Abstract
A hypothesis is presented for the origin of the Greek myth of the Cyclops, relating it to the existence of dwarf elephants on various mediterranean islands in the time 70 to 30 thousand years ago and to the so-called dark centuries in Greek history around 1200 to 900 b.c.
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Klingshirn, C. (1983) NATO ASI Series B 88, 689
Klingshirn, C. (1984) NATO ASI Series B 114, 285; ibid (1991) 249, 529; ibid. (1992) 301, 119; ibid. (1994) 339, 327; ibid. (1997) 356, 85; ibid. (1998) 372, 143 Ettore Majorana Center International Science Series, Physical Sciences (1987) 30, 485; ibid. (1989) 46, 111
Klingshirn, C. (1997) Semiconductor Optics, 2nd printing, Springer, Berlin
This might be the most probable reaction in this specific case. When I saw the skulls of the dwarf elephants in Sicily for the first time in 1983, the relation to the Cyclopes was so obvious for me, that I would be highly surprised, if not many other people had the same idea before. Indeed our tour guide during the excursions of the 2001 school Dr. Elena Rutkowska Buscemi shortly mentioned such a connection. In this sense, I am “inventing the wheel again”. On the other hand a, however short and superficial, look through tourist guides and the web did not give me corresponding references, but I anticipate that they exist and they would be highly welcome to me.
In this case I would really like to hear the arguments.
It must have been at that time, that the “Habilitation” has been introduced in the German academic system
Lessing, E. (1989) Die Griechischen Sagen, C. Bertelsmann, München
http://www.mythweb.com
Meyer Lexikon, 7th ed. (1926) Vol. 1-12, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig Das große Duden Lexikon 2nd ed. (1969), Vol. 1-8, Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim
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Homer, Greek poet, second half of the 8th Century b.c., see e.g. [9, 10] Hesiod, Greek poet around 700 b.c. see e.g. [9, 10]
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, head of Polyphem, Inventar Nr. 63120, printed e.g. in [7]
See e.g. one of the Roman mosaics at Piazza Amerina Sicily printed e.g. in (1980) Sizilien und seine Kunstschätze, by R. Vantaggi, Purigraf, Narni
Homer, Odyssey, book 9
Homer, Ilias
Actually the production of Marsala wine was introduced only when the British came to this area. It is a wine, fortified and thus stabilized with alcohol (in the best case cognac) similar to Port, Sherry or Samos, to be able to ship it home to Great Britian without degradation. But wine was long before known in this area.
Bachmayer, F., Symeonidis, N., Seemann, R. and Zapfe, H. (1976) Ann. Naturhistorisches Musem, Wien 80, 113
Engesser, B., Fejfar, O. and Major, P. (1996) Das Mammut und seine ausgestorbenen Verwandten, Veröffentlichung aus dem Naturhistorischen Museum Basel 20
Beutler, A. ( 1996) Natur-und Kulturlandschaft 1, 51
Universität Münster, Geologisches Museum, http://www.uni-muenster.de/Rektorat/ museum/d2m-gmo01.htm
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Klingshirn, C. (2003). Digging for the Skull of the Cyclops. In: Di Bartolo, B. (eds) Spectroscopy of Systems with Spatially Confined Structures. NATO Science Series, vol 90. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0287-5_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0287-5_19
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