Case file · Cryptid
The giant of Trapani
Boccaccio (Genealogia deorum gentilium 4.68) tells how in 1342 diggers near Trapani entered a cave and found a seated giant; the bones crumbled, and some took it for Polyphemus. Teeth and skull parts were hung in a church.
1342 CE · 38.03, 12.59 · status: explained
The sceptical view
Palaeontologists explain such Sicilian 'giants' and the one-eyed Cyclops as skulls of extinct dwarf elephants, whose central nasal opening looks like a single eye socket.
Connections in the atlas
- The one-eyed Cyclopes of Sicily