Təpəgöz

Təpəgöz is the one-eyed ogre of the Oghuz epic Kitabi-Dədə Qorqud, the antagonist of the tale 'How Basat Killed Tepegoz'. Begotten when a shepherd forced himself on a peri (fairy) by a spring, he is born from a mass that swells out of the ground, his single eye set on the crown of his head; the peri mother sets a ring on his finger that renders his body proof against every weapon. Raised among the Oghuz but grown monstrous, he demands a daily tribute of young men and flocks to devour and lays the people waste, until the hero Basat, blinding him with a glowing spit thrust into the one eye and then beheading him, ends the terror. Scholars have long compared the episode with Odysseus and the Cyclops Polyphemus, debating whether it is inherited common myth or borrowing.

Domains

• monstrous devastation

Powers

• bears skin no blade can pierce

Epithets

• Təpəgöz — Crown-of-head EyeThe Book of Dede Korkut, trans. Geoffrey Lewis, 1974 (primary)

Relations

• enemy: BasatReared in the same Oghuz household, they become mortal foes; Basat blinds and beheads him.The Book of Dede Korkut, 'How Basat Killed Tepegoz', trans. Geoffrey Lewis, 1974 (primary)

Sources

• Təpəgöz is the one-eyed man-eating giant of the Book of Dede Korkut, born of a peri and a shepherd, whose weapon-proof body is vulnerable only in his single eye, and who is slain by the hero Basat.: The Book of Dede Korkut, 'How Basat Killed Tepegoz', trans. Geoffrey Lewis, Penguin Classics, 1974 (primary); The Book of Dede Korkut: A Turkish Epic, trans. Sümer, Uysal & Walker, University of Texas Press, 1972 (primary)