Blinding of Polyphemus
event · 3 works · 3 mentions · 4 anchored passages
blinding · blinding of an eye of Polyphemus · burn his eye · burnt to cinders · gouge out the eye · the vengeance on the Cyclops
spoken of as
1 expressionin the texts
Cyclops
The climactic act of revenge in which Odysseus and his men drive a burning olive brand into the Cyclops's single eye
and when I see it well alight, I will lift the heated brand, and, thrusting it full in the Cyclops’ eye, melt out his sight with its blaze;
and, as when a man in fitting the timbers of a ship makes his auger spin to and fro with a double strap, so will I make the brand revolve in the eye that gives the Cyclops light and will scorch up the pupil thereof.
my once bright eye is burnt to cinders now.
Odyssey
Odysseus's blinding of Polyphemus, the Cyclops son of Poseidon, referenced as backstory for Poseidon's ongoing persecution.
Bear in mind, however, that Poseidon is still furious with Odysseus for having blinded an eye of Polyphemus king of the Cyclopes.
Aeneid
Achaemenides's account of Polyphemus devouring his comrades and Ulysses's crew blinding the giant.
In yon vast Cyclops' cave my comrades, flying from its gruesome door, left me behind, forgotten.
Ulysses would not brook, and Ithaca forgot not in such strait the name he bore.
Thus took we joyful vengeance for the shades of our lost mates.