Editing Polyphemus (section)

===Artistic representations===
[[File:Polyphemus Eleusis 2630.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Painting of Odysseus and his men blinding Polyphemus (from [[Eleusis Amphora]] by [[Polyphemos Painter]], [[Eleusis]] museum)]]
During the seventh century, the potters gave preference to scenes from both epics, ''The Odyssey'' and ''the Iliad'', almost half being that of the blinding of the Cyclops and the ruse by which Odysseus and his men escape.{{sfn|Junker|2012|p=80}} One such episode, on a vase featuring the hero carried beneath a sheep, was used on a 27 drachma Greek postage stamp in 1983.<ref>[https://www.imago-images.com/st/0156460345 Imago]</ref> This was a steep drop (to the point of being "insignificant") from the volume of pan-Hellenic pottery discovered from the fifth and sixth centuries, which largely depicted ancient Greek mythology: scenes from the [[Trojan War]] or deeds from [[Heracles]] or [[Perseus]].{{sfn|Junker|2012|p=80}}

The blinding was depicted in life-size sculpture, including a giant Polyphemus, in the [[Sperlonga sculptures]] probably made for the Emperor [[Tiberius]]. This may be an interpretation of an existing composition, and was apparently repeated in variations in later Imperial palaces by [[Claudius]], [[Nero]] and at [[Hadrian's Villa]].{{sfn|Carey|2002|pp=44-61}}

[[File:Eckersberg, Christoffer Wilhelm, Ulysses Fleeing the Cave of Polyphemus, 1812.jpg|thumb|[[Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg]], ''Ulysses Fleeing the Cave of Polyphemus'', 1812, [[Princeton University Art Museum]]]]
Of the European painters of the subject, the Flemish [[Jacob Jordaens]] depicted Odysseus escaping from the cave of Polyphemus in 1635 (see gallery [[#Artistic depictions of Polyphemus|below]]) and others chose the dramatic scene of the giant casting boulders at the escaping ship. In [[Guido Reni]]'s painting of 1639/40 (see above), the furious giant is tugging a boulder from the cliff as Odysseus and his men row out to the ship far below. Polyphemus is portrayed, as it often happens, with two empty eye sockets and his damaged eye located in the middle on his forehead. This convention goes back to Greek statuary and painting,{{sfn|Roman|Roman|2010|p=416}} and is reproduced in [[Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein]]'s 1802 head and shoulders portrait of the giant (see [[#Artistic depictions of Polyphemus|below]]).

[[Arnold Böcklin]] pictures the giant as standing on rocks onshore and swinging one of them back as the men row desperately over a surging wave (see [[#Artistic depictions of Polyphemus|below]]), while Polyphemus is standing at the top of a cliff in [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]]'s painting of 1902. He stands poised, having already thrown one stone, which barely misses the ship. The reason for his rage is depicted in [[J. M. W. Turner]]'s painting, ''[[Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus]]'' (1829). Here the ship sails forward as the sun breaks free of clouds low on the horizon. The giant himself is an indistinct shape barely distinguished from the woods and smoky atmosphere high above.