Who are the cyclops? The meaning of the word and the myth of cyclops

Greek mythology is not a set of fairy tales about the adventures of gods and heroes. Ancient man comprehended the world not as modern. His thinking was more imaginative than logical. The forces of nature were humanized and thus let into the world of people. And the myth of cyclops is, if expressed in a modern, multi-series.

Worldview Mets

Their story begins with the moment when the gods of the Olympians, having defeated the hundred armies of the giants, gathered to share power and worlds among themselves. There were three brothers: the elder Poseidon, the middle Hades and the youngest Zeus. In the battle all of them showed themselves worthy and did not yield to each other. And here (an interesting detail) come to the forefront of the moral qualities of the three brothers. The smaller gods and petty gods did not want to see neither the gloomy Hades, nor the formidable and impatient Poseidon, as the ruler of the heavens. According to the rules of inheritance by heaven, Poseidon should rule, but other immortals also had a voice.

Cyclopean values and Cyclops

He harbored Poseidon's insult and took some actions to overthrow his younger brother, namely, he went and married with the wife of Kronos and the mother of everything. It was an act of presenting their rights to supreme power among the gods. Subtlety - nothing like Zeus did. His power was held not only by his power, but also by agreement with all the subordinate gods. While Poseidon raped the mother of all things, Zeus, along with the rest, arranged the world. He, among other things, helped Titus Prometheus create people. And then came the time when Gaia began to give birth to the heirs of Poseidon - huge, ugly and one-eyed. That's the first answer to the question of who the cyclops are.

Without embellishment

Poseidon joyful rushed to the island of the Cyclops to go with them to Olympus and change, in his opinion, a usurper. And if it does not work out peace, then topple it. And they walked a beautiful, freshly created world. And he saw harmonious people, saw the grazing horses, oak groves, full of coolness and bliss. And he was ashamed of the ugliness of his children. The smaller gods did not dare openly laugh at Zeus's older brother, but behind him Poseidon heard laughter. And he refused from his claims, because he understood the power of Zeus as ruler in the beauty of the created world. And he returned his children to their island, and he plunged into the depths of the ocean to surpass his younger brother in creativity.

Almost the gods

Modern population does not fully understand the very meaning of the word "cyclops". People simply departed from nature and perceive the myth as an entertaining story, in which there is one irresistible fantasy, and nothing more. But over the dwellings of ancient people, over their herds and fields "round-eyed" (translation from Greek, the direct meaning of the word "Cyclops") passed with heavy thunderclouds, in which lightning flashed and thunder rattled. These mighty titans and their younger ones either play or fight among themselves. These forces of nature, be they not restrained by the gods, would stop human life on Earth. They can not create. They can only be violent.

Cyclops symbolize the extreme form of the irrationality of forces, which many times surpass the conceivable limits of man's realization of power as such. And this, if we shift mythology to the modern logical language of science, is really so. For one year, thunderstorms in the middle latitudes of the planet Earth on electric discharges alone expend more energy than all mankind has spent in the last 100 years.

Pedigree

But some of the titans took the path of humanization and therefore become, like humans, gods. After all, the very word "god" has a common genealogy with the word "to be." Prometheus was that. He understands who the Cyclops are, and moves away from his close relatives, becomes a teacher of people. Prometheus is no longer an inert force and is like a god. Zeus punishes him with envy and is completely different from other mega-giants. He, immortal, is lifted to the rock and chained. And his liver bites the eagle, but it is restored in a night, so that the agony lasts forever. But a man comes, the son of Zeus and mortal, and liberates him. Later, Hercules was lifted up on a golden chariot, to Olympus, where he sat down at the feast table with the gods.

That's how ancient people understood their existence on Earth. There is no death. And there is a stagnation that every person can conquer in himself and become a god. Therefore, the principle - know yourself.

Homer describes the copper age

Two centuries passed - gold and silver. People became powerful, but the balance in their nature was disturbed. Heroism has become a priority of their existence. They began to measure themselves with incredible enthusiasm. They, mortals, challenge even the gods. The shallow river god prays for the mercy of Achilles, the goddesses of a higher rank, ask Paris to resolve the dispute that arose between them, Ajax throws a defiant challenge to Poseidon himself, who tames the titan named Ocean and dominates him.

If we understand the meaning of the word "Cyclops" as the ancients understood it, then it becomes clear what a great difference between the hero and the person. The heroes fell into the cyclops, not the people. And Odysseus is the most powerful of those heroes. His mortal nature does not prohibit him from feeling unequal to the gods. Opportunities Odysseus is not commensurately smaller than that of the same Poseidon, but their souls are equal. And they argue with each other as equals.

It is noteworthy how Homer draws Cyclops Polyphemus. After all, he is not just a monster, but the son of Poseidon, exactly with whom the hero Odysseus is arguing. The incredible bodily power is inferior to the human, but also the truly divine qualities possessed by the hero's soul. And cunning is not the most important of them. The flexibility of the creative mind is what distinguishes Odysseus from the inert forces of nature.

The divine beginning or the personification of insane stagnancy

Impossible to imagine, and Homer and does not give any hints that the Cyclops Polyphemus, the personification of insane stagnancy, something he could learn. In it, this divine principle is simply absent. The guests who came back from the ten-year war came, the glory of which is rolling around the world. But he's just not interested. He recalls Odysseus about the law of hospitality. "We tell you a lot of things," says the hero. But the Cyclops are only interested in meat, which has become stuck in his dwelling. And the hero punishes the madman.

"No one! No one has offended me! "Polyphem screams to the entire ocean, and his relatives do not understand him and leave him alone, leaving him alone with the disaster. And Odysseus begins to mock him. And a blind fury builds the sea. But even Poseidon did not respond to the call of an ugly son. The law of hospitality, the law of striving for knowledge and development - the divine law. And the ruler of the Ocean recognizes the justice of the hero's victory.

Are modern people able to create their own?

This is a very important issue. To understand who such titans and who are such cyclops are far from easy, but necessary for modern people, if they really believe in their own immortality. With all its immense power, the inert forces of nature can never become gods. They do not have a creative beginning. And in people, at least in many, it is. Strive for power, forgetting who the Cyclops are, this means turning into cyclops.

The powerful forces of nuclear and thermonuclear secrets only seem to be subject to man. Really they are able to curb the creative, divine beginning. But in a different way - a dead end, in which they do not respect the laws of hospitality, do not honor justice, do not like truth and rightness. In such a world can only be cyclops, not heroes. Heroes waiting for Olympus, cyclops - punishment.