Cyclops

The Cyclops is a one-eyed giant whose origin is linked to great titans of history. Instead of fighting against Ulysses, he now acts as sort of an independent contractor, restraining anything that tries to infiltrate the areas surrounding Castlevania. With his strength, short dashes, and a huge hammer, he can do just that; his slow speed, however, gives the common vampire hunter an advantage. In some games, they can only be harmed by striking their eye.

Origins
In Greek mythology, the cyclopes were an ancient race of giants, the name literally meaning "round-eyed" or "circle-eyed".

Hesiod described them as the sons of Uranus and Gaia, brothers of the Titans, builders and craftsmen. They were giants with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads, being strong and stubborn and with a foul disposition. They were often pictured at their forges.



Uranus, fearing their strength, locked them in Tartarus. Cronus later freed the cyclopes after he had overthrown Uranus, but later placed them back in Tartarus, where they remained until freed by Zeus. They fashioned thunderbolts for him to use as weapons, and helped him overthrow Cronus and the other Titans. The lightning bolts, which became Zeus' main weapons, were forged by them. They also created Poseidon's trident, Artemis' bow and arrows of moonlight, Apollo's bow and arrows of sun rays, and Hades' helmet of darkness, which was given to Perseus on his quest to kill Medusa.

The epic poet Homer described them as mortal herdsmen, sons of Poseidon, Polyphemus being the most well known cyclops in history. In a famous episode of the Odyssey, Polyphemus traps the hero Odysseus (Ulysses) an his men in his cave after they entered to stock on provisions. He eats two of them alive that night, and two more the next morning. Odysseus manages to get him drunken sleep and blinds him by plunging a giant wooden pole in his only eye. The next morning, as Polyphemus opens the cave's entrance to let his sheep graze, Odysseus and the rest of his men manage to escape by tying themselves to the animals' undersides.

Description
The Cyclops was responsible for turning Sypha into stone in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and then guarded her statue until he was defeated by Trevor Belmont. Several other Cyclops bosses appeared in that game teamed up with other bosses, such as Mummies and Leviathan.

In Japan, he is also considered an oni from Japanese mythology (usually translated as "Ogre") and depicted with a single horn on his forehead. Because of the color scheme used in the Japanese instruction booklet, the Cyclops is shown to be red instead of blue, as depicted in the game itself, and shown with a horn on his forehead, possibly an origin for the "Red Ogre" palette swap found in later games. The "Red Ogre" version of the Cyclops also appears in the final stretch for the mascot platformer, Wai Wai World 2.

In Rondo of Blood, the Cyclops does his work in the background, offloading boulders down a ramp. He cannot be touched and does not damage.

The Cyclops returned as a boss in Harmony of Dissonance, where he is quicker, stronger and can execute jumping and dashing attacks.

The Cyclops returned as powerful regular enemies in the 3-D games Castlevania: Lament of Innocence and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. While he did not use stone-inflicting attacks in his 2-D incarnations, some versions of him were shown to possess a stone gaze in Curse of Darkness.