What is the blinding of the cyclops compared to

Compare And Contrast The Two Versions Of The Myth Of The Cyclops Polyphemus In The Archaic Greek Poet Homer’s Odyssey (EH 298-314) And In The Hellenistic Poet Theocritus' Poem (Idyll 11) (ACM 399-401). How Does The Roman Poet Ovid Combine Elements From Ea

Zheng Hui

The present paper will discuss how different ancient poets describe the myths. It will compare and Contrast the two versions of the myth of the Cyclops Polyphemus in the Archaic Greek poet Homer’s Odyssey (EH 298-314) and in the Hellenistic poet Theocritus' poem (Idyll 11) (ACM 399-401). It will also elaborate how Roman poet Ovid combine elements from each of these earlier poets’ versions to make his own version of the myth in his poem, the Metamorphoses (OM 374-381). In general, the paper will discuss and analyze the differences and similarities among several versions from different aspects including characters, features, techniques and others.

According to ancient Greek myth, there were three separate tribes of the mythical, one eyed giants known as Cyclops, or Cyclopes. One of them is the Ouranian Cyclopes, who was the offspring of Gaea and Ouranos. Besides, there is also another Cyclops called the mason-Cyclopes, who represents workers in Hephaestus’s forge. The third one is the shepherd-like Cyclopes, who was neighbors of the island-dwelling Polyphemus, who was a son of Poseidon (Weinstock, 2013). Based on the description of the Cyclopes in the ancient Greek myth, one feature that is present in all these Cyclopes is that they had one unique anatomy. In addition, they all had a single round eye in the middle of their foreheads. In fact, the eye, according to the Greek poet Hesiod, is the source of their name.

In Greek, Cyclops means “circle-eye.” These giants played important roles in the myth. Ouranian, for example, had a role in helping Zeus defeat the Titans in the generational conflict known as the Titanomachy through lighting and thunderbolts (Weinstock, 2013). Mason-Cyclopes, as the name suggested, was in charge of building monuments and walls. Other than that, in Homer’s Odyssey, the Cyclops devours several of Odysseus’s men before being tricked and blinded by the hero. Moreover, they are also depicted as giants who had appetite for man-flesh.

The Odyssey describes Cyclops as giants who could do anything because there was no authority upon them. They have no commerce, no city, laws, customs and religious practices. For instance, Polyphemus eat Odysseus’s companions without fear of retribution (Weinstock, 2013). It’s revealed that Odysseys relies on his wits to defeat the Cyclops. Odysseus started by withholding his true name and proclaiming himself to be “Nobody.” Then he gets Cyclops drunk and blind him with a wooden stake (Shapiro, 2007).

In the Hellenistic age, Polyphemus became the subject of poetic elaboration. The Sicilian Greek poet Theocritus (circa 275 B.C.) wrote two poems describing how, prior to the Odysseus episode, Polyphemus loved and wooed the sea nymph Galatea. It should be noted that the concept of turning a savage, ugly giant into a romantic hero is typical of the frivolous intellectual tastes of the Hellinistic era.

It is apparent to see the general similarities in technique between this poem and Ovid’s story of Anna. First of all, they both represent Virgilian figures in an unfamiliar and playful manner. Secondly, they both exploit a non-Virgilian, probably Varronian, tradition. What’s more, the technique is actually quite common in the Hellenistic poets. It is obvious that Theocritus’ account of the Cyclops Polyphemus’ borrows heavily on Odyssey 9. Besides, the description of Callimachus is modelled on Homer’s account of Odysseus’ stay with the pig-man Eumaeus in Odyssey 14 and 15.

In the story, Ovid made vivid depictions of the cruelty of jealous gods, the pathos of human love, and the imaginative fantasy of flight. Unlike the Hellenistic poet’s exploitation of Homer, the exploitation of Virgil by Propertius and Ovid could not, of course, be a purely literary matter, because of the significance of the Aeneid as an expression of Augustan propaganda (Norton, 2013).

Ovid employs ekphrastic techniques in his work. His ekphrasis tell of a world where art surpasses nature and preserves it, where words can make pictures come alive and where human artists are constantly punished for daring to outdo the Deus artifex (Norton, 2013). This shed light on Ovid’s own views on the subject. His art is better, both natural and crafted (Norton, 2013).

In conclusion, based on the context delivered above, the paper has clearly compared and Contrasted the two versions of the myth of the Cyclops Polyphemus in the Archaic Greek poet Homer’s Odyssey (EH 298-314) and in the Hellenistic poet Theocritus' poem (Idyll 11) (ACM 399-401). The differences and similarities are discussed in detail and expressed in a clear and brief way. To sum up, the discussion above has mentioned that it is clear that in Hellinistic era, the giant turned into a romantic hero. The analysis also reveals that Ovid employs ekphrastic techniques. Ovid's ekphrasis tell of a world where art surpasses nature and preserves it, where words can make pictures come alive and where human artists are constantly punished for daring to outdo the Deus artifex.

References

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Weinstock, J. A. (2013). The Ashgate encyclopedia of literary and cinematic monsters. Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, VT, USA

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Shapiro, H. A. (2007). The Cambridge companion to archaic Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Top of Form

Norton, E. (2013). Aspects of Ecphrastic Technique in Ovid''s Metamorphoses. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.