Artwork Information

Homer’s Odysseus IX describes Odysseus entering the cave of the one-eyed Cyclops, Polyphemus, who promptly devours some of the hero’s fellow sailors. Odysseus lulls the monster to sleep with wine, and then drives a sharpened stake into his eye. He and his crew then escape by binding themselves to the underside of Polyphemus’s sheep. Setting sail for Aeolia, Odysseus taunts the giant who retaliates by throwing rocks at the departing ship, invoking the curse of his father, Poseidon. The rocks are purported to be the Scogli de’ Ciclopi (the Rocks of the Cyclops) in eastern Sicily.