Cyclops

Cyclops (pronounced sahy-klops)

(1) In Greek Mythology, a member of a family of giants having a single round eye in the middle of the forehead.  They forged thunderbolts for Zeus, built the walls of Mycenae and were encountered by Odysseus in The Odyssey.

(2) A freshwater copepod of the genus Cyclops, having a median eye in the front of the head (used with lower-case).

(3) A nickname (the literal translation of Antigonos ho Monophthalmos (382-301 BC) (Ἀντίγονος ὁ Μονόφθαλμος) being “Antigonus the one-eyed”) for Antigononso, a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great.

(4) A slang term for the brief (1940s-1950s) fashion for cars having a third, central headlamp.

1510s: From the Latin Cyclōps, from the Ancient Greek Kýklōps (round-eye), the construct being kýklo(s) (a circle, round) + ṓps (eye); the similar Latin construction was kuklos (circle; circular body) + ōps (eye).  The Greek and Latin forms for “round” were both from the primitive Indo-European root kwel (revolve, move around) while the words meaning “eye” were from the primitive Indo-European root okw (“to see”).  Among classics scholars, there is a faction which suggests the word is derived from an older source which originally meant “sheep thief.”  Both etymologies describe the Cyclopes suspiciously well and it’s not impossible the very name of the Cyclopes may have influenced and even distorted their original portrayal.

The adjectives cyclopean & cyclopic (of or characteristic of the legendary Cyclopes of Greek mythology) were from the 1640s and came to be applied in architecture and engineering to designs with a centrally located lamp or light although it was for a time in the nineteenth century used also to refer to vast or fabled gigantic structures of ancient masonry, irregular or unhewn, associated with the legends of the works created by the Thracian race of giants.  The plural form of cyclops has long caused disputes in English and modern style guides recommend using cyclops as both singular & plural.  Pendants of course ignore this and, depending on inclination make a point of using the unfortunate cyclopses but those who really want to display their learning will double down by using Cyclō’pes if writing of the creatures of the myths and cyclopes for all other purposes.

The so-called cyclopes cars were those (produced mostly in the late 1940s & early 1950s) with a centrally mounted headlamp, one of the many styling fads which flourished briefly.  Aesthetically, it didn’t work as well as the various arrangements with four headlamps and probably for that reason it’s never attracted designers looking for a retro-project.  On the 1948 Tucker 48 (Torpedo), the cyclopes light was connected to the steering a turned as the front wheels changed direction, an idea seen on the Cord L-29 as early as 1929 and which would be revived by Citroën in 1967 when the DS (1955-1975) was updated.

The Legend of the Cyclopes

The Cyclopes (the more familiar Cyclops is the singular) were gigantic, one-eyed beings with enormous strength. Originally, there were three of them: Arges (Thunderer), Steropes (Lightner), and Brontes (Vivid); blacksmiths the sons of Uranus and Gaea and the brothers of the Hecatoncheires and the Titans.  They were imprisoned by Cronus but released by his son Zeus, for whom they forged his famous thunderbolt as a sign of gratitude. However, later, poets would speak of a different type of Cyclopes, a race of dim-witted and violent one-eyed shepherds dwelling in the caves of the island of Sicily, the most famous of whom was Polyphemus, the Cyclops who fell in love with Galatea and was eventually blinded by Odysseus.

Rover 75 (P4) 1949-1953 (left) & 1950 JET 1 gas turbine test bed.  The P4 in various versions was produced 1949-1964 but only the original 75 and the gas turbine test car were fitted with the cyclops headlamp.

Hesiod: Cronus and the Cyclopes

Fragment of wall painting in the ruins of Pompeii depicting the Cyclop Polyphemus and the Nymph.

Incited by his mother Gaea, the youngest of the Titans, Cronus, castrated and overthrew his father Uranus, establishing himself as the supreme ruler of all gods.  Fearing the might of his brothers, he imprisoned both the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires in Tartarus, setting the dragoness Campe to guard them for all eternity.  Terrified of his children as well, Cronus tried devouring each of them as soon as they were born.  There were various tellings of the Hesiodic legend but what is common to all is that there were three Cyclopes of the race of Titans, sons of Uranus and Ge, who forged the thunderbolts of Zeus, Pluto's helmet, and Poseidon's trident, and were considered the primeval patrons of all smiths. Their workshops were afterward said to be under Mount Etna.

Zeus, the Cyclopes, and the Titanomachy

Polypheme (circa 1880) by Gustave Moreau (1826-1898).

In time however, the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires were released from Tartarus by the only one of Cronus’ children not to be eaten by him at birth: Zeus.  Zeus did this at the advice of Gaea, who had informed him that he wouldn’t be able to depose Cronus without their help.  True to Gaea’s words, the Cyclopes played a crucial part during the Titanomachy.  Not only did they side with Zeus in his war against the Titans, but they also forged Zeus’ mighty thunderbolt, along with a trident for Poseidon and a helmet of invisibility for Hades.  With the help of these weapons, Zeus and his party emerged triumphant from the Titanomachy, banishing the Titans to Tartarus once and for all.

The Works of the Cyclopes

Now that Zeus had become the ruler of the world, the Cyclopes could dedicate themselves fully to their talents.  They installed themselves in the forges of the divine artificer Hephaestus (under the volcanic Mount Etna in Sicily), and, under his direction, they went on forging Zeus’ thunderbolts in addition to fashioning pieces of some of the other gods’ equipment (Athena’s armor, Ares’ chariot).  The Cyclopes were also believed to have built numerous monumental works all around Greece and Italy. Among the famous buildings attributed to them were the immense walls of Tiryns and the Lion Gate at Mycenae.

Death of the Cyclopes

It seems all three of these original Cyclopes met an untimely death at the hands of the Olympians.  First Arges was killed by Hermes while guarding Io against the lust of Zeus; then Apollo killed both Steropes and Brontes in an act of vengeance for the death of his beloved son, Asclepius.  In truth, the Cyclopes had nothing to do with his death, other than forging the thunderbolt which Zeus hurled in the direction of Asclepius.  But, obviously enough, Apollo couldn’t exact his revenge on Zeus himself, so Steropes and Brontes had to suffer his wrath in Zeus’ stead.

1948 Tucker 48 (Torpedo) (left), 1938 Tatra 87 (1936-1950) (centre) & 1951 Maserati A6G2000 Spider by Frua (right).

Homer’s Cyclopes

Homer’s Cyclopes were a race of unintelligent, ferocious (and not infrequently cannibalistic shepherds living on the island of Sicily (that’s not undisputed but it’s what’s inferred from the Odyssey and the later works it inspired). The most famous among them was their chief, Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and the nymph Thoosa, and he had a famous encounter with Odysseus.

Portrayal

Cyclope (1924) by Francis Picabia (1879–1953).

Even though they also had only one eye and were as gigantic as Hesiod’s Cyclopes, Homer’s Cyclopes were neither blacksmiths nor obedient. Usually portrayed as violent cannibals, they led an unruly life, possessing neither social manners nor fear for the gods.  The chief representative of Homer’s Cyclopes was the man-eating monster Polyphemus, described by Homer as having been blinded and outwitted by Odysseus. Later authors make him a would-be lover of the nymph Galatea.  Predictably, it was the Nymph who attracted so many painters from the late Medieval period until well into the nineteenth century.

Polyphemus and Galatea

Long before being blinded by Odysseus, Polyphemus had fallen in love with a beautiful nymph called Galatea.  However, as it may be supposed, his actions were neither graceful nor acceptable to the fair maiden, who rejected them in favour of a youth named Acis, the handsome son of Faunus and the river-nymph Symaethis. Polyphemus, enraged and with his usual barbarity, killed his rival by throwing upon him a gigantic rock.  The blood of the murdered Acis, gushing from the rock, formed a stream which bears his name to this very day.

Polyphemus and Odysseus

Upon landing on the island of the Cyclopes, Odysseus and his sailors found themselves entrapped in the cave of Polyphemus.  The Cyclops ate six of Odysseus’ men, and Odysseus had no option but to devise a quick escape plan.  So, one night, he intoxicated Polyphemus and pierced his eye with a wooden stake; the next morning, he told his men to hide under the bellies of Polyphemus’ sheep, and thus he managed to smuggle them out of the cave. It was because of this act that Poseidon, Polyphemus’ father, held a decade-long grudge against Odysseus, keeping him away from Ithaca and his beloved wife, Penelope.

1951 ZIL-112 Cyklon (experimental Russian car) (left), 1953 Ferrari 166MM/53 Spider by Abarth (centre) & 1958 Volkswagen Microbus (Type 2) with after-market central headlamp.

The texts

Odysseus in the Cave of Polyphemus (1635) by Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (1593–1678).

Hesiod’s Cyclopes are first described in the Theogony where their role in the Titanomachy is also briefly related.  Homer’s Cyclopes and the encounter between Polyphemus and Odysseus is told in full in the ninth book of the Odyssey. In the Aeneid, Virgil describes beautifully the Cyclopes’ workshop, and Euripides has written a whole comedy about the unruly Cyclopes (the only complete satyr play to have survived).

The Rolex Cyclops

Lindsay Lohan with Rolex Datejust; note the blue eyes.

Rolex regard their Cyclops date window magnifier as among the most iconic and quintessential of their design language characteristics although it began as just another example of normal product development, an innovation which enhanced the functionality of an earlier innovation, the realization the date aperture window could be hard to see and adding a 2.5 times magnifier to the crystal would make it much easier to read.  Introduced in 1945, the Rolex Datejust was the first wristwatch to feature a date aperture window complication and included also the Jubilee bracelet so named because it marked the company’s 40th year in business, the model also the Rolex to feature solid end-links although Datejust didn’t at first appear as a dial designation.  The feature was appreciated but the scale was, of necessity, small and for anyone with less than perfect eyesight, it could be a challenge to distinguish numerals; a 23 from a 28 for example.  The solution was simple but inspired, the “Cyclops” magnifier lens appearing on a new Datejust model, released at the 1948 Basel Fair, the name a borrowing from the one-eyed monster from Classical mythology.

Anatomy of the Rolex Cyclops magnifier lens.    

According to the official company history, it was the Rolex founder himself, Hans Wilsdorf (1881–1960), who developed the Cyclops because his second wife, Betty Wilsdorf-Mettler (1902-1989), found the small numerals “too hard to read”.  That may be true but Herr Wilsdorf was famously adept at marketing and may not have been adding his own myth to the one he’d borrowed from Antiquity.  If so, he certainly embellished the tale as imaginatively as the medieval scribes who invented their own stories about the ancient gods, the story being the solution presented itself one morning in his bathroom when a drop of water landed on his Rolex Datejust crystal directly over the date aperture window and he noticed it magnified the date.  Shouting “I got it, I got it!!!” to his wife, that day he had one of his craftsmen glue a tiny magnifying glass over the date wheel, and with that single prototype, the Rolex Cyclops Date window magnifier was created and almost as soon as patent application CH 298953 was granted, it was followed by a cautionary press release: “To all watchmakers: we draw your attention to the fact that the watch crystal with the specially shaped magnifying glass lens is a Rolex exclusivity protected in Switzerland and abroad. We will not hesitate to instigate legal proceedings against any counterfeiting.”  Proving that celebrity product placement is nothing new, Rolex had in 1948 presented Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969; US president 1953-1961 and then US Army Chief of Staff) with the 150^th officially certified Swiss Chronometer and when it was returned to the then president in 1953 after being serviced, it had been fitted with both an updated dial and a Cyclops magnifier window.

Patent 298953, 2 August 1954.

Structurally, there have been changes as improvements in materials have made new engineering possible.  Vintage Rolex crystals were fashioned from an acrylic with the Cyclops lens molded into the form, rendering it thus unmovable but when the company switched to a synthetic sapphire crystal, the Cylops lens could be manufactured separately and then attached with a “space-age” glue, the last notable refinement being the addition of an anti-reflective coating on the bottom surface, making it visible under a wider range of lighting.  The Cyclops is now fitted almost universally to Rolex professional watches with a date aperture window, the only exception being the Deep Sea See-Dweller.