Editing Cyclopes (section)

== Possible origins ==
[[File:Palaeoloxodon falconeri 56.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|''[[Palaeoloxodon falconeri]]'' skeletons, showing the large nasal orifice]]

Various origin hypotheses for the Cyclopes, including its distinctive one-eyed appearance, have been offered.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Aguirre |first=Mercedes |title=Seven Ways to Approach a Cyclops |date=2020-05-11 |work=Cyclops |pages=8–35 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/36765/chapter/321874345 |access-date=2025-02-18 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198713777.003.0002 |isbn=978-0-19-871377-7 |last2=Buxton |first2=Richard}}</ref>

A possible origin for one-eyed Cyclopes was advanced by the palaeontologist [[Othenio Abel]] in 1914.<ref>Mayor 2011, [https://books.google.com/books?id=9TwhfvU08UcC&pg=PA35 pp. 35&ndash;36].</ref> Abel proposed that fossil skulls of [[Pleistocene]] [[dwarf elephant]]s, commonly found in coastal caves of Italy and Greece, may have given rise to the Polyphemus story. Abel suggested that the large, central nasal cavity (for the trunk) in the skull might have been interpreted as a large single eye-socket.<ref>The smaller, actual eye-sockets are on the sides and, being very shallow, were hardly noticeable as such.</ref> However, this claim has been criticised by Greek mythology scholars Mercedes Aguirre and Richard Buxton as lacking evidence and being unfalsifiable.<ref name=":0" /> Other similarly unverifiable and unfalsifiable explanations include that the eye originated from the appearance of volcanism related features, such as [[Volcanic crater|craters]], or bubbles in volcanic water and mud.<ref name=":0" />

[[Cyclopia]], a rare [[birth defect]], can result in [[foetuses]] which have a single eye. Although the possibility has been raised of a link between this deformity and the myth of the one-eyed Cyclopes,<ref>Leroi, pp. 67-68.</ref> in such cases, the eye is below the nose<ref>Nelson, pp. 160&ndash;161.</ref>&mdash;rather than above as in ancient Greek depictions.<ref>Leroi, pp. 68&ndash;69.</ref>

As noted above, Walter Burkert sees the possibility of the Hesiodic Cyclopes having ancient smith guilds as their basis.<ref name="auto3"/>