Polyphemus’s Family Tree

About Polyphemus →

Family

• Galatea(spouse),Galates(child)— Consort · Miraculous

  Galatea yielded to the Cyclops Polyphemus and bore him a son Galates, eponymous ancestor of the Galatians, according to Appian and Timaeus.

  ⚠ Ovid's Metamorphoses presents a contrasting tradition where Galatea rejected Polyphemus entirely and loved the youth Acis, whom Polyphemus killed in jealousy.

• Poseidon(parent),Thoosa(parent)— Consort

  Polyphemus is the son of Poseidon and the sea nymph Thoosa. Odysseus's blinding of Polyphemus in his cave provoked Poseidon's relentless persecution of the hero across the seas.

Enemy of

• Galatea

  The Cyclops Polyphemus became infatuated with the Nereid Galatea, but she rejected his monstrous advances. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Polyphemus crushed her lover Acis with a boulder in a jealous rage.

• Odysseus

  Odysseus blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus to escape his cave, then taunted him by revealing his true name. Polyphemus prayed to his father Poseidon to curse Odysseus's homecoming.

Slew

• Acis

  Polyphemus, maddened by jealousy over Galatea's love for Acis, tore a massive boulder from Mount Etna and crushed the youth. The gods transformed Acis's blood into the river Acis near Catania.

Member of

• Cyclopes

  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.

Associated with

• Satyrs

  In Euripides' Cyclops, a band of Satyrs led by Silenus are shipwrecked on Sicily and enslaved by Polyphemus. They are freed when Odysseus blinds the Cyclops.

• Sicily

  The Cyclops Polyphemus dwelt in a cave on Sicily, tending his flocks in the island's pastoral hills. The coast near Catania was identified as the site where he hurled rocks at Odysseus's departing ships.

• Trident of Poseidon

  Poseidon's wrath over the blinding of his son Polyphemus was exercised through the Trident of Poseidon, which he used to churn the seas and torment Odysseus throughout the Odyssey.