Myth Library · Epic

Poseidon and Odysseus

3 source witnesses · 1 source-scoped variant · reviewed 2026-08-30

Polyphemus calls upon his father after Odysseus blinds him, and Poseidon carries that grievance through storm, delayed homecoming, and punishment of the Phaeacian ship.

Canonical narrative

Odysseus has escaped the Cyclops, but he cannot resist naming himself from the safety of his ship. The blinded Polyphemus hears the boast, raises his hands, and calls on his father Poseidon. His prayer asks that Odysseus never reach home, or arrive only after long suffering, bereft of companions, aboard another people’s ship. The curse gives Poseidon’s anger a precise wound within the Odyssey.

Later, when Odysseus leaves Calypso’s island on a raft, Poseidon sees him from afar. The god gathers cloud and wind, churns the sea, and breaks the raft beneath him. Odysseus survives through endurance and help from other divinities, but the passage makes the sea itself the field of Poseidon’s opposition.

The grievance reaches beyond Odysseus. The Phaeacians carry him safely to Ithaca, fulfilling the very return Polyphemus tried to prevent. Poseidon then strikes their returning ship and fixes it near their harbor. The action punishes people renowned for conveying strangers over the sea. Across Books 5, 9, and 13, the god’s power is personal, maritime, and political. The episodes form one epic conflict without turning every storm into evidence of his anger.

Episodes in this myth

Episode 1

Polyphemus invokes Poseidon

The blinded Cyclops names Poseidon as father and asks that Odysseus lose or suffer his homecoming.

Episode 2

Poseidon breaks the raft

Poseidon raises wind and sea against Odysseus until the raft comes apart beneath him.

Episode 3

Poseidon fixes the Phaeacian ship

After Odysseus reaches Ithaca, Poseidon strikes the returning Phaeacian vessel and fixes it by the harbor.

Participants and roles

Poseidon

answers the injury to Polyphemus with storm and punishment across Odysseus’ homecoming

His actions join a son’s prayer, a shattered raft, and the fixed Phaeacian ship.

Odysseus

blinds Polyphemus, names himself, survives Poseidon’s storm, and reaches Ithaca through Phaeacian aid

His boast exposes his name and home to the Cyclops’ prayer.

Polyphemus

invokes Poseidon as father and asks for Odysseus’ ruin or grievously delayed return

The prayer gives Poseidon a spoken cause for hostility toward Odysseus.

Phaeacians

carry Odysseus home and lose a returning ship to Poseidon’s punishment

Their gift of passage completes Odysseus’ return and draws the god’s response.

Source-scoped variants

The Odyssey’s connected grievance

Books 5, 9, and 13 bind Polyphemus’ prayer, Poseidon’s storm, and the punishment of the Phaeacian ship into one homecoming conflict.

What differs: The three scenes distribute cause, assault, and aftermath across the epic instead of compressing them into a single encounter.

Greek Archaic · Ancient Greece

Source witnesses

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Odyssey

Homer; translated by A. T. Murray · 1919

Entry Odyssey · Book 5 · Line 282-387

Poseidon sights Odysseus and destroys his raft with wind and waves. Historical witness language is Ancient Greek; the accessed A. T. Murray edition is English.

Open reviewed source

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Odyssey

Homer; translated by A. T. Murray · 1919

Entry Odyssey · Book 9 · Line 526-535

Polyphemus calls Poseidon his father and prays against Odysseus’ homecoming. Historical witness language is Ancient Greek; the accessed A. T. Murray edition is English.

Open reviewed source

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Odyssey

Homer; translated by A. T. Murray · 1919

Entry Odyssey · Book 13 · Line 125-164

Poseidon fixes the returning Phaeacian ship near its harbor. Historical witness language is Ancient Greek; the accessed A. T. Murray edition is English.

Open reviewed source