Arges

Arges is one of the three Cyclopes who face Artemis in the forbidden valley, where she demands the Silver Bow and Arrows of Moonlight. Though introduced as a formidable giant, he is overcome in the encounter: Artemis’s dogs disrupt his pursuit, and her arrow sends him tumbling from a cliff. His defeat helps turn a hostile confrontation into the surrender that wins her the weapons she came to claim.

Identity and Appearance

Arges emerges from the valley with his brothers, Brontes and Steropes. Each of the three giants has a third eye set in his forehead, an eye that never blinks or falters. Their appearance complicates Artemis’s expectation of barbarity: they wear elaborate silver armor and fine clothing, and the narration suggests that, judged by their fabrics and bearing, they might have ruled Olympus had Zeus and the other gods not already claimed it.

The encounter gives Arges a distinct role within this formidable trio. Brontes speaks first as the eldest, while Steropes asks what Artemis demands; Arges presses the question of what she means to take from them. His challenge makes the dispute explicitly one of possession and refusal before it becomes a physical fight.

The Demand for the Weapons

Artemis comes with a message attributed to Poseidon: the Cyclopes are to abandon their horse trough and make her a silver bow and a quiver of silver arrows that will refill when emptied. In return, she promises them the first game she shoots. The brothers do not accept the appeal to divine authority; Brontes says Zeus’s promises have no sway in their valley, and the three laugh when Artemis states her demand directly.

Rather than retreat, Artemis draws an arrow and aims at Brontes’s third eye, insisting that the Cyclopes create the Silver Bow and Arrows of Moonlight. Arges is thus part of a collective refusal that turns a negotiation over craft and payment into an armed struggle. The evidence does not assign him a separate response to the proposed bargain, but his question and participation in the ensuing attack place him firmly among those resisting Artemis.

The Fight in the Valley

During the pursuit, Arges and Steropes attack Artemis among the rocks while Brontes remains incapacitated and groveling in pain. Artemis moves quickly to evade them. When Arges chases her after a heavy blow has shattered a rock formation, she whistles for her dogs; they rush as a pack and nip at the Cyclopes’ heels, drawing their attention as the giants swing their clubs at the animals.

That diversion gives Artemis an opening. She jumps clear and shoots Arges in the shoulder. He cries out in pain, falls from the cliff, and lands on jagged rocks a thousand feet below. The account does not describe what happens to him after the fall, so his ultimate condition is not specified; within the confrontation, however, the fall removes him from the fight.

Defeat and Narrative Role

With Arges driven from the battle and the hounds keeping Steropes occupied, Artemis climbs the rocks and brings her sword to Steropes’s throat. She then calls out all three brothers by name—Brontes, Steropes, and Arges—and declares that she spared their lives despite their hostility. Her appeal recasts the encounter as proof that she is not a mere maiden but a formidable goddess who expects obedience.

Brontes loses the will to fight, and he and his brothers surrender. The Cyclopes give Artemis the weapons she demanded. Arges’s defeat therefore marks a practical reversal in the scene: the giants’ control of the valley and refusal to yield give way to Artemis’s command. His role is brief but consequential, showing how her speed, archery, and use of the hounds overcome a threat that initially appears physically overwhelming.