Editing Polyphemus (section)

===Ancient sources===
====Philoxenus of Cythera====
Writing more than three centuries after the [[Odyssey]] is thought to have been composed, [[Philoxenus of Cythera]] took up the myth of Polyphemus in his poem ''Cyclops'' or ''Galatea''. The poem was written to be performed as a [[dithyramb]], of which only fragments have survived, and was perhaps the first to provide a female love interest for the Cyclops.{{refn|group=nb|That Polyphemus' love for Galatea is "possibly" a Philoxenus innovation.{{sfn|Creese|2009|loc=563 with n.5}}}} The object of Polyphemus' romantic desire is a sea nymph named [[Galatea (mythology)|Galatea]].{{sfn|Brooks|1896|pp=163-164}} In the poem, Polyphemus is not a cave dwelling, monstrous brute, as in the ''Odyssey'', but instead he is rather like Odysseus himself in his vision of the world: He has weaknesses, he is adept at literary criticism, and he understands people.{{sfn|LeVen|2014|p=237}}

The date of composition for the ''Cyclops'' is not precisely known, but it must be prior to 388 BC, when [[Aristophanes]] parodied it in his comedy ''[[Plutus (play)|Plutus]]'' (''Wealth''); and probably after 406 BC, when [[Dionysius I of Syracuse|Dionysius I]] became tyrant of [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]].{{sfn|Rosen|2007|p=155}}{{sfn|Hordern|1999|p=445}} Philoxenus lived in that city and was the court poet of Dionysius I.{{sfn|Hordern|1999|p=446|ps=, with n. 4 giving numerous ancient sources}} According to ancient commentators, either because of his frankness regarding Dionysius' poetry, or because of a conflict with the tyrant over a female [[aulos]] player named Galatea, Philoxenus was imprisoned in the quarries and had there composed his ''Cyclops'' in the manner of a ''[[Roman à clef]]'', where the poem's characters, Polyphemus, Odysseus and Galatea, were meant to represent Dionysius, Philoxenus, and the aulos-player.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rocha |first1=Roosevelt |title=Review of: Philoxeni Cytherii Testimonia et Fragmenta. Dithyrambographi Graeci, 1 |url=http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2015/2015-05-32.html |journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review |access-date=2 March 2020 |date=May 2015}}</ref>{{sfn|Hordern|1999|p=445–446}} Philoxenus had his Polyphemus perform on the [[cithara]], a professional [[lyre]] requiring great skill. The Cyclops playing such a sophisticated and fashionable instrument would have been quite a surprising juxtaposition for Philoxenus' audience.

Philoxenus' ''Cyclops'' is also referred to in [[Aristotle]]'s ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'' in a section that discusses representations of people in tragedy and comedy, citing as comedic examples the ''Cyclops'' of both [[Timotheus of Miletus|Timotheus]] and Philoxenus.{{sfn|LeVen|2014|p=235}}{{sfn|Hordern|1999|pp=448–450}}{{sfn|Farmer|2017|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9Aw1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA215 p. 215]}}

====Aristophanes====

The text of Aristophanes' last extant play ''Plutus'' (''Wealth'') has survived with almost all of its choral odes missing.{{sfn|Jackson|2019|p=124}} What remains shows Aristophanes (as he does to some extent in all his plays) parodying a contemporary literary work — in this case Philoxenus' ''Cyclops''.{{sfn|Jackson|2019|p=124}}{{sfn|Farmer|2017|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9Aw1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 p. 213]}}{{sfn|Hordern|1999|p=445}} While making fun of literary aspects of Philoxenus' dithyramb, Aristophanes is at the same time commenting on musical developments occurring in the fourth century BC, developing themes that run through the whole play.{{sfn|Jackson|2019|p=125}} It also contains lines and phrases taken directly from the ''Cyclops''.{{sfn|Jackson|2019|p=126}}

The slave Cario, tells the chorus that his master has brought home with him the god Wealth, and because of this they will all now be rich. The chorus wants to dance for joy,{{sfn|Aristophanes|1896|p=15}} so Cario takes the lead by parodying Philoxenus' ''Cyclops''.{{sfn|Farmer|2017|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9Aw1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 pp. 213–216]}}{{sfn|Jackson|2019|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=STG-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA124 pp. 124–126]}} As a solo performer leading a chorus that sings and dances, Cario recreates the form of a dithyramb. He first casts himself in the role of Polyphemus while assigning to the chorus the roles of sheep and goats, at the same time imitating the sound of a lyre: "And now I wish — threttanello! — to imitate the Cyclops and, swinging my feet to and fro like this, to lead you in the dance. But come on, children, shout and shout again the songs of bleating sheep and smelly goats."{{sfn|Farmer|2017|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9Aw1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA215 p. 215]}}{{sfn|Aristophanes|1896|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wCcrYU0nExkC&pg=PA72 72]}} The chorus, however, does not want to play sheep and goats, they would rather be Odysseus and his men, and they threaten to blind Cario (as had Odysseus the drunken Cyclops) with a wooden stake.{{sfn|Jackson|2019|p=125}}

====Hellenistic pastoral poets====
The romantic element, originated by Philoxenus, was revived by later Hellenistic poets, including [[Theocritus]], [[Callimachus]], [[Hermesianax (poet)|Hermesianax]],<ref name="Williams">{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Frederick John |title=Hermesianax |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095932797 |website=Oxford Reference |access-date=11 March 2020 |language=en }}</ref> and [[Bion of Smyrna]].{{sfn|LeVen|2014|pp=234–234}}

[[Theocritus]] is credited with creating the genre of [[pastoral poetry]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Theocritus {{!}} Greek poet |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theocritus |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |access-date=11 March 2020 |language=en |date=5 February 2020}}</ref> His works are titled ''Idylls'' and of these [[Idyll XI]] tells the story of the Cyclops' love for Galatea.{{sfn|Ovid|2000|pp=36–37}} Though the character of Polyphemus derives from Homer, there are notable differences. Where Homer's Cyclops was beastly and wicked, Theocritus' is absurd, lovesick and comic. Polyphemus loves the sea nymph Galatea, but she rejects him because of his ugliness.{{sfn|Theocritus|1947|p=11.30–33}}{{sfn|Rosen|2007|p=162}} However, in a borrowing from Philoxenus' poem, Polyphemus has discovered that music will heal lovesickness,{{sfn|Faulkner|2011|p=178}} and so he plays the [[panpipes]] and sings of his woes, for "I am skilled in piping as no other Cyclops here".{{sfn|Theocritus|1947|p=38}} His longing is to overcome the antithetic elements that divide them, he of earth and she of water:{{sfn|Theocritus|1947|p=38}}

{{Poem quote|text=Ah me, would that my mother at my birth had given me gills, That so I might have dived down to your side and kissed your hand, If your lips you would not let me...|char=|sign=|title=|source=}}

[[File:Vanloo,_Triumph_of_Galatea.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Jean-Baptiste van Loo]]'s depiction of "The Triumph of Galatea"; Polyphemus plays the pan-pipes on the right]]
The love of the mismatched pair was later taken up by other pastoral poets. The same trope of music being the cure for love was introduced by Callimachus in his Epigram 47: "How excellent was the charm that Polyphemus discovered for the lover. By Earth, the Cyclops was no fool!"<ref name="Epigrams">{{cite web |last1=Callimachus |translator1-last=Mair |translator1-first=A. W. |title=Callimachus: Epigrams |url=http://www.attalus.org/poetry/callimachus2.html |website=Attalus |access-date=11 March 2020 |date=1921}}</ref> A fragment of a lost idyll by Bion also portrays Polyphemus declaring his undying love for Galatea.{{sfn|Theocritus|Bion|Moschus|1889|p=176}} Referring back to this, an elegy on Bion's death that was once attributed to [[Moschus]] takes the theme further in a piece of [[hyperbole]]. Where Polyphemus had failed, the poet declares, Bion's greater artistry had won Galatea's heart, drawing her from the sea to tend his herds.{{sfn|Theocritus|Bion|Moschus|1889|p=317}} This reflected the situation in [[Idyll VI]] of Theocritus. There two herdsmen engage in a musical competition, one of them playing the part of Polyphemus, who asserts that since he has adopted the ruse of ignoring Galatea, she has now become the one who pursues him.{{sfn|Theocritus|2004|loc=[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11533/11533-h/11533-h.htm#IDYLL_VI Idyll VI]}}

====Latin poets====
The successful outcome of Polyphemus' love was also alluded to in the course of a 1st-century BC love elegy on the power of music by the Latin poet [[Propertius]]. Listed among the examples he mentions is that "Even Galatea, it's true, below wild Etna, wheeled her brine-wet horses, Polyphemus, to your songs."{{sfn|Propertius|2008|loc=[https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/PropertiusBkThree.php#anchor_Toc201112456 Book III.2]}} The division of contrary elements between the land-based monster and the sea nymph, lamented in Theocritus' Idyll 11, is brought into harmony by this means.

While [[Ovid]]'s treatment of the story that he introduced into the ''[[Metamorphoses]]''{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:13.705-13.749 13.740–897]}} is reliant on the idylls of Theocritus,{{refn|group=nb|Alan Griffin{{sfn|Griffin|1983}} calls Ovid's treatment "an extended paraphrase of Theocritus' two idylls."{{sfn|Newlands|2015|p=77}}}} it is complicated by the introduction of Acis, who has now become the focus of Galatea's love.
{{poemquote|While I pursued him with a constant love,
the Cyclops followed me as constantly.
And, should you ask me, I could not declare
whether my hatred of him, or my love
of Acis was the stronger. —They were equal.{{ref|Ovid|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.755–759]}}}}

There is also a reversion to the Homeric vision of the hulking monster, whose attempt to play the tender shepherd singing love songs is made a source of humour by Galatea:
{{poemquote|Now, Polyphemus, wretched Cyclops, you
are careful of appearance, and you try
the art of pleasing. You have even combed
your stiffened hair with rakes: it pleases you
to trim your shaggy beard with a reaping hook.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.764–766]}}}}
In his own character, too, Polyphemus mentions the transgression of heavenly laws that once characterised his actions and is now overcome by Galatea: "I, who scorn Jove and his heaven and his piercing lightning bolt, submit to you alone."{{sfn|Ovid|2000b|loc=[http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph13.htm#486898055 lines 860ff]}}

Galatea listens to the love song of Polyphemus while she and Acis lie hidden by a rock.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:13.750-13.897 13.778–788]}} In his song, Polyphemus scolds her for not loving him in return, offers her rustic gifts and points out what he considers his best feature — the single eye that is, he boasts, the size of a great shield.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.789–869]}} But when Polyphemus discovers the hiding place of the lovers, he becomes enraged with jealousy. Galatea, terrified, dives into the ocean, while the Cyclops wrenches off a piece of the mountain and crushes Acis with it.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.870–884]}} But on her return, Galatea changes her dead lover into the spirit of the Sicilian river Acis.{{sfn|Ovid|1922|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=13:card=750 13.885–897]}}

[[File:Affreschi romani - polifemo galatea - pompei.JPG|thumb|upright=1.02|Polyphemus receives a love-letter from Galatea, a 1st-century AD fresco from Pompeii]]

====First-century AD art====
That the story sometimes had a more successful outcome for Polyphemus is also attested in the arts. In one of the murals rescued from the site of [[Pompeii]], Polyphemus is pictured seated on a rock with a [[cithara]] (rather than a syrinx) by his side, holding out a hand to receive a love letter from Galatea, which is carried by a winged [[Cupid]] riding on a dolphin.

In another fresco, also dating from the 1st century AD, the two stand locked in a naked embrace (see [[#Artistic depictions of Polyphemus|below]]). From their union came the ancestors of various wild and war-like races. According to some accounts, the [[Celts]] (Galati in Latin, Γάλλοi in Greek) were descended from their son Galatos,{{sfn|Rankin|2012|p=22}} while [[Appian]] credited them with three children, [[Celtus]], [[Illyrius]] and [[Galas]], from whom descend the [[Celts]], the [[Illyrians]] and the [[Gauls]] respectively.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Appian |translator1-first=Horace |translator1-last=White |title=The Illyrian Wars 1 |url=https://www.livius.org/sources/content/appian/appian-the-illyrian-wars/appian-the-illyrian-wars-1 |website=Livius |access-date=11 March 2020 |date=4 May 2019}}</ref>

====Lucian====
[[File:Cyclops Polyphemus & Galatea Family Tree (Greek Mythology) (English).jpg|thumb|left|250px|Offspring of Polyphemus and Galatea]]

There are indications that Polyphemus' courtship also had a more successful outcome in one of the dialogues of [[Lucian]] of Samosata. There Doris, one of Galatea's sisters, spitefully congratulates her on her love conquest and she defends Polyphemus. From the conversation, one understands that Doris is chiefly jealous that her sister has a lover. Galatea admits that she does not love Polyphemus but is pleased to have been chosen by him in preference to all her companions.{{sfn|Lucian of Samosata|1820|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FzVAAAAAYAAJ&q=Galatea pp. 338–40]}}

====Nonnus====
That their conjunction was fruitful is also implied in a later Greek epic from the turn of the 5th century AD. In the course of his ''[[Dionysiaca]]'', [[Nonnus]] gives an account of the wedding of [[Poseidon]] and Beroe, at which the [[Nereid]] "Galatea twangled a marriage dance and restlessly twirled in capering step, and she sang the marriage verses, for she had learnt well how to sing, being taught by Polyphemos with a shepherd's [[syrinx (instrument)|syrinx]]."{{sfn|Nonnus of Panopolis|1940|loc=[https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/292/mode/2up 43.390–393]}}