Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

320 The Kyklops and Zeus

Kyklops was the son of Zeus; or Geraistos was, according to some,
the son of the Kyklops, according to others, the son of Zeus.
Both inferences presuppose that the Kyklops was somehow related
to Zeus.

Lastly, T. Panofka1 and W. Grimm2 long since pointed out that
the three-eyed Kyklops of Sicily bears a striking resemblance to
an extremely archaic statue of Zeus with three eyes seen by
Pausanias on the Argive Larisa3. M. Mayer4 arrived independently
at a similar conclusion. He holds that the original Kyklops was
one with the three-eyed Zeus of Argos, who in turn is strictly
comparable with other three-eyed figures in Greek mythology in
particular with the three-eyed Argos Panoptes*, with the three-eyed
guide of the Herakleidai6, and with the various heroes named
Triops or Triopas7. On this showing, then, the three-eyed Kyklops
is but another form of the three-eyed Zeus. When, however,
M. Mayer over the section of his work devoted to this question
prints the words 'Zeus Kyklops8,' he is going too far. Polyphemos,
it is true, boasts that the Kyklopes care nothing for Zeus, deeming
themselves superior to the gods, and that he, the speaker, would
not refrain from laying hands on Odysseus through any fear of
incurring Zeus' enmity9. But nowhere in Greek literature do we
get a definite identification of the Kyklops with Zeus. The nearest
approach to it is Nonnos' description of the Kyklops Brontes as
'a bastard Zeus10.' Rather, we must suppose that the Kyklops was
originally a sky-god like Zeus, his round eye being the sun and his
weapon the thunderbolt. He was, in fact, analogous to, but not
identical with, the Hellenic god.

It is not at present possible to determine the race to which this

1 T. Panofka Archdologischer Commentar zu Pausanias Buck II. Kap. 24 p. 30 f.

2 W. Grimm 'Die Sage von Polyphem' in the Abh. d. berl. A had. 1857 Phil.-hist.
Classe p. 28.

3 Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 75 f., 325, Folk-lore 1904 xv. 288 f., Append. B Argolis.

4 M. Mayer Die Giganten tend Titanen in der antiken Sage und Kunst Berlin 1887
p. 110 ff.

5 Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 75, 325, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 287.

6 Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 87, 325, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 289 f.

7 Class. Rev. 1904 xviii. 75 ff., 325, Folk-Lore 1904 xv. 288 f.

8 M. Mayer op. cit. pp. 113, 115.

9 Od. 9. 275 ff. ■ Dr W. W. Merry ad loc, taking a hint from the scholiast, observes:
'This is inconsistent with what the Cyclopes acknowledged about the power of Zeus,
inf. 410; and with Polyphemus' boast that Poseidon was his father.' D. Muelder 'Das
Kyklopengedicht der Odysee' in Hermes 1903 xxxviii. 431 ff. draws attention to the similar
inconsistencies of Od. 9. 107, in, 358. Eur. Cycl. 320 f. Zyisbs 5' eyw kepavvbv ov (ppiaaw,
£eve, I ovd' oW 6 tl Zei;s ecrr' i/xou Kpdaatov deos is following the Homeric passage.

10 Supra p. 318.