page_title: Odyssey
section_title: The Cyclops
hierarchical_section_title: Odyssey / Story / The Cyclops
context_page_description: The Odyssey is a major Ancient Greek epic poem. It was written by Homer, as a sequel to the Iliad. In its origin it was an oral epic poem from Mycenaean Greece, about the 11th century BC. The hero of the poem is Odysseus, or Ulysses as he is called in Latin; the poem is mythological, not historical.
  The poem is the story about Odysseus's ten-year-long voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. The Trojan War is the subject of the Iliad. At the same time, his wife Penelope has to fight off a lot of men who want to marry her; and his son Telemachos searches for him.
  Along the way, Odysseus and his men have to fight monsters and many other dangers. The main events of Odysseus' journey are:
  the Kikones
  the Lotus Eaters
  the Cyclops Polyphemus
  Aeolus, King of the winds
  the Laistrygones
  the sorceress Circe
  the Underworld
  the Sirens
  the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis
  Helios' cattle
  the nymph Calypso
  the Phaeacians
context_section_description: On his journey home, Odysseus lands on the island of the Cyclops Polyphemus.  They go inside his cave at the sight of sheep, cheese and milk.  Polyphemus catches them and eats some of Odysseus' men.  Odysseus tricks and blinds him and they escape.  The Cyclops prays to his father Poseidon that Odysseus would not get home to Ithaca and if he was fated to make it home, Odysseus would lose all of his men, his ship and find trouble at home.  This prayer became the plot line of the Odyssey.
caption: Odysseus in Polyphemus's cave
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2928", "Image ImageLength": "1806", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 21.1 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2020:06:05 08:56:37", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "382", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7240", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0231", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2928", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1806"}