Polyphemus

Polyphemus was a legendary monster that took the form of a gigantic Cyclops, he was the son of Poseiden and an antagonist from the Greek myth known as the Odyssey, written by the famous poet Homer.

Role In The Legend
Polyphemus was discovered by Odysseus and his crew when they landed on the shores of the island of the Cyclops during their voyage across the seas - the men had sought refuge in his cave only to find themselves imprisoned by Polyphemus when he returned from tending to his flock of sheep, he blocked the entrance to his cave and begins to mercilessly kill two of Odysseus' men before devouring them.

The monster then proceeded to keep the men hostage overnight, in the morning he crushed and devoured another pair of Odysseus' men before going to tend to his flock - blocking the cave with a boulder to stop escape.

That night Polyphemus returns to the cave and kills another two of Odysseus' men and devours them - however by this time Odysseus had come up with a plan to defeat his adversary: he offered the Cyclops a drink of extremely potent wine and the greedy monster gladly accepted.

Polyphemus became drunk and as a result he became somewhat stupid, asking Odysseus for his name with promise of a reward for doing so - the clever Odysseus replied that his name was "nobody" and the cruel Cyclops taunted him by stating he would devour "nobody" last as his reward: then the monster fell into a drunken slumber.

As Polyphemus slept Odysseus and his men took the Cyclops' wooden club and carved it to a point and waited for the next day to heat the self-made spear on a fire while Polyphemus was away tending to his flock - when he returned the men proceeded to thrust the spear into his eye and blinded him.

Polyphemus yelled out in pain and called to his fellow Cyclops to come to his aid, stating at "nobody" had harmed him - the other Cyclops thought that he had gone mad and ignore his pleas.

Odysseus and his men proceed to escape via latching onto the underside of Polyphemus' sheep and the blinded Cyclops is unable to do much but feel over the top of his sheep in a vein attempt to catch his victims - as the sheep leave so do to Odysseus and his surviving men.

However in act of hubris Odysseus proceeds to yell to Polyphemus from the safety of his boat that "I am not nobody! I am Odysseus!" - this gives Polyphemus a name by which to pray to his father, the god of the sea, for vengeance to: Poseiden hears his son's prayer and acts upon it, becoming the enemy of Odysseus from that moment onwards..