Wikipedia Trail: From Cyclops to Cap of Invisibility

Cyclops

In my reading for this week, I read about the escape of Odysseus from the big angry Cyclops. This grabbed my curiosity to look it up as the first page of my Wikipedia trail. I knew he was one of the biggest characters in the Odyssey but I thought I might try to find some random things about cyclopes that I never knew. One thing I learned about is that Homer isn't the only one who has written about Polyphemus. In fact the page said that one of the possible origins of tales for cyclopes as a whole was that they originated from the blacksmiths because they would wear an eye patch to keep sparks from hitting their eyes. Overall my curiosity lead me to Polyphemus' family line which has his parents as Poseidon and Thoosa.

Cyclops from Wikimedia Commons

Poseidon

I've heard of Poseidon many times before in different classes I've taken so when I saw his name on the Cyclops page I couldn't help but be lead to this page. I knew he was the God of the Seas but this page taught me that he was also the God of earthquakes and horses. I also found that he was the second son of Cronus and Rhea. Honestly the page didn't excite me as much so after seeing that Hades was his brother I went to his page as well.

Hades

Remembering Hades from the Hercules movie I had seen so many times as a child I was lead to this page. I knew he was the Greek God of the Underworld but I also learned that his name is usually seen to mean "The Unseen One". I also remembered his carriage from the movie and learned that his carriage by tale is actually drawn by 4 black horses. Being a huge Harry Potter fan I saw that Hades was known to have a "Cap of Invisibility".

Cap of invisibility

Embarrassing enough, I thought that this originally said "Cape" instead like Harry Potter's so this is why I clicked on this page. Although the item was actually a helmet, I learned that Hades possessed a helmet that made him turn invisible much like the cape did in Harry Potter. On this page I learned that in mythology the only users of the cap were Hades, Athena, Perseus, and Hermes.