Cyclōpes
（
Κύκλωπες). A fabulous race, of gigantic size, having but
one eye, large and round, placed in the centre of their forehead, whence, according to the
common account, their name was derived—from
κύκλος,
“a circular opening,” and
ὤψ,
“an eye.” Homer makes Odysseus, after having left the country of the
Lotus-eaters (Lotophagi), to have sailed on westward, and to have come to that of the
Cyclopes, who are described by him as a rude and lawless race, who neither planted nor sowed,
but whose land was so fertile as to produce of itself wheat, barley, and vines. They had no
social institutions, neither assemblies nor laws, but dwelt separately, each in his cave, on
the tops of lofty mountains, and each, without regard to others, governed his own wife and
children. The adventure of Odysseus with Polyphemus, one of this race, will be found under the
latter title. Nothing is said by Homer respecting the size of the Cyclopes in general, but
every effort is made to give an exaggerated idea of that of Polyphemus. Hence some have
imagined that, according to the Homeric idea, the Cyclopes were not in general of such huge
dimensions or cannibal habits as the poet assigns to Polyphemus himself; for the latter does
not appear to have been of the ordinary Cyclops-race, but the son of Poseidon and a seanymph;
and he is also said to have been the
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Section of the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae.
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strongest of the Cyclopes (
Od. i. 70). Later poets, however, lost no time in supplying whatever
the fable wanted in this respect, and hence Vergil describes the whole race as of gigantic
stature and compares them to so many tall forest-trees (
Aen. iii. 680). It is not a little remarkable that neither in the
description of the Cyclopes in general, nor of Polyphemus in particular, is there any notice
taken of their being one-eyed; yet in the account of the blinding of the latter, it seems to
be assumed as a thing well known. We may hence, perhaps, infer that Homer followed the usual
derivation.
Such is the Homeric account of the Cyclopes. In Hesiod, on the other hand
(
Theog. 139 foll.), we have what appears to be the earlier legend respecting
these fabled beings, a circumstance which may tend to show that the
Odyssey was
composed by a poet later than Hesiod, and not by the author of the
Iliad. In
the
Theogony of Hesiod the Cyclopes are only three in number—Brontes,
Steropes, and Arges. They are the sons of Uranus and Gaea (Caelus and Terra), and their
employment is to forge the thunderbolts for Zeus. They are said to be in every other respect
like gods, excepting the one single eye in the middle of their foreheads, a circumstance from
which Hesiod also, like Homer, deduces their general name (
Theog. 144 foll.).
In the individual names given by Hesiod we have evidently the germ of the whole fable. The
Cyclopes are the energies of the sky—the thunder, the lightning, and the rapid march
of the latter (Brontes, from
βροντή,
“thunder”; Steropes, from
στεροπή,
“the lightning”; Arges, from
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Cyclopean Pyramid at Cenchreae.
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ἀργής, “rapid”). In accordance with this
idea the term
Κύκλωψ (
Cyclops) itself may be
regarded as a simple, not a compound term, of the same class with
μώλωψ, Κέρκωψ, Κέκροψ, Πέλοψ; and the word
κύκλος being the root, we may make the Cyclopes to be “the
Whirlers,” or, to designate them by a Latin name,
Volvuli.
When the thunder, the lightning, and the flame had been converted by poetry into oneeyed
giants, and localized in the neighbourhood of volcanoes, it was an easy process to
convert them into smiths, the assistants of Hephaestus (Callim.
H. in Artem. 46
foll.;
Georg. iv. 173;
Aen. viii. 416 foll.). As they were now artists in one line, it gave no
surprise to find them engaged in a task adapted to their huge strength—namely, that
of rearing the massive walls of Tiryns, for which purpose they were brought by Proetus from
Lycia (Schol.
ad Eurip.
Orest. 955). Hence, too, the name “Cyclopean” is
applied to this species of architecture, just as in Germany the remains of ancient Roman walls
are popularly called “Riesenmauer” and “Tenfelsmauer.”
One theory refers the name Cyclops to the circular buildings constructed by the Pelasgi, of
which we have so remarkable a specimen in what is called the Treasury of Atreus, at Mycenae.
From the form of these buildings, resembling within a hollow cone or beehive, and the round
opening at the top, the individuals who constructed them are thought to have derived their
appellation. (Cf. Gell's
Argolis, p. 34.) Those who make them to have dwelt in
Sicily blend an old tradition with one of more recent date. This last probably took its rise
when Aetna and the Lipari Islands were assigned to Hephaestus, by the popular belief of the
day, as his workshops; which could only have happened when Aetna had become better known, and
Mount Moschylus, in the isle of Lemnos, had ceased to be volcanic.
A few remarks may fittingly be added here on the subject of the Cyclopean architecture. This
style of building is frequently alluded to by the ancient writers. In fact, every
architectural work of extraordinary magnitude, to the execution of which human labour appeared
inadequate, was ascribed to the Cyclopes (Eurip.
Iph. in Aul. 534; id.
Herc. Fur. 15; id.
Troad. 108;
Strab.
373;
Herc. Fur. 996;
Theb. iv. 151; Pausan. ii. 25). The general character of the Cyclopean
style is immense blocks of stone, without cement, placed upon each other,
sometimes irregularly and with smaller stones filling up the interstices, sometimes in regular
and horizontal rows. The Cyclopean style is commonly divided into four eras. The first, or
oldest, is that employed at Tiryns and Mycenae, consisting of blocks of various sizes, some of
them very large, the interstices of which are, or were once, filled up with small stones. The
second era is marked by polygonal stones, which nevertheless fit into each other with great
nicety. Specimens exist at Delphi, Iulis, and at Cosa in Etruria. In this style there are no
courses. The third era appears in the Phocian cities, and in some of Boeotia and Argolis. It
is distinguished by the work being made in courses, and by the stones, though of unequal size,
being of the same height. The fourth and youngest style presents horizontal courses of
masonry, not always of the same height, but formed of stones which are all rectangular. This
style is chiefly confined to Attica. The most reasonable opinion relative to the Cyclopean
walls of antiquity is that which ascribes their erection to the ancient
Pelasgi (q.v.). See Reber,
History of Ancient Art, pp.
178-194
(Eng. trans. N. Y. 1882); and W. Gell,
Walls of Ancient
Greece.
