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Cyclops are among the best-known monsters of Greek mythology, also mentioned in art and literature. According to the most recent scientific knowledge, the malformations caused by defective development of the anterior brain and midline mesodermal structures include cyclopia (synophthalmos), ethmocephaly, cebocephaly and arrhinencephaly. These severe forebrain lesions often are accompanied by severe systemic malformations, and affected infants rarely survive. Neither true cyclopia nor synophthalmos are compatible with life because an anomalous development of the brain is involved. Thus, it is difficult to assume that ancient Greeks drew their inspiration from an adult patient suffering from cyclopia. Cyclops appear for the first time in literature in Homer's Odyssey (8th-7th century BC) and one of them, Polyphemus, is blinded by the hero of the epic poem. The description of the creature is identical with patients suffering from cyclopia; eyes are fused and above the median eye there is a proboscis, which is the result of an abnormal development of the surface ectodermal structures covering the brain. The next literature appearance of Cyclops is at the end of 7th century BC in "Theogonia", written by Hesiodus. Another interesting description is made by Euripides in his satyr play entitled 'Cyclops' (5th century BC). In conclusion, though it is not certain whether Homer's description of Cyclops was based on his personal experience or the narration of his ancestors, there is no doubt that the ophthalmological disease, cyclopia, was named after this mythical creature.

This review of holoprosencephaly provides a mythologic and teratologic distillate of the subject under the following headings: Babylonian tablets; Greek mythology; pictures from the 16th through the 20th Centuries; 19th Century teratology; history of more modern concepts and their terminologies; and ocean-going ships named "Cyclops.", (2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

Introduction: Holoprosencephaly with cyclocephaly is an early disturbance of organogenesis and has been classified as a severe brain malformation starting in 1755 by Eller in Germany, then in 1822 by Etienne Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire in France, and finally in 1828 by Tiedemann in Germany. In 1839, Dr. Arellano published in Mexico a necropsy case of holoprosencephaly. This was the fourth publication worldwide on this kind of pathological alteration. Furthermore, in reference to diaphragmatic herniation, Arellano's paper is the fourth world report, having appeared 9 years before Bochdalek's publication. We have not found any other report that appeared before 1839 in the Americas on this particular malformation, and we consider that Arellano's paper was the first of its kind on the American continent., Conclusion: As is well known, the publications of this Mexican medical researcher were, for his time, at the level of those of the most developed countries. It is also important to know that the medical journal where Arellano's work was published, the "Periódico de la Academia de Medicina de Mégico(sic)," founded and directed by Dr. Manuel Carpio in 1836, is the direct forerunner of the present Gaceta Médica de México, the oldest currently published journal in the Americas.