The “monster” par excellence, the one-eyed Polyphemus, bursts forth in mythography and literary history in book 9 of the Odyssey. Son of the sea god Poseidon and the nymph Thoosa, he had the misfortune to succumb to the cunning of Odysseus, who blinded him and managed to escape captivity by devising the ingenious trick of the name “Nobody”. Of course, Polyphemus does manage to devour a few of the hero’s companions, but that is his nature. In the extended lineage of the Cyclops, Polyphemus enjoys a long history of reappearances, with outcomes that occasionally clash with the Homeric tradition. Having become a comic character in a satirical play by Euripides, the horrid giant soon discovers Eros: he falls in love, unrequited, with the nymph Galatea, thus inspiring poets sensitive to erotic dynamics to write tales of desperate passion. Even in later retellings, he does not manage to get rid of Odysseus, yet he becomes a less dreadful character, at least from a psychological viewpoint.

Luigi Spina formerly taught Classical Philology at the Federico II University in Naples.