOS (by Galateia) (Bacchylides Frag 59)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

POLYPHE′MUS (Poluphêmos). The celebrated Cyclops in the island of Thrinacia, was a son of Poseidon, and the nymph Thoosa. In the Homeric poems the Cyclopes are a gigantic, insolent, and lawless race of shepherds, who lived in the south-western part of Sicily, and devoured human beings. They neglected agriculture, and the fruits of the field were reaped by them without labour. They had no laws or political institutions, and each lived with his wives and children in a cave of a mountain, and ruled over them with arbitrary power. (Hom. Od. vi. 5, ix. 106, &c., 190, &c., 240, &c., x. 200.) Homer does not distinctly state that all of the Cyclopes were one-eyed, but Polyph

Legendary Greek king of Ithaca

For other uses, see Odysseus (disambiguation).See also: Ulysses

Fictional character

In Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus (ə-DISS-ee-əs;Ancient Greek: Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, romanized: Odysseús, Odyseús, IPA:[o.dy(s).sěu̯s]), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses (yoo-LISS-eez, YOO-liss-eez; Latin: Ulysses, Ulixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.

As the son of Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus, Acusilaus, and Telegonus, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (polytropos), and he is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning (Ancient Greek: μῆτις, romanized: mêtis, lit. 'cunning intelligence'). He is most famous for his nostos, or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War.

Name, etymology, and epithets

The form Ὀδυσ(σ)εύςOdys(s)eus is used starting in the epic period and through the classical period, but various other forms are also found. In vase inscriptions, there are the variants Oliseus (Ὀλισεύς), Olyseus (Ὀλυσεύς), Olysseus (Ὀλυσσεύς), Olyteus (Ὀλυτεύς), Olytteus (Ὀλυττεύς) and Ōlysseus (Ὠλυσσεύς). The form Oulixēs (Οὐλίξης) is attested in an early source in Magna Graecia (Ibycus,

The Odyssey is one of the oldest pieces of literature still read today. Divided into 24 books, the epic poem tells the story of Odysseus, the king of the island of Ithaca, and his 10-year-long journey back home, following the 10-year-long Trojan War.

Along the way, Odysseus's ships are destroyed by storms, he’s imprisoned for seven years, travels to the underworld, fights various giants, monsters and gods. The word odyssey—defined as "a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune'—is derived from the name of the Greek epic.

The ancient Greek poet Homer is attributed as the author of the Iliad, set towards the end of the Trojan War, and the Odyssey, although scholars aren’t sure whether Homer actually existed. Some have suggested Homer was rather a concept and the works were shared orally and then written down in poetic form for performance in the second half of the 8th century B.C.

“A lot of critics consider the Odyssey to be a lesser piece of work because it has all these fantastical elements,” says Hans Bjork, an Assistant Professor of Classics at Stanford University. 

But Bjork argues that the complicated portrayal of Odysseus makes the Odyssey much more relatable to modern readers, as he acts as a warning for the different types of trouble people can get into.

For example, when he and his men sail past the sirens—winged, part-bird, part-woman creatures that lure sailors to their deaths with their music—Odysseus can't resist listening to their song. 

“Odysseus is so curious about everything. When they go past the sirens his men tell him to sail around. But he tells them to put wax and cotton in their ears and tie him to the mast so he can hear what it’s like,” Bjork says.

Here are five key facts about the Odyssey’s protagonist. 

1. Odysseus Is a Prolific Character in Ancient Myth 

Bjork argues t

Epic poem attributed to Homer

This article is about Homer's epic poem. For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation).

"Homer's Odyssey" redirects here. For The Simpsons episode, see Homer's Odyssey (The Simpsons).

The Odyssey (;Ancient Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, romanized: Odýsseia) is one of two major ancient Greekepic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the Iliad, the Odyssey is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero and king of Ithaca, Odysseus, and his homecoming journey after the ten-year long Trojan War. His journey from Troy to Ithaca lasts an additional ten years, during which time he encounters many perils and all of his crewmates are killed. In Odysseus' long absence, he is presumed dead, leaving his wife Penelope and son Telemachus to contend with a group of unruly suitors competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.

The Odyssey was first written down in Homeric Greek in around the 8th or 7th century BC and, by the mid-6th century BC, had become part of the Greek literary canon. In antiquity, Homer's authorship was taken as true, but contemporary scholarship predominantly assumes that the Iliad and the Odyssey were composed independently, forming as part of long oral traditions. Given widespread illiteracy, the poem was performed for an audience by an aoidos or rhapsode.

Key themes in the epic include the ideas of nostos (νόστος; 'return', homecoming), wandering, xenia (ξενία; 'guest-friendship'), testing, and omens. Scholars still explore on the narrative significance of certain groups in the poem, such as women and slaves, who have larger roles than in other works of ancient literature. This focus is especially remarkable when contrasted with the Iliad, which centres the exploits of soldiers and kings during the Trojan War.

The Odyssey is regarded as one of the most s