Polyphemus

"I did it! I finally sank Nobody!"

- Polyphemus

Polyphemus (Πολύφημος in Ancient Greek) is a blind Cyclops, son of Poseidon and sea nymph Thoosa, who inhabits an island in the Sea of Monsters. He stole the Golden Fleece in order to make it easier for him to eat, meaning that the Golden Fleece has a natural-smelling scent (which gives off the same, if not extremely similar scent) of the nature god Pan. Pan disappeared centuries ago, until Percy, Grover, Nico, Rachel and Annabeth discovered him hidden in the Labyrinth. Satyrs would try to find Pan and since the Labyrinth blocked off any scent of Pan, the only thing giving off his scent would be the Golden Fleece. So satyrs searching for Pan would travel to Polyphemus' island, but instead they would be trapped there and be eaten by him.

History
Heather was a character in Homer's ''The Odyssey. ''When Odysseus stopped at the island of the cyclopes, he saw a cave and thought there might be food in it. He and some of his crew went to investigate. His sailors insisted on taking what was there and leaving, but Odysseus insisted on meeting the 'person' who owned it all, thinking he would present a challenge to them.

At sundown, Polyphemus let his sheep back into the cave before moving a massive stone to cover the door. When Odysseus and his men try offering him some of their food, he instead grabs two of the men, tears them apart, and eats them. He asks Odysseus what his name is, and the clever hero tells him his name is Nobdy (Nobody). Odysseus then gets Polyphemus drunk on wine and puts him to sleep.

While he slept, Odysseus and his remaining men took a large stick and sharpened the end of it (in some versions they charred it too), and stabbed it into Polyphemus' eye. The monster woke with a start and called for his brothers, but all he said was 'Nobdy has blinded me!', and so they thought he was merely stating the obvious and left him alone.

Later, when Polyphemus lets his sheep out to graze, he reaches down and feels around them to make sure Odysseus and his men aren't on their backs. However, Odysseus tied himself and his men to the sheep's undersides and were able to escape. As they left the island on their ship, Odysseus bragged to Polyphemus that he had escaped and in his boldness told the cyclops his real name. This allowed Polyphemus to ask to Poseidon to curse Odysseus, which served as yet another setback on his journey home.

Sometime after this, Polyphemus stole the Golden Fleece and hung it on a tree on his island (what happened to the other cyclopes on the island is unknown; it's possible they moved to different islands). Along with making his island a paradise, it lured satyrs there in search of Pan, the wild god, whom Polyphemus would simply eat.

The Sea of Monsters
A while after Grover Underwood, Percy's best friend and protector, left Camp Half-Blood to search for Pan, he caught the scent of the Golden Fleece like other satyrs had. Instead of falling into a trap, he was able to make it all the way back to Saint Agustine with Polyphemus on his trail. Percy saw all of this in a dream on his final day of school since Grover hastily made an empathy link between them, although he wasn't sure whether it had worked. He tried hiding in a bridal boutique while Polyphemus moved past, but the cyclops came back and found him, but thought he was a female cyclops because he was wearing a dress.

Later, in Percy's next dream, Grover is in a cave (Polyphemus' cave) and this time the two are able to communicate. Grover tells Percy that Polyphemus' blindness somewhat wore off; when he found Grover in the wedding dress, he thought he was a lady cyclopes and plans to marry him. Grover still needs to finish his dresses bridal train, and he is using this (along with Polyphemus' stupidity) as a distraction. He mentions to Percy that it was on the island and that it was what lured satyrs there, along with asking him to come save him before he meets his doom. The "it" Grover was talking about was the Golden Fleece, which Annabeth explained to Percy later.

That night (at camp) Percy explains to everyone that the Golden Fleece (along with Grover) is on Polyphemus' island and about how it may have the power needed to cure Thalia's tree, which was poisoned and was dying, along with the camp's magical borders. Tantalus agrees that they should try and retrieve the Fleece, however instead of sending Percy or Annabeth, he decides to send Clarisse LaRue, who defended the camp from two bronze bulls and won the chariot races earlier. Both Percy and Clarisse are stunned about the new activities director's choice.

Percy, Annabeth, and Percy's half-brother and cyclops Tyson sneak away from camp with the help of Hermes and, after some setbacks, meet up with Clarisse, who is on the quest alone and captain of the CSS Birmingham, an old Civil War ship that her father, Ares, summoned for her. Percy has more dreams of Grover and finally sees Polyphemus face-to-face, although the cyclops cannot see him since he's only there in a dream.

The CSS Birmingham eventually explodes while Tyson is trying to fix the overheating engine, and Percy and Annabeth escape (along with Clarisse, but she was in a different lifeboat and they didn't know it.) After meeting and almost getting killed by Circe and the Sirens (both of whom Odysseus encountered on his journey), they finally arrive on Polyphemus' island. They find that Clarisse already arrived here and was captured by Polyphemus and is about to be eaten by him for his wedding; however, she accidentally reveals Grover's true identity. Thus, Polyphemus decides to switch things around: Grover will be eaten for the wedding that will be held between Polyphemus and Clarisse at sundown (Percy couldn't decide which was more disgusting).

By riding on the underside of one of Polyphemus' sheep, Percy is able to make into the cyclops's cave where Grover and Clarisse are imprisoned (a reference to The Odyssey) while Annabeth taunts and distracts Polyphemus with her magical Yankees cap and going under the name of 'Nobody' (Another reference to The Odyssey). Percy manages to free them, but just after he does, he hears Annabeth scream.

Polyphemus caught her somehow (probably by throwing a rock at her), but Percy gets his attention to save her by taking the blame himself. He, Clarisse, Grover, and Annabeth escape across a bridge (seen on the cover of the book) and try to destroy it before Polyphemus makes it across, but he does make it anyway. He swats Grover and Clarisse aside but is overcome and knocked down but an enraged Percy.

Percy is urged by his friends to kill the monster, but then he recalls how Polyphemus is a son of Poseidon, just like Tyson and himself and how killing him would be like killing Tyson. Percy threatens that he will kill the cyclops if he gets up and starts to back away, but Polyphemus instead swats Percy back. However, just as he is about to kill and eat him, someone throws a rock into his mouth instead and the cyclops falls into a chasm. That 'someone' is revealed to be Tyson, who survived the explosion of the CSS Birmingham due to his immunity to fire and was pulled to the surface by Rainbow, a hippocampus that he befriended earlier.

Tyson entertain the carnivorous sheep as he is a cyclops, like Polyphemus, while the others run down into the water and begin swimming for the Queen Anne's Revenge (Blackbeard's ship, which Percy and Annabeth 'borrowed' from him on Circe's island.) However, Polyphemus, who somehow survived the fall, chases after them. While Clarisse, Grover, and Annabeth board the ship, Percy and Tyson fight their half-brother, and Polyphemus urges Tyson to stay with him and learn to be a 'real cyclops'. However, Tyson replies by saying, "You are not my kind," and continues helping Percy. They overcome him (again) but Percy still cannot kill him, and instead they merely leave him and keep swimming for the ship.

Just as it seems they are finally about to escape, Clarisse begins taunting Polyphemus from the ship (And yet another reference to The Odyssey.) Using the position of her voice as a guide, Polyphemus is able to throw a rock into the ship and sink it. Luckily, Percy and Tyson call up Rainbow and his friends to carry them away from the island. As they are moving away, Percy hears Polyphemus gloating about how he finally sank 'Nobody'. Percy hopes that he never finds out he's wrong.

With the disappearance of the Golden Fleece from Polyphemus' island, it likely went back to what it was before, although it should be noted that in The Odyssey, the island was never really described as ugly or desolate.

Appearance
When Percy first sees Polyphemus, he describes him as "huge, so huge he couldn't even fit into the room," with hands the size of Percy. He is apparently very fat from having an endless amount of things (mainly satyrs) to eat, and he was first seen wearing a purple t-shirt that says, "GRAND SHEEP EXPO 2001" When he sees him the second time he is wearing a baby-blue wedding tuxedo and kilt, like he'd skinned a whole wedding party. Although it is never mentioned in the book, his eye is most likely green, since it is seen on the cover of The Sea of Monsters. He's also probably bald. He has the stench that all monsters have (although his is likely a lot stronger), and it was described as smelling like a skunk that had been living off Mexican food.

Personality
Polyphemus is extremely arrogant. An example of this is when he was fighting Percy and he called on Poseidon for help even though he knew Percy was Poseidon's son, too. When he called Percy a "Fleece stealer," Percy reminded him that he (Polyphemus) stole the fleece from heroes first to lure satyrs to their deaths, and Polyphemus merely says, "So? Satyrs good eating!" Like Tyson and other cyclopes, he speaks poor English (even worse than Tyson since Tyson at least went to school) and he is incredibly dumb. He is horrible at arithmetic and he apparently doesn't even know what a mango is. Despite these, he was shown to be nice to Grover when he thought they would be getting married. He is also shown to be an incredibly good actor, since he convinced Percy that he wouldn't hurt him if he backed away and that he was only trying to protect his sheep, and because he was almost able to convince Tyson to stay with him and learn to be a real cyclops. He is also not very good with gender, since when Annabeth was taunting him, he didn't even realize that her voice was female while Odysseus (the first Nobody) had been male, and he somehow confused Grover for a woman cyclops. He hates the name Nobody and if that name is even used around him, it will make him mad.

Trivia

 * Along with Echidna, the Chimera, and the Sphinx, Polyphemus is one of the few monsters who was encountered and not killed by Percy.
 * He is also the only monster Percy didn't kill because he couldn't bring himself to kill. (With Echidna he lost his sword and jumped from the Arch, and with the Sphinx she was a bit too strong and he found a way to escape without killing her.)
 * He enjoys eating satyrs. In The Sea of Monsters, one thing he said more than once was, "Satyrs good eating!"
 * He is not really affiliated with Poseidon; rather, he thinks Poseidon should be and is affiliated with him, hence how he frequently calls on his father for help and curses against heroes that hurt him.
 * He is the only major antagonist in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series that isn't associated or affiliated with the main villian, Kronos, since he merely wanted the Golden Fleece to attract satyrs for food.