Cyclopes

CYCLOPES
By Brandon

Cyclopes in the odyssey and Greek myths I knew little about them but that was be fore I read this. Cyclops one eyed creatures in what are their origins, is their more than one generation, Greek myths but why one eye

There is in fact 2 generations of Cyclopes the elder and younger Cyclopes. The elder Cyclopes who are the three brothers [|Arges], [|Steropes] , [|Brontes] origins is this. They are the sons of Gea (Earth) and Uranus (Sky) and the brothers of Konos and the Titians. Their father Uranus in prisoned the brothers in the earth because he was afraid that they would overthrow him. Then their brother Kronos killed Uranus and took over as king of the Titians. When Kronos first defeated Uranus he set the Cyclopes free but then he too became worried that they would overthrow him so he banished them to Tartarus the pit in the earth that no monster can escape. Then after Zeus had grown up he came to rescue the Cyclopes to fight against the Titians and Kronos with him. The Cyclopes and Zeus then went and killed Kronos and set the other Olympians free. In thanks to the Cyclopes Zeus asked them to stay on Olympus with them. They accepted and in thanks for setting them free gave Zeus the lighting bolt, Hades the helm of invisibility, and Poseidon the trident (Anna).

After the war with Kronos the Cyclopes stayed with the Olympians on mt. Olympus with the Olympians. The elder Cyclopes with their skill in metallurgy forged Zeus more lighting bolts and worked as armorers for the Olympians. But they were also said to live with Hephaestus the god of forges in his volcano and be his helpers (CYCLOPES, greek mythology index ). The elder Cyclopes are also said to have built the massive walls at Tiryns and Mycenae in the Peloponnese. The three brothers in one story ware said to be killed by Apollo because Zeus killed his son for bring people back to life says (Anna). But there is another source that states there were seven and four were killed by Apollo (atsma).

Not too much is known about the origin of the younger Cyclopes and where they came from. But what is known is that they are sons of Poseidon like [|Polyphemos] in homers poems (Applebee). Another thing is that inside the poems of homer the Cyclopes like [|Polyphemos] are later additions to the poems (Anna). As if he just suddenly added the Cyclopes after years of singing the poem a certain way or some one when copying the poems add the Cyclopes then we may never know.

The younger Cyclopes are also known as a lawless band of herders. The reason being that all the entire group of younger Cyclopes do is sit on the island of Sicily and heard their sheep and eat people. Then at the end of they day go back to the cave and rule over their wives and children with arbitrary power. There is evidence of this in the poems of homer when he talks about [|Polyphemos] the Cyclops and son of Poseidon (Applebee). They also unlike their older counter parts do not have the skill of metallurgy. Ruled over their wives and children with arbitrary power.

Finally there was another thing that interested me why did the Cyclopes have only one eye? This question was answered in several different ways with several different cites. One said that smiths in ancient times might have worn an eye patch to protect one of their eyes from flying sparks (Anna). But another source states that only [|Polyphemos] was said to have one eye and so we assumed that the rest had only one eye also (CYCLOPES, greek mythology index ).

During the research process I learned that there are 2 generations of Cyclopes. And one of the generations has absolutely none of the attributes I associated Cyclopes with. I was constantly worrying about if I was procrastinating or not. I personally enjoyed reading the myths and learning about the Cyclopes because I find them interesting. I am proud or at least satisfied by the way this research paper came out and I believe that this is the best I could produce. Also the questions like what is more important the final destination or the journey that took you there? Or what’s worth more the process or the product? Those questions all depend on what you are talking about. This situation the journey or process was more important because it was a change to learn about some thing that interested me. Honestly it is best to do both but that is easier said than done. This is true because you can so easily get caught up in one or the other. For example living for to day going outside and playing a game of football with friends or playing a new video game that cane out that day. Or there is the other side of that which is planning for tomorrow you could spend all day imaging you future and planning it out.

=Bibliography= Anna, baldwin. __cyclopes__. 3 march 1997. 30 november 2011 .

Applebee, Author N. __the language of literature__. evanston: McDougal Littel, 2006.

atsma, Aeron J. __cyclopes elder ; one eyed giants of thunder and lighting ; greek mythology ; pictures: kyklopes__. 30 november 2011

. __CYCLOPES, greek mythology index__. 5 december 2011 .

Graves, Robert. __Greek gods and heros__. garden city: Doubleday, 1960.