Gaia and Uranus bore the three Cyclopes — Brontes, Steropes, and Arges — master smiths imprisoned by their father until Zeus freed them. They forged his thunderbolts in gratitude.
The Cyclopes forged Zeus's thunderbolt, Poseidon's trident, and Hades's helm of invisibility during the Titanomachy, providing the Olympians with the divine weapons that secured their victory.
Kronos, like his father Uranus before him, feared the Cyclopes' power and kept them imprisoned in Tartarus throughout his reign. Zeus freed them to arm the Olympians against the Titans.
Uranus imprisoned the Cyclopes within the earth at birth, horrified by their monstrous appearance. This act of cruelty against his own children drove Gaia to plot his overthrow.
After Zeus killed Asclepius for raising the dead, Apollo avenged his son by slaying the Cyclopes who had forged Zeus's thunderbolts.
Zeus freed the Cyclopes from Tartarus during the Titanomachy. In return they forged his thunderbolts and served under his rule on Olympus.
The elder Cyclopes forged the Helm of Darkness for Hades during the Titanomachy. The helm rendered its wearer invisible, giving Hades a decisive advantage in battle.
The elder Cyclopes — Brontes, Steropes, and Arges — forged the Thunderbolt of Zeus after he freed them from Tartarus. This weapon made Zeus supreme among the gods.
The elder Cyclopes forged the Trident of Poseidon after Zeus freed them from Tartarus during the Titanomachy, arming the sea god for the war against the Titans.
Polyphemus, the man-eating shepherd blinded by Odysseus, was the most famous of the younger Cyclopes — savage children of Poseidon unlike the elder divine smiths born of Gaia and Uranus.
The Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires were siblings, both children of Gaia and Uranus, imprisoned together in Tartarus. Zeus freed both races to fight the Titans in the Titanomachy.
The elder Cyclopes labored as smiths in Hephaestus's forge, hammering out thunderbolts for Zeus and crafting divine armor and weapons for the gods and their favored heroes.
Poseidon was father of the younger Cyclopes, the savage shepherds of Thrinacia. When Odysseus blinded Polyphemus, Poseidon's son, the sea god cursed the hero's homeward voyage.
According to Apollodorus and Strabo, the Cyclopes built the massive fortification walls of Tiryns for Proetus, giving rise to the term 'Cyclopean masonry.'
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