Polyphemus

"I did it! I finally sank Nobody!"

- Polyphemus

Polyphemus (Πολύφημος in Ancient Greek) is a blind Cyclops 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's island, but instead they would be trapped in Polyphemus' island and be eaten by him.

History
Polyphemus was a cyclops introduced in the story in which the famed hero, Odysseus, was about to be devoured by the Cyclops. Odysseus tricked the Giant into getting drunk on honey and wine and then told Polyphemus that his name was Nobody, which would play out later. While the Cyclops was asleep with a belly full of wine, Odysseus and his men plunged a red hot poker into his single eye. Polyphemus woke with a terrible yell, screaming "Nobody has blinded me! Nobody has blinded me!". All of the other Cyclopes on the island thought Polyphemus was crazy for saying that nobody blinded him, and paid no attention to his cries of agony. When the Cyclops opened his cave so that his sheep could go out and graze for the day, he felt each of their backs to make sure that none of the men could escape, but Odysseus and his men were tied to the underside of the sheep and thereby escaped the Cyclops. Upon leaving the island, Odysseus revealed his true name to Polyphemus who had been told by a seer about him. Polyphemus then invoked a curse upon Odysseus in the name of his father Poseidon, which just furthered Poseidon's hatred for Odysseus.

The Sea of Monsters
The only satyr who was not devoured by the glutton was Grover Underwood, who put on a wedding dress and impersonated a female cyclops. Polyphemus then tried to marry Grover, despite the delays Grover tried to trick him with. Polyphemus was not able to tell that Grover was not a real Cyclops because of Odysseus. Clarisse exposed Grover for being a satyr in front of Polyphemus, so he promptly decided to eat Grover and marry Clarisse instead. Polyphemus was tricked by Annabeth saying that she was "Nobody"("he can't have been all the bright about the male-female thing because the first Nobody was male and this one was feamle, then again he tried to marry Grover" Percy comments about Annabeth pulling the same trick as Odysseus), and Polyphemus wanted his revenge (he got it by nearly killing Annabeth), and in doing so, he was nearly stabbed in the eye again. But Percy was reluctant because Polyphemus was his half brother, and decided not to stab him.

Polyphemus is another a son of Poseidon and since he seldom sees another cyclops, he tried to persuade Tyson to stay with him and learn to be a "real" Cyclops. Tyson said "No", which triggered Polyphemus to throw a tantrum and almost sink the boat in which Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson were going to escape in by throwing a stone at them. He celebrated, thinking he finally sunk "Nobody". In the end, Polyphemus lost the Golden Fleece, which caused his island paradise to become the hideous object it was before. But he still had his demonic sheep to keep him company.

Polyemphus is one of the only evil monsters from the Percy Jackson series to be encountered and not to be killed. Echinda and the sphinx are two others.