Cyclops

play by Euripides

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June 25, 2026

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Euripides' Cyclops is the only complete surviving satyr play from ancient Greek literature. Satyr plays were a genre of Greek drama that combined tragic structure with a lighthearted, rural atmosphere, featuring satyrs as the chorus.1

In Cyclops, the cowardly satyrs and their father, Silenus, are enslaved by the man-eating, one-eyed giant Polyphemus in Sicily. The play retells the story from Homer's Odyssey, where the hero Odysseus arrives and eventually blinds Polyphemus to escape his cave. The play uses this encounter to explore themes of nature versus law and appetite versus justice. The plural of Cyclops is typically Cyclopes.123

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Euripides
Cyclops
Cyclops (Greek Kyklōps) is the only complete surviving satyr play. The play’s cowardly, lazy satyrs with their disgraceful old father Silenus are slaves of the man-eating one-eyed Cyclops Polyphemus in Sicily. Odysseus arrives, driven to Sicily by adverse weather, and eventually succeeds (as in…
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Cyclops (Greek Kyklōps) is the only complete surviving satyr play. The play’s cowardly, lazy satyrs with their disgraceful old father Silenus are slaves of the man-eating one-eyed Cyclops Polyphemus in Sicily. Odysseus arrives, driven to Sicily by adverse weather, and eventually succeeds (as in…
Read More

Polyphemus
Other portrayals
In Euripides’ Cyclops, the only complete surviving satyr play in Greek literature, Polyphemus is a swaggering hedonist who parodies Sophist philosophy, which used clever arguments to justify self-interest and reject traditional morality. The satyr play suggests that when people place nature above law and appetite above justice,…
Read More
In Euripides’ Cyclops, the only complete surviving satyr play in Greek literature, Polyphemus is a swaggering hedonist who parodies Sophist philosophy, which used clever arguments to justify self-interest and reject traditional morality. The satyr play suggests that when people place nature above law and appetite above justice,…
Read More