Poseidon Myth | Odysseus, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and the Sea God's Grudge Explained

The calm sea suddenly turns upside down. Above Odysseus, who has been sailing for days clinging to a single raft, winds rush in from every direction at once, and the sky is covered with clouds.

The one who stirred up this storm is none other than Poseidon, the god of the sea. Yet Odysseus already knew exactly why this god was hunting him down so relentlessly.

The Moment the Trident Churned the Sea

Having left Calypso's island, Odysseus was crossing the sea on a lone raft. Just as land was drawing near, Poseidon—returning from a visit to the Ethiopians—spotted him from beyond a distant mountain range.

Seeing Odysseus almost reach the land of the Phaeacians, Poseidon flew into a rage. He churned the sea with his trident, summoning winds from all four directions at once, and shrouded land, sea, and sky entirely in clouds.

The mast snapped halfway in the wind, and the sail and yardarm tumbled whole into the sea. Then a wave as big as a house crashed down menacingly, and Odysseus lost his grip on the tiller and was flung off the raft.

After flailing in the water for a long while, he finally managed to climb back onto the raft. At that very moment, the sea goddess Ino appeared and offered him a magical veil, telling him to strip off his clothes and swim to shore relying on it.

Odysseus did not follow her words right away. He decided to stay on the raft as long as it held together, and to start swimming only when the planks began to scatter.

But Poseidon sent another enormous wave, and the raft shattered in that instant. All Odysseus had left was the single veil Ino had given him.

Why That Exact Moment

Poseidon spotted Odysseus on his way back from Ethiopia. He had not been chasing after him; rather, on his return journey, Odysseus's figure caught his eye from beyond a distant mountain range.

But catching sight of him did not mean Poseidon was willing to let him pass. The moment he confirmed that Odysseus had nearly reached the land of the Phaeacians, Poseidon grew angry precisely because of that fact.

This reaction was not out of the blue. Poseidon had a very specific reason, built up over a long time.

The Origin of the Grudge: the Prayer of a Blinded Son

That reason began not in the sea but in a cave. Odysseus and his men, having left Troy, were trapped in the cave of the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, and only after stabbing out his single eye did they barely escape.

Exactly what happened inside that cave, and what trick Odysseus used to get past the crisis, is covered in detail in the Cyclops myth. Here, we will only touch on the outcome.

From the fleeing ship, Odysseus shouted out his real name. Hearing that name, Polyphemus—who was none other than Poseidon's son—was revealed.

The blinded Polyphemus offered a prayer to his father. He begged that Odysseus never be allowed to return home, or that if he did return, he return very late after losing all his companions.

While relaying this story, Zeus explains that since that day, Poseidon has kept tormenting Odysseus and blocking his way home. Whether the son's prayer dictated each and every one of the father's actions cannot be known, but it is clearly confirmed in the gods' conversation that the blinding incident was the starting point of this anger and obstruction.

The Father Absent from the Gods' Assembly

When the gods held their assembly to discuss Odysseus's homecoming, Poseidon was not there. He had gone to the Ethiopians and was enjoying a feast, receiving cattle and sheep as offerings.

The one who did not miss this absence was Athena. She earnestly pleads with Zeus to help Odysseus, who is suffering on a remote island.

Zeus acknowledges that Odysseus was more generous with offerings to the gods than anyone, yet explains that Poseidon continues to hate him because of what happened to his son. He then proposes that they find a way together, saying that if all the gods unite their will, Poseidon alone will find it hard to go against it.

The very proposal—that Poseidon alone is too strong, but the gods can prevail if they band together—shows in reverse just how formidable an opponent Poseidon is. This scene makes it unmistakably clear that even among the gods, Poseidon and Athena stand on opposite sides over Odysseus, and how the two gods' attitudes differ can be explored further in the Athena myth.

Three Days Survived on a Single Veil

After the raft broke apart, all Odysseus had left was the veil Ino had given him. He began to swim, entrusting his body to that veil.

He endured two days and nights in the water like that, and only on the third day did land finally come into view. At that point Athena stepped in, making the winds that had been blowing from all directions blow from a single direction only.

Thanks to her, Odysseus was able to reach the mouth of a river, and only after covering himself with leaves in an olive grove did he finally fall asleep. Once again, the sea that Poseidon had overturned was set right by the hands of other gods.

The Wrath That Did Not End on Land

Even so, Poseidon did not fully back down here. At the very moment Odysseus was safely set down on the shore of Ithaca by a Phaeacian ship and fell into a deep sleep, Poseidon vented his complaint to Zeus, saying that he would now be denied all respect among the gods.

He turned his hand directly against the very ship that had carried Odysseus. He turned the Phaeacian vessel, returning to its harbor, into solid stone and rooted it to the seabed, and threatened to surround their entire city with a mountain.

The startled Phaeacians realized that this old prophecy had come true and appeased Poseidon by sacrificing twelve bulls. The storm aimed at Odysseus himself subsided that way, but the wrath toward those who had helped him continued even after he reached land.

The God Who Rules Sea and Earthquake: Neptune

Poseidon, who held Odysseus back for so long, is the god who rules both the sea and earthquakes in Greek mythology. In Roman mythology, he is called by the name Neptune.

However, Neptune is not a name that appears in the Greek originals; it is a separate name used on the Roman mythology side for the same god. The English translation referenced in this article simply followed the convention of using the Roman name Neptune when rendering Poseidon, while the Greek original refers to him by the single name Poseidon from beginning to end.

It was a flow in which a single grudge born inside a cave became a storm in the middle of the sea, and then carried over into the assembly of the gods. Where Odysseus landed after escaping this storm and how he made his way back to Ithaca can be followed in the Odyssey myth summary, and the story of the island where he stayed for so long before building the raft can be found in the Calypso myth.