Polyphemus
Who is Polyphemus in Greek mythology?
What happens in Polyphemus’s encounter with Odysseus in the Odyssey?
How is Polyphemus portrayed in later literature?
How does Polyphemus appear in Virgil’s Aeneid?
How is Polyphemus represented in modern culture?
Polyphemus, in Greek mythology, the most famous of the Cyclopes (one-eyed giants) and a son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the nymph Thoösa. The name Polyphemus is of ancient Greek origin and roughly translates to “rich in songs and legends” or “widely talked about.” The earliest extant account of the Cyclops appears in Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey. There his encounter with the hero Odysseus culminates in his being blinded by the latter. Polyphemus calls upon his father, Poseidon, to curse Odysseus’s journey home. Poseidon grants the prayer, setting off a series of misfortunes that makes Odysseus’s return home from the Trojan War long and arduous. Subsequent portrayals of Polyphemus in Greek and Roman literature range from a savage giant to a lovesick shepherd.
The Homeric Polyphemus
In Book IX of Homer’s Odyssey, Polyphemus is a shepherd who is depicted as an uncivilized, man-eating giant living in isolation from other Cyclopes in a cave on the coast of Sicily. This episode is narrated by Odysseus to Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, during a banquet. Odysseus recounts how, after leaving the land of the Lotus-Eaters, he and his crew arrived at the Cyclopes’ territory.
When Odysseus and 12 of his companions sought shelter in the cave, they found cheese and lambs and then encountered Polyphemus upon his return with his flocks. The giant blocked the cave entrance with an enormous rock, trapping Odysseus and his men inside. Odysseus appealed to the custom of hospitality (Greek: xenia), reminding Polyphemus that strangers are under the protection of Zeus, the god of hospitality. Polyphemus dismissed the appeal, declaring that the Cyclopes have no fear of the gods, rejecting both divine authority and the obligation to treat guests with kindness. Polyphemus then proceeded to devour six of the Greeks over two days.
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Odysseus devised an escape plan: He offered Polyphemus strong, unmixed wine to get him drunk. The wine was a gift Odysseus had received from Maron, a priest of Apollo at Ismarus, whose life and family Odysseus had spared when he sacked the city of the Cicones after leaving Troy. When Polyphemus asked his name, Odysseus introduced himself as “Nobody.”
That night Odysseus and four companions heated a sharpened olive-wood stake in the fire and drove it into Polyphemus’s single eye while he slept. When the neighboring Cyclopes asked why Polyphemus was crying out in the night, he replied that Nobody was killing him. Taking his words literally, the Cyclopes assumed he was suffering from divine affliction and did not come to his aid.
The next morning Polyphemus removed the boulder to let his rams out to pasture, feeling each animal’s back to prevent the Greeks from escaping. Odysseus and his six surviving men clung to the undersides of the rams and made their escape. As he lingered over the last and finest of his flock—the ram he prized most—Polyphemus addressed it with unexpected tenderness and sadness, unaware that Odysseus hung concealed beneath it.
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After reaching his ship, Odysseus made a fatal mistake born of pride: He boasted and revealed his true identity to the blinded Cyclops. Polyphemus recognized the name, recalling a prophecy made by Telemus, a renowned seer among the Cyclopes, who had foretold that Polyphemus would one day lose his eyesight at Odysseus’s hands. Polyphemus prayed to his father, Poseidon, to curse Odysseus’s journey home. Poseidon granted the prayer, condemning Odysseus to lose all his companions and wander for years before returning home alone to Ithaca. This encounter thus became the catalyst for much of Odysseus’s subsequent suffering in the Odyssey.
Other portrayals
In later traditions, particularly Theocritus’s pastoral poems Idylls (3rd century bce) and Ovid’s poem Metamorphoses (c. 8 ce), Polyphemus appears as a young, lovelorn giant who falls desperately in love with Galatea, a beautiful Sicilian Nereid.
Theocritus portrays him almost comically, singing pastoral love songs from the shore, aware of his ugliness but resigned to unrequited love. Ovid’s version blends romance with violence. When Polyphemus discovers Galatea with her mortal lover, the shepherd Acis (son of Faunus, or Pan, and the nymph Symaethis), he crushes Acis beneath a gigantic boulder in a jealous fit. Galatea transforms the dying Acis into a river to preserve him, and he became the deity associated with the river that bore his name. Ovid gives Polyphemus an eloquent, self-pitying speech before the murder, painting him in a pathetic yet terrifying light.
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, and reject the restraints of civic life, the result is brutality. The play retells the Homeric story as lowbrow comedy, with Silenus and satyrs as enslaved cave attendants.
In Book III of Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid (c. 30–19 bce), Polyphemus makes a brief but chilling appearance as the blinded, suffering giant wandering Sicily’s shore, guided only by sound and touch. The Trojan hero Aeneas encounters a Greek survivor of Odysseus’s crew, Achaemenides, who has been stranded on the island and desperately seeks rescue from the vengeful Cyclops.
Cultural significance
The character of Polyphemus is expected to feature in British film director Christopher Nolan’s 2026 film The Odyssey, an adaptation of Homer’s epic in which Matt Damon portrays Odysseus.
Polyphemus has appeared frequently in modern literature, film, and video games. In Rick Riordan’s book The Sea of Monsters (2006), he is reimagined as the guardian of the Golden Fleece. Film adaptations featuring Polyphemus include Ulysses (1954) and the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), the latter of which offers a loose adaptation through the figure of a one-eyed salesman called Big Dan Teague (played by John Goodman).
The Cyclops also appears in popular video games, such as the God of War series and Age of Mythology.
