The Cyclops: An Unusual People Essay, Research Paper

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.