Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
The World Unexplained, a podcast that explores the unusual beliefs, conspiracies, customs, rituals,
and traditions from around the world. This is your host,
doctor Carlos.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
What's the Cyclops actually real creature? Well, it depends on
how you're defining Cyclops, how you're defining creatures, and a
whole host of other things. But as some argue, the
best lies are based in truth, and the same goes
from myths. It's easy to treat the myths of the
ancient Greeks as pure fiction, but you may not want to,
at least not all of them, because if all myths
(00:58):
are based on some morsel of fact, then some mythical
creatures are rooted in some sort of realism. So again
we asked a question whether or not Cyclops is real. Well,
it's difficult to be to say for certain. Obviously we
can't go back in time and see what they saw.
Some animals have become distinct, extinct, and we don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Probably a lot of animals we don't even know. We
don't know about the are animals that are.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Born with a single eye, and humans are known to
experience unique deformities as well that seem to match the
definition of a true cyclops. Some scientists even claim to
have found a fossil originally belonging to a cyclops, which
could have led to the first legends about the mythical beasts.
The cyclops, as we imagine today, as a creature that
was famously described in the classic Greek text the Odyssey.
(01:45):
In the novel The Beast, a cyclops beast named Polyphemous
satirizes the hero Odysseus and his band of men. The
cyclops had a reputation of being dim witted and ill tempered,
and they often are said to kill men who get
in the way of the most primal desires. So that's
where we kind of got the idea from it. But
there's been some interesting research over the years, and I
(02:07):
remember reading about the cyclops in.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
The Greek aisles.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
There was a particular aisle that they had isolated individuals
that had a particular disorder that led to what you
would consider, I guess today s cyclops.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So let's take a look at it.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
The disorder is the holo press and syphaloph h l
O H O l O p R O s E
n c E p h A L Y. I think
it's holo proso and suphily. That's what it is, holo
pro and soufto, and they have some features that are
reminiscent of the classic cyclops because but this particular disorder
(02:46):
can cause the eyes to fuse in the center of
the skull, roughly where the nose should be. This results
in a massive single eye that dominates the face. So
again you have this issue here where you have these
closely spaced eyes in a small head size, and sometimes
clefts of the lip as well.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Is there a treatment. Well, each child has a.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Unique degree of malformations, and the question is that somebody
grow up and ended up having this disorder. That's another
situation too. It really depends on the severity of the
brain and facial malformations. That's what at least research shows
when you.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Talk about this disease, we'll call it HPE. Some people.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Abbreviate it to HPE, which makes it a lot easier
than me trying to say it again. It's relatively common
birth defect of the brain which often can affect facial features. Again,
closed allys, closely spaced eyes.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It's a disorder caused by the.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Failure of the person nephalon the embryonic forebrain to sufficiently
divide into the different lobes of the brain. The malformations
are really severe that then the baby, unfortunately will die
before birth. In less severe cases, babies are born with
normal and your normal babe of development.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
So again we don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
If this was possibly some thing that happened way back
when in the days of the Greeks who knows.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Now, babies born.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
With this particular disorder often lived short and painful lives
if they came to term at all. Most parents today
chose to end the pregnancies where the baby was being
diagnosed with it. But if you go back one hundred years,
it's a very different story. In the past, babies born
with a significant deformities were often considered monsters. That's kind
of the premise of this idea today. According to the
testimony of doctor Newman, who was just an intern at
(04:30):
the time, of baby born with a single eye lived
for thirteen days before it passed, and they refused it
relief treatment and even mutilated it by the staff. That's
how terrible it was way back when. So the behavior
of human beings one hundred years ago, you can kindly
extrapolate and think that the mythical Cyclops maybe was treated
(04:52):
the same. According to legends, again, they were probably thrown
into this one particular island, who knows. So they have
other fossils that they claim the almighty Cyclops, but in
reality weren't the Cyclops. There were elephants of some sort.
(05:13):
So let's look a little bit about this history. A
possible Cyclops bone that was treasured by ancient Greeks has
been laid to rest. The ancient Greeks had access to
bones and remains of prehistoric animals. The most famous was
a jet black thigh bone that was believed that belonged
to a giant Cyclops. The bone was discovered among the
ruins of the Acropolips, but of Nei koreaon was once
belonged to a Pliocene elephant. The rare bone was actually lost,
(05:37):
unfortunately in nineteen seventy nine and never surfaced again for
another twenty years until they finally became given the home
at the Actional Lean Museum in Oxford. So a lot
of those bones were actually huge giants of elephants is
usually what they are.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So there you go, it was a Cyclops.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
True, It's possible that they saw something like that. It's
possible that there was a human being they had that
particular disorder in some capacity that we haven't seen here
in modern times. And maybe they did isolate them in
those islands, and then island became known for that, and
hence you had the novel. Maybe one individual made it
to adulthood and that was enough to be able to
(06:23):
create the myth in the book, Or maybe they took
liberty when they wrote the Book of Odysseus. Who knows
either way, Cyclops, is it real or not?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Well? I would lean to know
Speaker 2 (06:38):
At least the way it's depicted in the Greek books,
But who knows,
The World Unexplained, a podcast that explores the unusual beliefs, conspiracies, customs, rituals,
and traditions from around the world. This is your host,
doctor Carlos.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
What's the Cyclops actually real creature? Well, it depends on
how you're defining Cyclops, how you're defining creatures, and a
whole host of other things. But as some argue, the
best lies are based in truth, and the same goes
from myths. It's easy to treat the myths of the
ancient Greeks as pure fiction, but you may not want to,
at least not all of them, because if all myths
(00:58):
are based on some morsel of fact, then some mythical
creatures are rooted in some sort of realism. So again
we asked a question whether or not Cyclops is real. Well,
it's difficult to be to say for certain. Obviously we
can't go back in time and see what they saw.
Some animals have become distinct, extinct, and we don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Probably a lot of animals we don't even know. We
don't know about the are animals that are.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Born with a single eye, and humans are known to
experience unique deformities as well that seem to match the
definition of a true cyclops. Some scientists even claim to
have found a fossil originally belonging to a cyclops, which
could have led to the first legends about the mythical beasts.
The cyclops, as we imagine today, as a creature that
was famously described in the classic Greek text the Odyssey.
(01:45):
In the novel The Beast, a cyclops beast named Polyphemous
satirizes the hero Odysseus and his band of men. The
cyclops had a reputation of being dim witted and ill tempered,
and they often are said to kill men who get
in the way of the most primal desires. So that's
where we kind of got the idea from it. But
there's been some interesting research over the years, and I
(02:07):
remember reading about the cyclops in.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
The Greek aisles.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
There was a particular aisle that they had isolated individuals
that had a particular disorder that led to what you
would consider, I guess today s cyclops.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So let's take a look at it.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
The disorder is the holo press and syphaloph h l
O H O l O p R O s E
n c E p h A L Y. I think
it's holo proso and suphily. That's what it is, holo
pro and soufto, and they have some features that are
reminiscent of the classic cyclops because but this particular disorder
(02:46):
can cause the eyes to fuse in the center of
the skull, roughly where the nose should be. This results
in a massive single eye that dominates the face. So
again you have this issue here where you have these
closely spaced eyes in a small head size, and sometimes
clefts of the lip as well.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Is there a treatment. Well, each child has a.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Unique degree of malformations, and the question is that somebody
grow up and ended up having this disorder. That's another
situation too. It really depends on the severity of the
brain and facial malformations. That's what at least research shows
when you.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Talk about this disease, we'll call it HPE. Some people.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Abbreviate it to HPE, which makes it a lot easier
than me trying to say it again. It's relatively common
birth defect of the brain which often can affect facial features. Again,
closed allys, closely spaced eyes.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It's a disorder caused by the.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Failure of the person nephalon the embryonic forebrain to sufficiently
divide into the different lobes of the brain. The malformations
are really severe that then the baby, unfortunately will die
before birth. In less severe cases, babies are born with
normal and your normal babe of development.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
So again we don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
If this was possibly some thing that happened way back
when in the days of the Greeks who knows.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Now, babies born.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
With this particular disorder often lived short and painful lives
if they came to term at all. Most parents today
chose to end the pregnancies where the baby was being
diagnosed with it. But if you go back one hundred years,
it's a very different story. In the past, babies born
with a significant deformities were often considered monsters. That's kind
of the premise of this idea today. According to the
testimony of doctor Newman, who was just an intern at
(04:30):
the time, of baby born with a single eye lived
for thirteen days before it passed, and they refused it
relief treatment and even mutilated it by the staff. That's
how terrible it was way back when. So the behavior
of human beings one hundred years ago, you can kindly
extrapolate and think that the mythical Cyclops maybe was treated
(04:52):
the same. According to legends, again, they were probably thrown
into this one particular island, who knows. So they have
other fossils that they claim the almighty Cyclops, but in
reality weren't the Cyclops. There were elephants of some sort.
(05:13):
So let's look a little bit about this history. A
possible Cyclops bone that was treasured by ancient Greeks has
been laid to rest. The ancient Greeks had access to
bones and remains of prehistoric animals. The most famous was
a jet black thigh bone that was believed that belonged
to a giant Cyclops. The bone was discovered among the
ruins of the Acropolips, but of Nei koreaon was once
belonged to a Pliocene elephant. The rare bone was actually lost,
(05:37):
unfortunately in nineteen seventy nine and never surfaced again for
another twenty years until they finally became given the home
at the Actional Lean Museum in Oxford. So a lot
of those bones were actually huge giants of elephants is
usually what they are.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So there you go, it was a Cyclops.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
True, It's possible that they saw something like that. It's
possible that there was a human being they had that
particular disorder in some capacity that we haven't seen here
in modern times. And maybe they did isolate them in
those islands, and then island became known for that, and
hence you had the novel. Maybe one individual made it
to adulthood and that was enough to be able to
(06:23):
create the myth in the book, Or maybe they took
liberty when they wrote the Book of Odysseus. Who knows
either way, Cyclops, is it real or not?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Well? I would lean to know
Speaker 2 (06:38):
At least the way it's depicted in the Greek books,
But who knows,
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