# Cyclops the Charioteer — Suspiria de Profundis character guide

> Cyclops the Charioteer in Suspiria de Profundis by Thomas De Quincey.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Cyclops, thou, himself

**First appearance:** 0005-i-the-glory-of-motion

## Snapshot

A one-eyed charioteer of the narrator's dream visions, a mythic figure whose strange office tests whether the dreamer's heart can be read.

## Who they are

He belongs to the symbolic machinery of the Suspiria's dream-world, a charioteer whose monstrous form the narrator invokes when probing whether an apparition can feel human grief. The tension he embodies is interpretive: the dreamer tries him with earthly passion to see if he will veil his head like Judaea weeping, revealing a heart beneath the myth. He matters because he prepares the reader for the Dark Interpreter, teaching that dream figures are mirrors in which hidden feelings become legible.

## Relationships

### [Madonna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/characters/madonna)

_psychological_

Cyclops the Charioteer and Madonna are intertwined as dual forces of terror and maternal comfort in the narrator's psyche.

### [Apollo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/characters/apollo)

_rivalry_

Apollo and Cyclops the Charioteer are opposing mythological forces, one of light and reason, the other of chaos and darkness.

### [Madonna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/characters/madonna)

_psychological_

Cyclops the Charioteer and Madonna are intertwined as dual forces of terror and maternal comfort in the narrator's psyche.

## In the story

### [The English Mail-Coach](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/the-english-mail-coach)

The coachman, depicted as a powerful and almost mythical figure driving the mail-coach.

### [The Glory of Motion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/i-the-glory-of-motion)

The coachman is described as making a 'professional salute with the whip,' embodying the skilled driver of the mail.

### [II: The Vision of Sudden Death](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/ii-the-vision-of-sudden-death)

The one-eyed, monstrous coachman who drives the mail and is described as a 'monstrum horrendum'.

### [III: Dream-Fugue: Founded on the Preceding Theme of Sudden Death](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/iii-dream-fugue-founded-on-the-preceding-theme-of-sudden-death)

Implied as the charioteer driving the narrator's equipage through the cathedral.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/v)

Addressed as 'Dying Trumpeter' in the vision.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/characters/cyclops_the_charioteer
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/characters