Cyclops, in Greek mythology, a one-eyed giant. According to Homer's Odyssey the Cyclopes were shepherds of Sicily. Savage and cannibalistic, they devoured all who came to their land. When one of them, Polyphemus, was bunded by the crafty Odysseus, he begged his father, the sea-god Poseidon, for revenge. Poseidon then became Odysseus' enemy and tried to prevent his return home after the Trojan War.
Another tradition tells of three Cyclopes, the children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth), who were named Brontes, Steropes, and Arges. They assisted Zeus in his struggle against his father, Cronus, and gave him the thunderbolt as a weapon. However, when Zeus used a thunderbolt to kill Apollo's son Asclepius, Apollo killed the Cyclopes. According to still later myths the Cyclopes were the assistants of the fire god Hephaestus at his forges under Mount Etna in Sicily.
