lawless brutes, who trust so to the everlasting gods
they never plant with their own hands or plow the soil.
Unsown, unplowed, the earth teems with all they need,
wheat, barley and vines, swelled by the rains of Zeus
to yield a big full-bodied wine from clustered grapes.
They have no meeting place for council, no laws either,
no, up on the mountain peaks they live in arching caverns –
each a law to himself, ruling his wives and children,
not a care in the world for any neighbor.
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 120-128. This passage introduces the reader to the Cyclops and builds them up to be lawless monsters. Heavily dependant on Zeus and the gods for food and daily necessities, they don’t work, and have no rules or any form of government. The reader is being prepared here for the most famous Cyclops, the man-eating Polyphemus.