A god holding a personal grudge for a decade. Polyphemus is Poseidon’s son. When Odysseus blinds him and shouts his real name back over the surf, the Cyclops calls his father, and Poseidon hears every word. From that prayer onward the sea is a hostile country to Odysseus. Storms find him. Currents push him backward. Crews drown around him. Tiresias names the wrath plainly in the underworld and gives him the only known way to end it — walk inland with an oar until someone calls it a winnowing fan, plant it there, sacrifice to the god. The wrath is the engine of half the journey. It is also the price of a single shouted boast.
The Wrath of Poseidon
The sea god's grudge against Odysseus. Started when he blinded Polyphemus. Sustained for ten years across every wave between Troy and Ithaca.