Editing Cyclopes (section)

===Euripides===
The Hesiodic Cyclopes: makers of Zeus' thunderbolts, the Homeric Cyclopes: brothers of [[Polyphemus]], and the Cyclopean wall-builders, all figure in the plays of the fifth-century BC playwright [[Euripides]]. In his  play ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'', where we are told that the Cyclopes who forged Zeus' thunderbolts, were killed by Apollo. The prologue of that play has Apollo explain:

{{Blockquote|House of Admetus! In you I brought myself to taste the bread of menial servitude, god though I am. Zeus was the cause: he killed my son Asclepius, striking him in the chest with the lightning bolt, and in anger at this I slew the Cyclopes who forged Zeus’s fire. As my punishment for this Zeus compelled me to be a serf in the house of a mortal.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-alcestis/1994/pb_LCL012.155.xml 5&ndash;7]. Compare with [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.10.4 3.10.4], which says that Zeus killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt, and "Angry on that account, Apollo slew the Cyclopes who had fashioned the thunderbolt for Zeus". See also [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4D*.html#71 4.71.3]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 49.</ref>}}

Euripides' [[satyr play]] ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' tells the story of [[Odysseus]]' encounter with the Cyclops [[Polyphemus]], famously told in [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]''. It takes place on the island of [[Sicily]] near the volcano [[Mount Etna]] where, according to the play, "Poseidon’s one-eyed sons, the man-slaying Cyclopes, dwell in their remote caves."<ref name="auto4"/> Euripides describes the land where Polyphemus' brothers live, as having no "walls and city battlements", and a place where "no men dwell".<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-cyclops/1994/pb_LCL012.71.xml 114&ndash;116].</ref> The Cyclopes have no rulers and no government, "they are solitaries: no one is anyone’s subject."<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-cyclops/1994/pb_LCL012.71.xml 119&ndash;120].</ref> They grow no crops, living only "on milk and cheese and the flesh of sheep."<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-cyclops/1994/pb_LCL012.71.xml 121&ndash;122].</ref> They have no wine, "hence the land they dwell in knows no dancing".<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-cyclops/1994/pb_LCL012.71.xml 123&ndash;124].</ref> They show no respect for the important Greek value of [[Xenia (Greek)|Xenia]] ("guest friendship). When Odysseus asks if they are pious and hospitable toward strangers (''φιλόξενοι δὲ χὤσιοι περὶ ξένους''), he is told: "most delicious, they maintain, is the flesh of strangers ... everyone who has come here has been slaughtered."<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-cyclops/1994/pb_LCL012.71.xml 125&ndash;128].</ref>

Several of Euripides' plays also make reference to the Cyclopean wall-builders.  Euripides calls their walls "heaven-high" (''οὐράνια''),<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Electra (Euripides play)|Electra]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-electra/1998/pb_LCL009.279.xml 1159], ''[[The Trojan Women|Trojan Women]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-trojan_women/1999/pb_LCL010.119.xml 1087&ndash;1088].</ref> describes "the Cyclopean foundations" of Mycenae as "fitted snug with red plumbline and mason’s hammer",<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Herakles (Euripides)|Heracles]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-heracles/1998/pb_LCL009.401.xml 943&ndash;946].</ref> and calls  Mycenae "O hearth built by the Cyclopes".<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Iphigenia in Tauris]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-iphigenia_taurians/1999/pb_LCL010.241.xml 845&ndash;846].</ref> He calls [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] "the city built by the Cyclopes",<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Herakles (Euripides)|Heracles]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-heracles/1998/pb_LCL009.311.xml 15].</ref> refers to "the temples the Cyclopes built"<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-iphigenia-aulis/2003/pb_LCL495.181.xml 152].</ref> and describes the "fortress of Perseus" as "the work of Cyclopean hands".<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-iphigenia-aulis/2003/pb_LCL495.331.xml 1500&ndash;1501].</ref>