Cyclops is an Ancient Greek play written and directed by the Athenian playwright Euripides in the 5th century B.C. (the exact date it was first produced is unknown, with scholarly estimates range from putting it as one of Euripides' earliest surviving plays to being written very late in his career). It is notable for being the only complete Satyr Play to survive into the modern day, and as such informs and shapes our perception of the genre to a disproportionate level. note As a Satyr Play, it replaced the traditional chorus of old men or young women with a group of satyrs: rowdy, excitable goatmen known for their drunkeness and promiscuity. Satyr Play occupies a strange space between Ancient Comedy and Tragedy, tragic in its themes of heroes and monsters and grandiose mythology, comic in its lighthearted treatment of heroic figures and the cheekiness of its uncontrollable chorus.
This play is a retelling of the well-known encounter between Odysseus and the cyclops Polyphemus as described in Book IX of The Odyssey, with a band of satyrs and their lecherous father Silenus thrown into the story. Besides the aforementioned addition; the play is largely faithful to Homer's version of the story, surprisingly for Euripides. Odysseus and his men land on the island of Sicily on their way home to Ithaca, desperate for food and water. They encounter a group of satyrs taken captive by the dreaded Cyclops Polyphemus, who agree to barter with them for their master's meat and cheese in exchange for Odysseus' magical refilling wineskin. Unfortunately, all hell breaks loose when Polyphemus returns to his cave to find the transaction of his goods underway, and decides to repay the attempted theft by butchering and eating Odysseus and his men. Odysseus quickly improvises an escape plan involving getting the Cyclops drunk and gouging out his eye to make their escape, but not before his pride gets the better of him in their parting words...
Besides being the only complete Satyr Play, this drama is notable for being the only surviving Euripides play not to feature any female characters, having the fewest number of speaking parts of any surviving Greek Drama, as well as being the shortest complete ancient drama on record; clocking in at 709 lines in the Greek. note
This play provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Bi: Polyphemus, of all people. He starts singing about getting together with beautiful nymphs and hot goddesses while drunk, but then gets so far hammered he starts mistaking Silenus for Ganymede and even flat out says "I prefer boys over girls" at one point.
- Amusing Injuries: The Satyrs have quite a few laughs at the Polyphemus' expense while he stumbles around blind, banging his head against rocks.
- Black Comedy: So, so much. Everything from cannibalism to bodily mutilation and drunken orgies is ripe comedy material in this play. In fact...
- Black Comedy Rape: Between a cyclops and a satyr nonetheless!
- Bowdlerize: What can be done, anyway; some translations phrase things so that the satyrs aren't talking about gang-raping Helen.
- Cycle of Revenge: With a dash of disproportionate retribution in this play. Polyphemus catches Odysseus' men trying to "steal" his goods (actually, he did pay for them, just not to their owner), so he decides to kill and eat them all. This prompts Odysseus to get the Cyclops drunk and gouge out his eye, which prompts the Cyclops to call down a curse on Odysseus and his men to get most of them killed...
- Dirty Coward: The chorus of young satyrs embodies this trope pretty well; but they're at least presented in a somewhat positive and redeemable light and show fleeting moments of defiance against their father and even Polyphemus, once he goes blind. Silenus, on the other hand, is this through and through.
- Dirty Old Man: As a satyr, and an old one at that, this is practically built into Silenus' character.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Polyphemus in the play directions and throughout most of the dialogue is simply referred to as "the Cyclops", although his actual name is mentioned a few times early on.
- Eye Scream: Polyphemus' fate. The Satyr's songs about the Cyclops' eye being melted, scorched and scraped out are quite graphic.
- Guile Hero: It is Odysseus, after all.
- Gorn: Odysseus' description of the inside of Polyphemus' cave and how his men were butchered and eaten.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Cyclops, of course.
- Mood Whiplash: After Odysseus' and Polyphemus' heated debate over the merits of morality opposed to brute force, which culminates in the men being literally forced into the cave to be slaughtered and eaten amid Odysseus' cries for deliverance to the gods, we get a rather cheeky song from the Satyr Chorus describing the Cyclops cooking up his guests and telling him to keep his feast to himself.
- No Indoor Voice: The Satyr Chorus has to be told several times to shut up and quit loudly singing about their plan to blind the Cyclops.
- Opening Monologue: Silenus delivers one explaining how he and his boys came to be enslaved by the Cyclops.
- Only Sane Man: Odysseus is normally portrayed as rational and calculating, but placed alongside to the uncontrollable and giddy satyrs, the sentimental and shifty Silenus, and the bombastic, man-eating Cyclops, he quickly becomes the only character with a brain.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Odysseus eventually gets fed up with the satyrs' incompetence and cowardice.
- Token Human: Odysseus is the only human character with a speaking role, though his shipmates are alongside him as silent roles.
- Villain Love Song: Polyphemus interrupts the chorus' song at one point to belt out an extremely tipsy verse about how much he loves booze.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never hear from Silenus after he gets dragged into the cave by Polyphemus. It's anyone's guess what Euripides intended to happen to him.
- Who's on First?: The "I'm Nobody" trick Odysseus pulls, though this time it's the Satyrs who respond to the Cyclops instead of the other Cyclopes.
