Polyphemus is the gas giant orbited by Pandora in Avatar’s fictional star system.
In James Cameron’s 2009 film, Pandora is not a planet but a moon located in the Alpha Centauri system. It circles Polyphemus, a large fictional gas giant. This astronomical arrangement helps establish Pandora as an alien world while allowing the film to give it an Earthlike environment with a dense atmosphere, forests, oceans, and complex life.
The name Polyphemus comes from Greek mythology, where Polyphemus is the Cyclops encountered by Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. Avatar therefore combines names from different mythological traditions: Pandora comes from the Greek story of the first woman and her container, while Polyphemus comes from the Odyssey.
Pandora’s moon status is often overlooked because characters and promotional materials call it a world. The distinction is clear in the film’s setting: Pandora is a satellite, and Polyphemus is the larger body it orbits.