Cyclops (play)
| Cyclops | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Euripides |
| Chorus | Satyrs |
| Characters |
Silenus Odysseus The Cyclops |
| Mute | Companions of Odysseus |
| Place premiered | Athens |
| Original language | Ancient Greek |
| Genre | Satyr play |
Cyclops (Ancient Greek: Κύκλωψ, Kyklōps) is an ancient Greek satyr play by Euripides. This satyr play would be the fourth part of the Euripides’ tetralogy, performed for the dramatic festival of 5th Century B.C. Athens. A satyr play was a story usually taken from epic poetry or mythology, and then adorned with a chorus of satyrs.
The satyrs, are weak and useless when it comes to confronting the Cyclops; the satyrs are indeed willing to let other more heroic characters rush into danger. However the satyrs seem to offer magical powers in their music: After they sing of a burning branch moving on its own and blinding the giant, the giant is immediately blinded by a burning branch. Though it happens off-stage and seems to have been brought about by Odysseus.
The Cyclops is considered cannibalistic in that he includes humans in his diet, but there is a distinction: He will not eat satyrs or his fellow cyclops.
This play offers an eccentric view of a mix of worlds: It is contemporary, Homeric, and fantastical. It joins the ribald aspects of a satyr play, with a setting that is contemporary to it’s fifth-century audience. It mixes the myth of Dionysus’s capture by satyrs, with the well known episode of Polyphemus, the cannibal cyclops found in the Odyssey.
The island of Sicily is the setting and is mentioned often. At the time this play was performed, Sicily was considered home to a sophisticated Hellenistic culture, but it also was seen as a place that contained Greek and non-Greek. In this play it is portrayed as a barbaric place that is hostile to both man’s laws and religion.
Cyclops is a comical burlesque-like play on a story that occurs in book nine of Homer's Odyssey. In several elements it is faithful to Homer’s tale: The shipwreck, the goatskin of Maron’s wine, the blinding of the monocular giant, and the pun on the word “Nobody”, all occur in Euripides’ play and also in Homer’s Odyssey.
Cyclops is the only complete satyr play that has survived, due to continuous copying through the ages. Sizable fragments of other satyr plays have been discovered, like Sophocles’ Trackers and Aeschylus’ Net-fishers.Cyclops is found in two manuscripts: The Codex Laurentianus, or Florentinus, xxxii. 2. It appears to have been written out the fourteenth century in a number of different handwriting styles. It is kept in the Laurentian Library at Florence, Italy. The second manuscript is the Codex Palantinus 287, thought to be from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. It is kept in the Vatican Library.
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