Who is the father of the Cyclops Polyphemus?

Poseidon is the father of the Cyclops Polyphemus. In Homer’s Odyssey, Polyphemus is the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the sea nymph Thoosa.

Odysseus and his crew encounter Polyphemus after reaching the land of the Cyclopes. The giant traps them in his cave and eats several of the sailors. Odysseus eventually blinds him with a sharpened stake after getting him drunk on undiluted wine.

To escape, Odysseus tells the giant that his name is “Nobody.” When Polyphemus cries out that nobody is harming him, the other Cyclopes fail to intervene. Once outside, however, Odysseus proudly reveals his real name.

That boast lets Polyphemus identify his attacker and pray to Poseidon for revenge. The sea god then becomes Odysseus’s chief divine enemy, helping explain the storms and delays that plague the hero’s voyage home. Polyphemus is not one of the primordial Cyclopes born to Uranus and Gaia; he belongs to a later race of one-eyed giants.