Editing Cyclopes (section)

{{Short description|One-eyed giants in Greek and Roman mythology}}
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{{redirect|Cyclops}}
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[[File:Head of a Cyclops Colosseum.jpg|thumb|A first century AD head of a Cyclops from the Roman Colosseum]]

In [[Greek mythology]] and later [[Roman mythology]], the '''Cyclopes''' ({{IPAc-en|s|aɪ|ˈ|k|l|oʊ|p|iː|z}} {{respell|sy|KLOH|peez}}; {{langx|el|Κύκλωπες}}, ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes";<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA66 p. 66]: "KYKLOPES (Round-eyes)"; West 1988, p. 64: "The name [Cyclopes] means Circle-eyes"; [[LSJ]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*ku%2Fklwy s.v. Κύκλωψ]: "Round-eyed".</ref> singular '''Cyclops''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|aɪ|k|l|ɒ|p|s}} {{respell|SY|klops}}; {{lang|grc|Κύκλωψ}}, ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures.<ref>For a detailed discussion of the Cyclopes see Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA53 pp. 53&ndash;56]; for general summaries see: Hansen, pp. 143&ndash;144; Grimal, s.v. Cyclopes, pp. 118&ndash;119; Tripp, s.v. Cyclopes, p. 181; [[Herbert Jennings Rose|Rose]], s.v. Cyclopes, p. 304 (''[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]]'' 2nd edition).</ref> Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguished. In [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'', the Cyclopes are the three brothers, Brontes, Steropes, and [[Arges (Cyclops)|Arges]], who made [[Zeus]]'s weapon, the [[thunderbolt]]. In [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'', they are an uncivilized group of [[shepherd]]s, the brethren of [[Polyphemus]] encountered by [[Odysseus]]. Cyclopes were also famous for being the builders of the [[Cyclopean masonry|Cyclopean walls]] of [[Mycenae]] and [[Tiryns]].

In ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'', the fifth-century BC play by [[Euripides]], a [[satyr play|chorus of satyrs]] offers comic relief based on the encounter of Odysseus and Polyphemus. The third-century BC poet [[Callimachus]] makes the Hesiodic Cyclopes the assistants of smith-god [[Hephaestus]], as does [[Virgil]] in the Latin epic ''[[Aeneid]]'', where he seems to equate the Hesiodic and Homeric Cyclopes.

From at least the fifth century BC, Cyclopes have been associated with the island of [[Sicily]] and the volcanic [[Aeolian Islands]].