Odysseus and his men had been warned not to partake of
Helios cattle but on reaching land after crossing between the monsters Charybdis and
Scylla his men found and fed on the cattle. Zeus punished them by sending lightning and
throwing the men off board except Odysseus, who was sent back to Charybdis, where the
entire ship was wrecked, but Odysseus survived, by hanging on to a fig tree until
Charybdis spit out the wreckage. After this encounter Odysseus floated off to Ogygia,
Calypso's island. Odysseus was held captive on this island by Calypso.
Zeus later sent Hermes to Calypso requesting her to free
Odysseus, which she did. Odysseus set sail on a raft, but due to the enmity he had with
Poseidon, the god wrecked his raft. At this point Odysseus would have drowned but he did
not lose sight of his raft. He swam and climbed on board, Leucothea a goddess sought to
help Odysseus and offered him a magical veil that would protect him from drowning. She
also instructed him to leave his raft because Poseidon would not stop his onslaught, and
instead swim to the Phaeacian coast. Athena also assisted Odysseus by calming the strong
winds that Poseidon has released.
There are a number of
instances that Odysseus would have drowned but due to intervention from the gods and
goddesses and his own determination he survived.
No comments:
Post a Comment