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Cyclops Facts & Worksheets

A Cyclops is a giant that only has one eye. Their name in Greek, Kýklōpes means circle-eyes or round-eyes.

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A Cyclops is a giant that only has one eye. Their name in Greek, Kýklōpes means circle-eyes or round-eyes. Cyclopes are one of the most known monsters in Greek mythology.

See the fact file below for more information on the Cyclops or alternatively, you can download our 23-page Cyclops worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

DESCRIPTION AND ROLE

  • According to Hesiod’s Theogony, the Cyclopes were sons of Gaia and Ouranos.
  • The three Cyclopes from this couple were known as Brontes, Steropes, and Arges. They had one eye in the center of their foreheads.
  • Hesiod said the Cyclopes have very violent hearts, but there is no indication that the Cyclopes have behaved violently.
  • The Cyclopes made Zeus’ thunderbolt, which greatly helped the deity in overthrowing his father, Cronus.
  • The names that the poet gave the three Cyclopes reflect their role in making the thunderbolt.
  • As stated by Hesiod, Ouranos imprisoned his three sons. They were freed by Zeus, whom they repaid by making his thunderbolt.
  • Hesiod and other theogony-writers told that the Cyclopes were a source of powerful weaponry, before the time of Hephaestus.
  • In Bibliotheca, the Cyclopes also made the trident of Poseidon and the cap of invisibility of Hades. These weapons helped the gods in defeating the Titans during the Titanomachy.
  • Hesiod’s Cyclopes were thought to be immortal, but in the 6th-century Catalogue of Women, they were killed by Apollo.
  • Asclepius, one of Apollo’s favorite children, was killed after getting hit by Zeus’ thunderbolt.
  • As revenge, Apollo killed the makers of the thunderbolt—the Cyclopes.
  • A fragment from Pindar’s work also suggests that Zeus killed the Cyclopes himself so they couldn’t make any more thunderbolts for anyone else.
  • Hesiod stressed the craftsmen’s prowess of the Cyclopes.
  • Later poets imagined the Cyclopes as the assistants of Hephaestus, working in his forge underneath Mount Etna in Sicily.
  • In the Hymn to Artemis by Callimachus, he mentions the Cyclopes making the bows and arrows of Artemis and Apollo.
  • Virgil mentioned in his Aeneid that the Cyclopes were making a chariot for Mars, a Palla for the Aegis, and a thunderbolt when Vulcan (the Roman counterpart of Hephaestus) interrupted their work and ordered them to make arms for Aeneas.
  • In a Hellenistic astral myth, the Cyclopes built an altar upon which the Olympian gods swore in an alliance before the Titan War.
  • After winning, the gods placed the altar in the sky, and thus started the practice of mortals swearing their oaths upon an altar “as a guarantee of their good faith.”
  • According to Pausanias, a 2nd-century geographer, there was a sanctuary on the Isthmus of Corinth where sacrifices were offered to the Cyclopes. This was called the “altar of the Cyclopes.”
  • In Odyssey, Odysseus comes in contact with the Cyclops Polyphemus.
  • Polyphemus is a son of Poseidon who lives in a distant land. He is known to be a man-eating giant.
  • The Cyclopes in Homer’s Odyssey were very different from Hesiod’s Cyclopes, and the relationship between the two is unclear.
  • Homer’s Cyclopes lived with the mortals and uncivilized shepherds. They lived in caves and knew nothing about craft, ships, or agriculture.
  • In the satyr play Cyclops written by Euripides, he wrote of Cyclopes that have no wine, no agriculture, and live on cheese, milk, and sheep meat.
  • They have no government and live in solitary and are inhospitable to strangers. These Cyclopes slaughter and eat those that come to their territory.
  • Euripides makes the island of Sicily the land of the Cyclopes.
  • Cyclopes are also said to be the builders of the Cyclopean walls of Argos, Mycenae, and Tiryns.
  • The Cyclopes that built the walls share several features with the Cyclopes of Hesiod.
  • Both groups are craftsmen with supernatural skills, have colossal strength, and lived during primordial times.
  • Pindar mentions that Heracles drove Geryon’s cattle through the “Cyclopean portal” of the king of Tiryns.
  • Pherecydes, a mythographer, stated that Perseus brought the Cyclopes to Argos to build the walls of Mycenae.
  • It is also said that the mythical king Proetus brought seven Cyclopes from Lycia to build the walls of Tiryns.
  • Strabo, a 1st-century Greek geographer, mentions that these groups of Cyclopes were called “Bellyhands” as they earn their food by doing manual labor.
  • According to the Natural History by Pliny the Elder, Cyclopes were inventors of masonry towers. This tradition was attributed to Aristotle.
  • Pliny also said that the Cyclopes were among the first ones to work with iron as well as bronze.

ETYMOLOGY

  • The name Cyclopes is derived from the Greek words kúklos (“circle”) and ops (“eye”), defining Cyclopes as “Round-eyes” or “circle-eyes.”
  • This meaning for the name is mentioned as early as the 8th-7th century BCE in the Theogony.
  • The folklorist and philologist Adalbert Kuhn proposed that kúklos can also mean “wheel” making Cyclopes mean “wheel-eyes.”
  • Others propose that the 2nd element of the name was derived from klops which means thief, making the definition of Cyclopes “cattle-thief” or “wheel-thief.”

POSSIBLE ORIGINS

  • In 1914, Othenio Abel, an Australian paleontologist, proposed that the story of Polyphemus may have arisen due to the fossil skulls of Pleistocene dwarf elephants.
  • He suggested that the huge, nasal cavity at the center of the skull for the trunk of the animal might have been taken as a large socket for an eye.
  • A rare birth defect in both animal and human fetuses can also cause them to have only one eye located in the center of their foreheads.
  • Teratology students have suggested the possible connection of said deformity to the myth of the Cyclopes.

Cyclops Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Cyclops across 23 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Cyclops worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about a Cyclops who is a giant that only has one eye. Their name in Greek, Kýklōpes means circle-eyes or round-eyes. Cyclopes are one of the most known monsters in Greek mythology.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Round-eye Monster
  • Parts with Cyclops
  • One-eyed Viewing
  • Crusty Cyclops
  • Weapons of Cyclopes
  • ©yclopes
  • Eyedentify
  • Cyclopes Killer
  • Cyclopean Elephant
  • Mono toh mati

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Link will appear as Cyclops Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, March 5, 2021

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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