Abstract:
Polyphemus has piqued my interest since I first read Theocritus’ Idyll 11. His characterisation was completely unexpected to me because I was so familiar with the Polyphemus of Homer’s Odyssey. It is befuddling that the same cyclops who killed and ate the companions of Odysseus was also featured in the romantic idylls of Theocritus falling in love with a sea-nymph. After further investigation, it became apparent the cyclops Polyphemus had incredible reach in classical literature; he was showing up everywhere and in each new appearance his character was different. The intention of this thesis is to analyse Polyphemus’ characterisation across a variety of texts and investigate the way in which his portrayal has both been informed by the expectations of the literary genres, and developed over time through intertextuality with earlier works. Five classical poems will be considered: Homer’s Odyssey, Theocritus’ Idyll 6 and 11, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Each of these poems is made up complex narrative layers and Polyphemus himself is only ever met through internal narrator-focalisers, which affects his portrayal and our reception of him. While many scholars have discussed Polyphemus’ portrayal in these texts individually, there is no scholarship that has comprehensively analysed these depictions of his character in light of this narratological framework. Through a narratological methodology and a close reading of these texts to navigate the complex narrative layers, this thesis presents a complete picture of Polyphemus that accounts for this narratological framework, and so explores the way in which the cyclops achieved unusual literary reach due to the generically diverse applications of his character.