Cyclopes
One-eyed, huge monsters whose name means "circle-eye".
The Cyclopes were careless and lived in the Phlegraen Fields near Naples, where Odysseus came across them on his journey. In a different myth, some of the children of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Sea) included three, one-eyed giants named Arges (Bright), Brontes (Thunderer) and Steropes (Lightning-maker). Uranus was afraid of being overthrown, so he held them captive. It was said that the giants were either kept in Tartarus, or hidden in Mount Etna where their screams caused volcanic eruptions. Gaia retaliated against her husband by sending her son Cronus to depose him. Cronus let the giants roam free until he felt unsafe and threw them back into Tartarus. Cronus' youngest son Zeus killed him in the Titanomachy (war of the Titans) that lasted a decade. The Cyclopes were freed. In appreciation, they chose to become his servants and made lightning bolts for him, a trident for his brother Poseidon, and an invisibility cap for his son, Perseus. They also made a silver bow and arrows for Artemis, the huntress. In exchange, she let them eat the corpses of her victims. The Romans' believed that the Cyclopes worked as smiths with Vulcan, at his forge in Mount Etna.