ODYSSEY MYTHOLOGY
Who Is Polyphemus?
The giant Odysseus beat with his mind — and paid for, because he shouted his name
Polyphemus is the most famous of the Cyclopes, the giants with a single eye in the middle of the forehead. He is the son of Poseidon and the sea-nymph Thoosa. The Cyclopes plant no crops and hold no assemblies; each lives in his own cave with his own flock and his own law. So does Polyphemus: he herds his sheep, makes his cheese, and recognises no such thing as a guest’s right.
When Odysseus enters the cave with twelve men the giant shuts them in and rolls a rock across the mouth — a rock twenty wagons could not shift. Instead of asking who they are, he begins to eat them. Odysseus realises that killing the giant would be useless: only the giant can move that rock.
The solution has two steps. First the wine: he gives Polyphemus strong, unmixed wine. Then the name: asked who he is, he answers “My name is Nobody”. When the drunk giant falls asleep he hardens an olive stake in the fire and drives it into the single eye. The Cyclops roars “Nobody is killing me!” — and his neighbours go back to bed.
The next morning the men slip out lashed under the bellies of the rams. And with the work done, Odysseus cannot hold his tongue: from open water he shouts his true name. Polyphemus passes that name to his father Poseidon; the prayer is answered, and the way home grows years longer.
Role in the epic
Polyphemus is the epic’s sharpest contest between mind and force — but his real function comes after the victory. Odysseus speaks where he has already won, and in doing so sets up the reason for the entire voyage: the wrath of Poseidon begins here.
How you meet them in the game
In the game the Cyclops chapter is played as the trap in the cave, the plan with the stake, and the moment of departure. Choose to shout your name as you escape and you gain kleos — and raise Poseidon’s wrath, which then follows you as storm risk on every remaining leg.
Quick facts
- Role
- Cyclops, Odysseus’s first great enemy
- Origin
- Land of the Cyclopes (traditionally identified with Sicily, around Etna)
- Family
- Father Poseidon, mother the sea-nymph Thoosa
- Epithet
- The one-eyed shepherd giant
Related locations
- Land of the Cyclopes — “My name is Nobody” — the most famous trick in the epic
- Thrinacia — A herd not to be touched, a fleet becalmed, an oath broken
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Odyssey gods and monsters · Odyssey map: the 14 stops · The Odyssey story