The gate of the year

Figure on the left:

Marble head of the Cyclops Polyphemus, from the Island of Thasos, dating to the II century B.C., now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA.
According to Hesiod, the Cyclopes were sons of Uranus and Gaia, like the Titans, but were confined by Cronus in the Tartarus, and subsequently released by Zeus (Theogony, 139-146). They provided, indeed, to the ruler of the gods his main weapon, lightning, with which he was able to defeat the Titans. The Cyclopes were beings similar to the gods, but for the fact that they had only one eye in the middle of their forehead, from which they took their name of kyklopes, literally “beings with round eyes”.

[Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polyphemos-MuseumOfFineArtsBoston-March25-07.png]

Figure on the right:

Fresco in the Roman Villa del Casale, near Piazza Armerina, Sicily, dating to the IV century A.D. The scene represents Odysseus’s encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus, as it is described in the IX book of the Odyssey. According to the Homeric narrative, the Cyclopes were folk who “plant nothing with their hands nor plough; but all these things spring up for them without sowing or ploughing”. These creatures lived in a wild state, “Neither assemblies for council have they, nor appointed laws, but they dwell on the peaks of lofty mountains in hollow caves” (Odyssey, IX, 108-115). Polyphemus, in the Homeric tradition, was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and his blinding by Odysseus enraged the god, who was responsible for the many vicissitudes and hardships the hero had to endure. The Cyclops is described as a giant monstrous man, conducting a solitary life, “he mingles not with others, and lived apart, with his heart set on lawlessness”. He lived in a high cave, where he dwelt with his flocks, sheep and goats alike, from which he obtained the milk for producing cheese. The giant had the quality of a cannibal, and he devours Odysseus’s companions trapped in his cave (Odyssey, IX, 181-494). The characteristics attributed to Polyphemus (size greater than human, prodigious strength, lonely habits, lack of social norms, mountains and caves as dwellings, contiguity with flocks and herds, knowledge of the secrets of cheese production, relationships with the Underworld, feral aspects like cannibalism) shall be the same ascribed to the Wild Man of European folklore, since the Middle Ages until the contemporary Carnivals.

[Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Villa_Del_Casale_Vestibolo_ Di_Polifemo_room_44.jpg]




Wild Men

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Figure on the left: Marble head of the Cyclops Polyphemus, from the Island of Thasos, dating to the II century B.C., now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA. According to Hesiod, the Cyclopes were sons of Uranus and Gaia, like the Titans, but were confined by Cronus in the Tartarus, and subsequently released by Zeus (Theogony, 139-146). They provided, indeed, to the ruler of the gods his main weapon, lightning, with which he was able to defeat the Titans. The Cyclopes were beings similar to the gods, but for the fact that they had only one eye in the middle of their forehead, from which they took their name of kyklopes, literally “beings with round eyes”. [Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polyphemos-MuseumOfFineArtsBoston-March25-07.png] Figure on the right: Fresco in the Roman Villa del Casale, near Piazza Armerina, Sicily, dating to the IV century A.D. The scene represents Odysseus’s encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus, as it is described in the IX book of the Odyssey. According to the Homeric narrative, the Cyclopes were folk who “plant nothing with their hands nor plough; but all these things spring up for them without sowing or ploughing”. These creatures lived in a wild state, “Neither assemblies for council have they, nor appointed laws, but they dwell on the peaks of lofty mountains in hollow caves” (Odyssey, IX, 108-115). Polyphemus, in the Homeric tradition, was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and his blinding by Odysseus enraged the god, who was responsible for the many vicissitudes and hardships the hero had to endure. The Cyclops is described as a giant monstrous man, conducting a solitary life, “he mingles not with others, and lived apart, with his heart set on lawlessness”. He lived in a high cave, where he dwelt with his flocks, sheep and goats alike, from which he obtained the milk for producing cheese. The giant had the quality of a cannibal, and he devours Odysseus’s companions trapped in his cave (Odyssey, IX, 181-494). The characteristics attributed to Polyphemus (size greater than human, prodigious strength, lonely habits, lack of social norms, mountains and caves as dwellings, contiguity with flocks and herds, knowledge of the secrets of cheese production, relationships with the Underworld, feral aspects like cannibalism) shall be the same ascribed to the Wild Man of European folklore, since the Middle Ages until the contemporary Carnivals. [Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Villa_Del_Casale_Vestibolo_ Di_Polifemo_room_44.jpg]