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Poseidon is the Greek god of the sea. He is also the god of storms, earthquakes, and horses, and one of the most powerful gods on Mount Olympus. The Greeks often made sacrifices in his honor because he had the power to protect seafarers.
Unfortunately for Odysseus, he manages to court Poseidon’s wrath instead of his favor. If Penelope’s suitors are Odysseus’s mortal antagonists, then Poseidon is his divine one. Early in the epic, we learn that Poseidon is furious with Odysseus because he blinded his son, the cyclops Polyphemus. As Zeus informs the other gods, Poseidon has decided to not kill Odysseus outright but will repeatedly derail Odysseus’s course to prevent him getting home to his family. For example, in Book 5, when Odysseus is about to reach the shores of Scheria, Poseidon stirs up a storm intending to impede Odysseus’s journey home yet again, despite the fact that at this point he has been lost at sea and plagued by suffering for ten years. Poseidon’s unrelenting punishments characterize him as a vindictive and cruel force within the narrative. Even Zeus, who has likewise had a hand in preventing Odysseus’s return (such as when his storm killed all the men but Odysseus and stranded him on Ogygia), agrees that Odysseus has by now suffered enough.
Poseidon’s specific, all-encompassing rage against Odysseus results in him punishing the Phaeacians, a seafaring people who hold festivals in his honor, for enabling his nemesis to return home. The Phaeacians were merely following the code of hospitality known as xenia; that they are punished for this, and that Zeus sanctions the punishment despite being the primary supporter and enforcer of xenia, illustrates the arbitrary and often petty nature of divine retribution in The Odyssey.
