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Odysseus and the Cyclops

Also called: Polyphemus, Cyclops, Nobody

A legend handed down over the centuries.

A Greek myth told in Book 9 of Homer’s Odyssey. Sailing home from Troy, Odysseus is trapped in the cave of the one-eyed giant Polyphemus the Cyclops; telling the giant his name is “Nobody”, he blinds him and escapes.

Odysseus and his men blinding Polyphemus — the Eleusis amphora, mid-7th century BC, Archaeological Museum of Eleusis
Odysseus and his men blinding Polyphemus — the Eleusis amphora, mid-7th century BC, Archaeological Museum of Eleusis

Davide Mauro · CC BY 3.0 · Source

This Greek myth is one of the adventures Odysseus recounts to the king of the Phaeacians in Book 9 of Homer’s Odyssey. Sailing home to Ithaca after the fall of Troy, Odysseus and his men reached the land of the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants, and were trapped in the cave of Polyphemus, son of Poseidon. When the giant began eating his men, Odysseus made him drunk on strong wine and told him his name was “Nobody” (Outis).

While the giant slept they drove a fire-hardened olive stake into his single eye. When Polyphemus shouted that “Nobody” was killing him, the other giants did not come to help, and the men escaped clinging beneath the bellies of his rams. Once aboard, Odysseus shouted his real name, and Polyphemus prayed to his father Poseidon for a curse — which kept Odysseus wandering the sea for ten years. Since antiquity the island has been placed in Sicily, but none of the places of Odysseus’ wanderings can be identified.

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Themes that include this event

  • The Trojan War and the Odyssey1200 BC – 1876

    From the apple of discord to the Trojan Horse and the homecoming of Odysseus — the Greek myth in story order, alongside the real site of Troy, the making of the epics, the Laocoön group and Schliemann’s excavations