Leila has braved the darkness, the dankness, the drippiness for us – down in the nether regions where the scary stories go to plot and plan. She pushed this one into a bag and brought it into the light. This is what she said:
Had to go into the cave for this one. And I went in warily because a blind Cyclops is even more dangerous than a sighted one. Upon introducing myself to the gent and explaining why I had come, he agreed to do the rerun, but only if visitors came to the cave and heard him out. After all these centuries he has become somewhat agoraphobic. Since this had been all I wanted out of him all along, I said “By Posiden, we gotta deal.” The great Greek Sea God was Cy’s dad–only Hades knows what had been his mother. So, go now to the cave and have a look at The Last Lost Eye by Marco Etheridge. But take care, the big guy ain’t too particular about where he steps.
Q: Here’s a far from original question, but it seems worth asking. How did you arrive at the decision to tell this story?
Q: Morality in the myths seems to be a subjective thing at best. Although the gods (Zeus especially) could be bastards, men were by far worse. Do you believe that the cyclops was demonized in some way to reflect a tribal enemy? As in something told around the campfire to instill the fear and hate of outsiders?
Leila Allison
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Marco’s Response.
| Q: Here’s a far from original question, but it seems worth asking. How did you arrive at the decision to tell this story? I was daydreaming about this and that and I got onto the idea of Enemies versus Heroes, Friends versus Fiends. I think it fun to flip a story on its head, have a look at it from the villain’s perspective. I know it’s been done, sometimes to death (not naming any names about any spin-offs on the Wizard of Oz…) but I thought I could dig deeper and find a less well-known ‘Bad Guy.’ I am a total sucker for Greek Mythology, so that led me to the Cyclops. Q: Morality in the myths seems to be a subjective thing at best. Although the gods (Zeus especially) could be bastards, men were by far worse. Do you believe that the cyclops was demonized in some way to reflect a tribal enemy? As in something told around the campfire to instill the fear and hate of outsiders? The Cyclops was most definitely demonized. I think the modern spin-doctors must have learned their chops from the Greek Myths. The Greek Pantheon is full of tricksters, liars, murderers and thieves. And don’t even think about having sex with Zeus, because once he’s had his jollies, he is going to turn you into something nasty. Hera will find out. Hera ALWAYS finds out. For me, the Greek Myths are some of humankind’s best campfire stories, and almost all of them have a very pointed message. The Trojans are bad; the greeks are good. Don’t mess with the Gods (don’t overreach your station) or you will fall out of the sky, be hunted by your lover’s hounds, or get turned into a tree. Slippery morals, point-of-view spin, and Gods that reflect the failures and foibles of humans: What’s not to love? |
literally stories 
Thank you Marco for your brilliant answers. I’m no longer surprised by the high quality of authors’ responses. Mr E also provides insightful comments on the works of others. So there’s no need for so many contributors be silently stingy. You all seem to have many interesting things to say. Ain’t once ever heard a like button say anything worth while.
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Hi Leila,
Cracking choice as usual.
And the questions – Parkinson would be proud. Or maybe Carson for folks over the water. Or is Craig Ferguson still there? I’m sure he started out with an alter ego called ‘Bing Hitler’
And that reminds me of the madness of the geniuses of the late Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson. Ade played a character called Eddie Hitler and when anyone asked as a joke:
‘Any relation?’
His deadpan answer of:
‘Yes’
Was brilliant.
Marco – This is one of those stories that you recognise as soon as you see it.
I was interested to read your answers. I did at one time decide that I was going to study Greek Mythology. I think was just after I had seen ‘Jason And The Argonauts’ But to be truthful when I realised the amount of content, I decided to stick with Herbert and King!
Hugh
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