Polyphemus
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Polyphemus (Polphemos): one of the lawless race of cannibal Cyclopes said to have inhabited eastern Sicily in mythological times. He was the son of the sea-god Poseidon and the nymph Thoosa. According to one myth, he loved the beautiful sea nymph Galatia who was repulsed by his monstrous appearance and savage ways. When he learned that Galatea loved the youth Acis, he slew the boy in a jealous rage, crushing him beneath a great stone.
Polyphemus is best-known for the part he plays in Homer’s Odyssey. When Odysseus and his companions raid Polyphemus’s cave, discovers and traps them inside. After Polyphemus kills and devours some of the Greeks, Odysseus succeeds in getting him drunk on wine. As Polyphemus falls asleep, the surviving Greeks blind him with a burning stake. The enraged, and now blinded, Cyclops rolls away the stone blocking the entrance to his cave, allowing the Greeks to escaped. Polyphemus attempted to sink the ships of the departing Greeks by hurling great stones at them but, unable to see, he is unable to hit them. At last the wounded giant called out to his father Poseidon to avenge him.
Polyphemus’s name means “many-worded”, deriving from the Greek words poly (many) and phêmê (words).
Polyphemus is strongly associated which the the area around Mt. Etna. He and the other cyclopes are usually described as shepherds and may have been modeled on the early pastorial population who dwelt there prior to the time of Greek colonization.