Tepegöz- Turkic CreatureCreature · Monster"The One-Eyed"
Also known as: Depegöz, Tapagöz, and Tepegoz
Titles & Epithets
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Description
Sixty men a day the one-eyed giant devours, and the Oghuz lords cannot stop him. Born of a shepherd and a peri, his single eye blazes atop his head like a furnace. Only Basat dares enter his cave with a heated iron spit, blinding the monster and breaking the terror that held the tribe in thrall.
Mythology & Lore
Birth
A shepherd meets a peri in the wilderness and lies with her. She warns him: what comes of this will be a catastrophe for the Oghuz. The child born of the union is Tepegöz, a giant with a single eye set on the crown of his head.
He grows fast. First he devours livestock, then he turns to people. The Oghuz warriors ride against him, and he kills them all. He wears a magic ring that makes him invulnerable. The tribal lords have no choice: they offer daily tribute, sixty men's worth of food, to keep him from destroying the Oghuz entirely.
The Blinding
Basat, a hero raised by a lioness in his infancy, volunteers when no one else will. He enters Tepegöz's cave. He does not charge. He waits. He heats an iron spit in the giant's own fire and drives it into the single eye.
Tepegöz screams and swings blind. He blocks the cave entrance with his body to trap Basat inside. Basat slips past him. Then he takes the magic ring from the blinded giant, and without the ring Tepegöz can be killed. Dede Korkut sings the tale's end: Basat saved the Oghuz from what their greatest warriors could not touch.
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