Essay/Term paper: The cyclops: an unusual people

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Essays

The Cyclops: An Unusual People


The Cyclopes were unique and unusual mythical people. They had very
interesting lives. They had an unusual beginning and they had an unusual
lifestyle. Also, the Cyclopes appeared to be completely different when
described by opposing viewpoints. Overalll, the Cyclopes were an unconventional
race in mythical legends.
The Cyclopes had an intriguing origin. They were the eldest sons of
Mother Earth, Gaia, and Father Heaven, Uranus (Evslin 1). While the Cyclopes
were still in the womb of Gaia, Uranus got jealous of the babies. He sent a bat
to eat one eye out of each baby to make them hideous and thus make everybody
hate them (Evslin). Because of what Uranus executed, the baby Cyclopes were
born with one eye. They grew to be of gigantic size (Hamilton 65). This
beginning of the era of the Cyclopes proved to be a unique situation.
Although the Cyclopes were born disfigured they led attracting lives.
The Cyclopes had a brother named Cronos who killed his father Uranus (Evslin 13).
Since everyone was afraid of the Cyclopes (2), Cronos punished them by
tricking them into imprisonment. Zeus, the son of Cronos and the new god king,
freed them after Cronos had imprisoned them (31). The Cyclopes were very good
smiths (12). They forged thunderbolts for Zeus because he freed them (Schmidt
74). A war was in the midst so the Cyclopes made armor and weapons for the gods
of Olympus (Evslin 39). Even though the Cyclopes performed all of these good
deeds the people still disliked them so much that they were forced to return to
their smithy in the middle of a volcano for eternity (71). The Cyclopes lives
were filled with helpfulness to others, but they were still shunned and hated.
The Cyclopes were basically good people, but there were other Cyclopes.
Homer wrote of Cyclopes that were extremely bad. They were downright savage
shepherds (Schmidt 74). They were so savage that they did not give a thought
before they devoured humans. They almost ate Odysseus, the main character of
the Odyssey (75).
The Cyclopes were born disfigured and hated. Though shunned by many
people, the Cyclopes helped the gods and were basically kind to everyone. Other
Cyclopes were bad but nonetheless an appealing tribe of people. The Cyclopes
suffered greatly, but although they suffered, they continued to lead exciting
and productive lives.

Works Cited

Evslin, Bernard. The Cyclopes. Chelsea House Publishers: New York, 1987.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. Penguin Books: New York, 1969. Schmidt, Joel.
Larousse Greek and Roman Mythology. Librairie Larousse: Paris, 1965.