Endangering Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

Poseidon Endangering Odysseus Throughout homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, goes through many physical and mental challenges and hardships. One of the greatest challenges that Odysseus overcame to get home was the wrath of Poseidon. Throughout the whole epic poem, most problems Odysseus faced can be traced back to Poseidon. There are many examples to prove that Poseidon was Odysseus biggest change. The first reason for Poseidon being Odysseus’s biggest threat is, Odysseus made Poseidon loathe him when he didn’t thank him for sending his pet, the Kraken, to help get the Trojan horse into the city during the Trojan War. After the plan had worked perfectly and they had won, Odysseus took all the credit for the plan and the execution, while it was really Athena and Poseidon that the credit belonged too. When Odysseus went out to the water, Poseidon called out to him and promised that he would do everything in his power to made the trip home as horrible and soul-breaking as possible, if he made it back at all. Because of Odysseus’s foolishness by taking credit for the Trojan horse, this trip home took ten

The difference with Poseidon’s children is, when he has a child with a nymph, the child is born as a Cyclope. Cyclopes are lawless man-eating savages. Most live on an island together, Kyklopes, living as shepherds eating whatever man or creature comes to their shores. Since Poseidon can control the sea, he made Odysseus’s ship go off course forcing him into sea to find whatever land they could. Of course, landing on Poseidon's sons’ island. After blinding the ruthless Polyphemus, Odysseus called back to the Cyclope making it possible for him to call unto his father to curse Odysseus to have an agonizing journey home and to have his kingdom in disarray. Just giving Poseidon yet another reason to treat Odysseus badly and make his trip