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Cyclopes
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==Location== From at least the fifth-century BC onwards, Cyclopes have been associated with the island of [[Sicily]], or the volcanic [[Aeolian islands]] just off Sicily's north coast. The fifth-century BC historian [[Thucydides]] says that the "earliest inhabitants" of Sicily were reputed to be the Cyclopes and [[Laestrygonians|Laestrygones]] (another group of man-eating giants encountered by Odysseus in Homer's ''Odyssey'').<ref>Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA53 p. 53]; Heubeck and Hoekstra, p. 19 on lines 105-556; [[Thucydides]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.perseus-eng3:6.2.1 6.2.1].</ref> Thucydides also reports the local belief that Hephaestus (along with his Cyclopean assistants?) had his forge on the Aeolian island of [[Vulcano]].<ref>[[Thucydides]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.perseus-eng3:3.88 3.88].</ref> [[File:Cyclops from Ubano Monti World Map.png|thumb|right|A "ciclops" from [[Urbano Monti]]'s 1587 world map.<ref>[[Urbano Monti]], sheets [https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303591~90074234?qvq=q%3Apub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22%3Bsort%3Apub_list_no%2Cseries_no%3Blc%3ARUMSEY~8~1&mi=36&trs=94 34], [https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303592~90074233:Tavola-XXXV--Che-Ha-Sua-Superiore-L?qvq=q%3Apub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22%3Bsort%3Apub_list_no%2Cseries_no%3Blc%3ARUMSEY%7E8%7E1&sort=pub_list_no%2Cseries_no&mi=36&trs=94 35]. The image digitally joins sheets 34 (on the left) and 35 (on the right).</ref>]] [[Euripides]] locates Odysseus' Cyclopes on the island of [[Sicily]], near the volcano [[Mount Etna]],<ref name="auto"/> and in the same play addresses Hephaestus as "lord of Aetna".<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-cyclops/1994/pb_LCL012.127.xml 599].</ref> The poet Callimachus locates the Cyclopes' forge on the island of [[Lipari]], the largest of the Aeolians.<ref>[[Callimachus]], ''Hymn III to Artemis'' [https://archive.org/stream/callimachuslycop00calluoft#page/60/mode/2up 8-10]. Compare with the third-century BC Sicilian poet [[Theocritus]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/theocritus-poems_i-xxx/2015/pb_LCL028.53.xml 2.133–134], which locates Hephaestus' forge on Lipari, and [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/theocritus-poems_i-xxx/2015/pb_LCL028.169.xml 11.7–8], which calls the Cyclops Polyphemus his "countryman".</ref> Virgil associates both the Hesiodic and the Homeric Cyclopes with Sicily. He has the thunderbolt makers: "Brontes and Steropes and bare-limbed Pyracmon", work in vast caverns extending underground from Mount Etna to the island of Vulcano,<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/virgil-aeneid/1916/pb_LCL064.89.xml 8.416–422]. Compare with [[Ovid]], ''[[Fasti]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/ovidsfasti00oviduoft#page/208/mode/2up 4.287–288], [https://archive.org/stream/ovidsfasti00oviduoft#page/222/mode/2up 4.473], which also has the Hesiodic thunderbolt makers work in Sicilian caves.</ref> while the Cyclops brethren of Polyphemus live on Sicily where "near at hand Aetna thunders".<ref name="auto1"/> As Thucydides notes, in the case of Hephaestus' forge on Vulcano,<ref>[[Thucydides]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.perseus-eng3:3.88 3.88]: "the people in those parts believe that Hephaestus has his forge, from the quantity of flame which they see it send out by night, and of smoke by day".</ref> locating the Cyclopes' forge underneath active volcanoes provided an explanation for the fire and smoke often seen rising from them.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA166 p. 166].</ref> In 1587, Italian cartographer [[Urbano Monti]] depicted a "ciclops" on a portion of his world map identified as [[New Guinea]].<ref>[[Urbano Monti]], [https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303592~90074233:Tavola-XXXV--Che-Ha-Sua-Superiore-L?qvq=q%3Apub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22%3Bsort%3Apub_list_no%2Cseries_no%3Blc%3ARUMSEY%7E8%7E1&sort=pub_list_no%2Cseries_no&mi=36&trs=94 sheet 35]. For the location of sheet 35 with respect to Monti's world map, see: [https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~329834~90098284:Interactive-Globe--Tavola-1-60---Ma?sort=pub_list_no%2Cseries_no&qvq=q:pub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22;sort:pub_list_no%2Cseries_no;lc:RUMSEY~8~1Interactive composite of Monti's world map].</ref>
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