Cyclops

Odysseus and the cyclops Polyphemos (right)

A Cyclops (Ancient Greek: Κύκλωψ, Kyklōps; plural Κύκλωπες, Kyklōpes) is a member of a race of giants in Greek mythology, each with a single eye in the center of their forehead.

The most famous of these beings is the cyclops Polyphemus, featured in Homer's Odyssey.

Elder Cyclopes

In Hesiod's Theogony, the Elder Cyclopes – Brontes (Greek: Βρόντης - "thunderer"), Steropes (Greek: Στερόπης - "lightning") and Arges (Greek: Ἄργης - "bright") – were one of three races of beings born to Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Sky).

Homer

The Elder Cyclopes are not featured in either of Homer's works. In the Odyssey, Homer describes another race of cyclopes as being the sons of Poseidon, god of the sea. They feature as herdsmen and shepherds with a taste for human flesh. The account is in Book 9 of Homer's Odyssey.

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Cyclops Media

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  A first century AD head of a Cyclops from the Roman Colosseum

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  "The Forge of the Cyclopes", a Dutch 16th-century print after a painting by Titian

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  Odysseus and his crew are blinding Polyphemus. Detail of a Proto-Attic amphora, circa 650 BC. Eleusis, Archaeological Museum, Inv. 2630.

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  'Cyclopean' walls at Mycenae.

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  Fresco of Odysseus and the Cyclops in the Tomb of Orcus, Tarquinia, 4th century BC

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  A "ciclops" from Urbano Monti's 1587 world map.