Set into a Classical landscape are figures taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses . The one-eyed Cyclope Polyphemus fell in love with the sea nymph Galatea, but she rejected him and Polyphemus withdrew to a high mountain to play out his sadness on his flute.
Poussin presents love and music as the source of harmony in nature and human relations. Love has tamed the ferocious Cyclope, who has ceased to turn rocks to dust, to tear down trees and trample the corn, to sink ships. Charmed by Polyphemus's music, the nymphs who have come to collect water from a spring in their amphorae have stopped in their tracks; satyrs have emerged from their hiding places; a ploughman has stopped work to listen. Order, calm and harmony reign over nature. The steep cliffs, the solid trunks and leafy crowns of the trees all create an impression of power and the majestic beauty of nature.