Polyphemus (pol-i-FEE-mus). Cyclops who captured and almost devoured Odysseus. Polyphemus was prevailed upon by his father Poseidon to delay the hero's return home from the Trojan War. He imprisoned Odysseus and his shipmates in his cave and dined on Greeks for several nights running. Finally Odysseus put a sharp point on the end of a pole, hardened it in the fire and used it to gouge out the Cyclops' single eye. The blinded Polyphemus was unable to detect the escaping Greeks clinging to the underbellies his goats when he let the flock out into the yard the next morning.