[1] The painting depicts an incident in the Odyssey, the epic poem by Homer which recounts the Greek hero Odysseus' 10 year long return journey home from the Siege of Troy.

A blind giant Cyclops, Polyphemus, is preparing to hurl a large rock at the escaping boat of Odysseus and his crew.

The previous night Odysseus and his shipmates had been shut in the cave of the one-eyed Polyphemus who had planned to eat them one by one.

However Odysseus and his shipmates had managed to blind the Cyclops by driving a stake into his eye after he had fallen into a drunken stupor.

The subject is characteristic of Böcklin's treatment of the more down-to-earth aspects of mythological stories.