What with the one eye and Odysseus yarn, most people think of Cyclops in the singular. Not so. There’s a whole race of them.

The first three were born to Uranus and Gaia, and bore the names Arges, Brontes and Sterops. Very big and tough, they moved mountains with their bare hands. When the giant Titans appeared on the scene the Cyclopes were outnumbered and locked away in the Underworld.

There they languished for a million years until the Gods got born. During the war against the Titans, Zeus found the one-eyed guys one visiting day and smuggled in five-star jars of nectar, which refreshed all the parts which had not been reached for so long.

Zeus then set them up with a prison workshop, including forge. Here they put together a helmet of invisibility for Hades, a missile trident for Poseidon and a stock of thunderbolts for Zeus.

The Lord of Olympus was so pleased by their butch workmanship that he had them out on parole. They were relocated to larger premises at Mount Etna, where the forge was prone to erupt now and then. After the wars were over, the Cyclopes became part of the community — and one-eyed babies of great bonniness began to appear.

They were mostly peaceful farming and shepherd types. Only Polyphemus turned out really nasty, went into exile and gave them a bad name.

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Article last revised on September 05, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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