This is probably one of the most iconic and recognizable characters in the entire Greek mythology.

By Giorgio Pintzas Monzani

A creature as feared and hated in the ancient texts and legends of our ancestors as it is loved by today's readers.

One eye, a monstrously huge stature, and the blood of the primordial gods.

The Cyclopes, children of Uranus and Gaea, heaven and earth, were according to mythology among the earliest inhabitants of our planet, and they were always depicted as gigantic figures, but nevertheless skilled craftsmen and magnificent iron workers.

Also always according to mythology it was they who built the lightning and thunder with which Zeus fought in the Titanomachy, the widely narrated war between the gods and the Titans.

But so where does this image of the Cyclops as uncouth, cannibalistic beings come from?

Exactly from Homer, who in his narrative primarily focused on giving credit to the figure of Odysseus, decided to describe them as such.

Again Homer no longer refers to them as children of Uranus and Gaea, but of Poseidon, seeking to diminish them further through their lesser connection to the primordial deities.

Polyphemus, the best-known of the Cyclopes

Polyphemus is first introduced by Homer in the Odyssey, remaining the only Cyclop described and named within the work:

"an immense man, who pastured his flocks alone, far away; he was not with others, but lived apart, as an ungodly man. And he was an immense monster, resembling not a man who eats bread, but the wild peak of lofty mountains, appearing isolated from the others. "

Odyssey, Book IX 

Within Book IX, Homer introduces us to the creature that will give Odysseus so much trouble, killing many of his companions and branding his journey with a curse that will not let him return home for many years to come.

Today, however, we will not look at the affair between the Greek hero and the cyclops, but rather at the creature's reputation in ancient times as a cheesemaker, and its production of cheese.

The milk production of Polyphemus' cattle

The giant, as described to us by the poet therefore, made milk and cheese production his sole occupation.

According to Homer, Polyphemus had both sheep and goats with him, which he kept safely in his cave inside fences.

The first astounding evidence of the dairy skills of Poseidon's son comes with a description of the organization of such spaces within the cave:

"pens of lambs and kids were crammed in: each group was enclosed separately, on one side the older ones, on one side the middles, on another the infants."

Odyssey, Book IX 

Thus, it can be seen that this was not a simple survival instinct of an evil and primordial creature, but an organization worthy of the best dairyman, proof of the "nobility" of his production skills.

As far as reported in the poem, the only nourishment of the sheep was grazing, since according to the testimony of Odysseus, inside the cave of Polyphemus he found no storage of food for the animals, except wood to produce fire and equipment for the collection of milk and the production of cheese.

Let us therefore focus on the latter, and see how Odysseus in the time spent in the Cyclops' cave, articulately describes the monster's method of cheese production.

The cheese of Polyphemus

The one-eyed giant used a very specific technique for the production of his cheese.

According to Odysseus' account, in fact, the shepherd milked his cattle twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.

The first milking had the sole purpose of procuring milk for his own survival, while the second milking, following grazing, was also partly devoted to cheese production.

Some of the milk retrieved in the evening, therefore, was left to curdle and later laid in "woven baskets": a technique that once again gives us an insight into the giant's profound knowledge, both on the production of rennet and on the choice of milk, that is, after and not before grazing.

In the Homeric work, no reference is made to the use of heat in the production of cheese, despite the above, leaving us to think of a smoking technique, thanks to the presence of dry olive tree trunks and branches in the cave: a technique already used in antiquity but which at first glance might seem unlikely to be implemented by a monstrous creature as in our case: but actually...

Moreover, in verse .219 Ulysses refers to the presence of "grates" filled with cheese, which makes us understand that in addition to a smoking process, ripening also played a central role in Polyphemus' dairy processes.

We can therefore speculate that it came to have a semi-hard cheese, a cheese ideal for grating, a kind of today's Pecorino.

In fact, it is known that the use of grated cheese was largely greater in the Mediterranean than in other types.

Suffice it to say that it was also added to wine-based drinks, most famously Kykeon (wine mixed with barley flour and goat or sheep cheese) with healing and sometimes even psychedelic properties. 

History and myth

So let us see how through a tale, filled with fantastic and invented elements, Homer gives us real historical accounts of what were the milking and cheese-making processes of his time, a period estimated between the 11th and 12th centuries BC.

If we are to draw a theory from this account, however, we must dwell on the name of the protagonist of it.

Polyphemus

A name, per appositely Greek, which by analyzing its etymological nature carries with it a double meaning.

Πολυφημος (polì-fimos), is derived from two words, namely Πολυ(much) and Φημη(word/discussion): whether it was therefore a simple reference to his characteristic of being a talker, thus "talking a lot"?

Or does it describe to us a "very famous" personage who was much discussed in antiquity.

Of course, to us today we are left only with the hypothesis, but what if this chant concealed a tribute to the best cheesemaker in the Mediterranean, and to his famous cheeses, praised and sought after by all peoples?

If we want to find yet another credence to this theory, we only need to look at verses 245, 309 and 342 of book IX which Ulysses, describing Polyphemus' working acts, always repeats "everything just right": a tribute to his great work?

Who knows.

The fact is that we are what we... used to eat.

Author:

Giorgio Pintzas Monzani is a Greek-Italian chef, writer and consultant who lives in Milan. His Instagram page can be found here