(from κύκλος, circulus, and ὀφθαλμός, oculus), in fabulous history, the sons of Cælus and Terra, the principal of whom were Brontes, Steropes, and Peracmon; but their number amounted to above a hundred. Jupiter threw them into Tartarus as soon as they were born; but they were delivered at the intercession of Tellus, and became the assistants of Vulcan. They were supposed to be of prodigious stature, and to have each only one eye, placed in the middle of the forehead, whence their name. The most solid walls and impregnable fortresses were by the ancients accounted the work of the Cyclops; and the armour of Jupiter, the shield of Pluto, and the trident of Neptune, were supposed to have been fabricated by the same gigantic workmen. Some mythologists, however, maintain that the Cyclops signify the vapours raised in the air, which occasion thunder and lightning, and that on this account they are represented as forging the thunderbolts of Jupiter; while others represent them as the first inhabitants of Sicily, who were cruel, of a gigantic stature, and dwellers round Mount Ætna.