The Cyclops in Homer's Odyssey: Class, Power, and Monstrosity

The Cyclops in Homer's Odyssey is one of the most memorable and striking creatures in the narrative. He is remembered as a true monster and referred to throughout Odysseus' tales as a horrendous beast. However, if one reads the text with unbiased eyes, this creature appears to be a simple, good-natured, and even kind and gentle being. He tends his sheep with care, takes no more from the land than he needs, and lives a humble, quiet life that disturbs no one.

His home is invaded by a band of violent robbers who demand gifts and honor in recognition of the cruelty and destruction they have spread wherever they roam. These intruders tell him they have no intention of leaving, since their ships have supposedly been destroyed — leaving this humble creature with no choice but to kill them in order to save himself and his peaceful people. Few readers, if honest with themselves, could fathom showing hospitality upon coming home after a long day's work to find their home broken into and their own food and belongings burned in a sacrifice to foreign gods. Nonetheless, this shepherd and guardian of a peaceful island is presented as horrible and monstrous.

In order to understand what makes this Cyclops a monster at all, it is necessary to examine the values held in Ancient Greek culture that would establish this being as a monster, while casting a band of robbers and mass murderers — otherwise known as the hero Odysseus and his men — as positive role models. The Odyssey is a work that glorifies the elite upper classes of Greece while vilifying any who would question the role of the lower classes in serving their masters with humble gratitude.

The Cyclops in Homer's narrative is presented as very large and monstrous in appearance. One of the most effective descriptions of his physical form appears in the following passage: "He was a horrid creature, not like a human being at all, but resembling rather some crag that stands out boldly against the sky on the top of a high mountain." (Homer, Book IX) This description makes clear that the monstrousness of the Cyclops derives in large part from how removed he is from humanity. He is presented as being a part of the natural world that defies the sky — a symbolic reference to the gods who oversee humanity — rather than as a member of advanced society.

The fact that the Cyclops is described as physically monstrous in a way that identifies him as defiant and apart from humanity becomes very important as the social significance of this figure in Greek culture is explored further. Other descriptions refer to his "huge paunch" (Homer, Book IX), another physical detail used as a tool for revealing the social significance of the Cyclops and why he is considered monstrous. In addition to being a giant of massive strength, this particular Cyclops, Polyphemus, has only one eye and teeth suitable for tearing whole men apart. He fits the traditional description in Greek mythology of a very strong, one-eyed giant who lives in a rural setting.

In order to understand what truly made the Cyclops "monstrous" to the Greeks, it is important first to understand the origins of the values presented in the writings of Ancient Greece. As historical documents and literary works such as the Odyssey itself make clear, Ancient Greek society was divided into distinct economic classes. There was a very clear division between the elite — trained as warriors, as glorified in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and educated in intellectual studies — and the working and enslaved classes who performed all manual labor for the elite. Because the lower classes did all the labor, the elite had the leisure to pursue art, literature, philosophy, and other intellectual endeavors.