Cyclopes

Cyclopes (Gr. lukulôpes, 'the round-eyed'), in the incoherent traditions of a gradually developing mythology, fall into three groups. (1) The Homeric Cyclopes, a wild, lawless, and impious race of giants, inhabiting the sea-coasts of Sicily, the most prominent of whom is Polyphemus (q.v.). Although Homer does not directly call them one-eyed, yet he expressly terms Polyphemus such, and the later poets attribute his peculiarity to the rest. (2) The three Cyclopes mentioned by Hesiod: Brontes, Steropes, and Arges, each having one eye in the middle of his forehead; these were sons of Uranus and Gæa, belonged to the race of Titans, and forged thunderbolts for Zeus. Hurlled into Tartarus by their father, but delivered by their mother, they helped Kronos to usurp the government of heaven. Kronos, however, in his turn, threw them back to Tartarus, from which they were again released by Zeus, whose servants they now became. Finally, they were slain by Apollo, because they forged the thunderbolt with which Zeus killed Æsculapius. Later tradition placed their workshop in Mount Etna, or in the volcanoes of Lemnos and Lipari, and made them the slaves of Hephaestus. (3) The Cyclopes mentioned by Strabo as a people who had come from Thrace or Lycia to Argolis, and were distinguished for their skill as builders.