Polyphemus, the cyclops of Homer's The Odyssey, isn't a nice guy. The hero Odysseus and his crew learn this the hard way when they come ashore on the island the Cyclopes call home. The weary warriors come in peace, but Polyphemus' idea of a warm welcome for the men is to grab a couple of them, bash their skulls on the ground, and eat them as a snack. Odysseus is no stranger to violence, being a veteran of the Trojan War, but the bloody feast he has just witnessed is shocking in its savagery, a kind of violence unimaginable to humans. He is further disturbed by how blasé Polyphemus is about the whole thing, “washing [the human flesh] down with raw milk” (line 334) and then taking a nap. Equally revolting is when the Cyclops gets drunk and vomits up a mess of wine and gore. Odysseus and his men manage to turn the tables on their gracious host, gouging his eye out with a sharpened branch.

Illustration by Willy Pogany

Up to this point, Homer makes it very clear how inhuman and barbaric Polyphemus is, but it turns out even man-eating cyclopes have feelings. He's still reeling from his injury the next morning when it comes time to send his goats out to pasture, not realizing his human prisoners are using the flock to cover their escape. Polyphemus strokes the back of each goat on its way out and is concerned when he feels that the biggest ram, maybe his personal favorite, lags behind. Polyphemus strokes the ram tenderly and talks to it, like one might do with a pet. The cyclops takes comfort in the thought that the ram hesitates because it's “sick at heart for your master’s eye that coward gouged out with his wicked crew” (line 505-6), but the reader knows the ram is just struggling to carry the extra weight of Odysseus, who is hanging on to its underside. Knowing Polyphemus actually cares about another living thing almost makes you feel sorry for him, but he'd literally bite your head off if you tried to hug him. Nevertheless, this scene shows us a moment of love in a story full of death.