Before my post begins, I would just like to note that my version of the books have a slightly different spelling of names and places.
These four books had me holding my breath in anticipation. What really caught, and held, my interest however, was how Zeus was so willing to appease Poseidon and cast more bad luck upon Odysseus. After Alkinoos’ men brought Odysseus back to Ithaca, Zeus turned the ship to stone. Zeus caused the Phaiakians to never want to offer any aid to new strangers ever again. “We make an end henceforth of taking, in our ships, castaways who may land upon Skeria;…” (book XIII, 209-211)
Through this small act, we, as readers, finally see the priorities of the gods. Pleasing Poseidon was much more important to Zeus than the lives and good relationships between humans, even if one of the humans is his own kin. How could Zeus let this happen to one of his own lineage, despite all the trials and suffering that Odysseus has already gone through? Poseidon has already tormented Odysseus by killing off literally all of his men, and constantly bringing Odysseus near death, yet Poseidon is not satisfied. With this final act of vengeance, Zeus has affected not just Odysseus’ life, but the life of the Phaiakians and all newcomers to ever land upon Skeria. I honestly do not think this was justified. What do think?
I was just as surprised as you seem to have been when Zeus betrayed Odysseus. It was uncalled for and clearly unjustified. When you used the terms “pleasing Poseidon” to describe what Zeus was doing, it made me think differently about what he did. Initially, I thought Zeus was trying to seem more powerful than Poseidon in a way that was competitive. However, your perspective seems logical and shows a different side of the gods than I saw originally. Your thoughts are very interesting to me because a lot of it is different from how I perceived it all.
Hi Madelene. I thought exactly the same.
Poseidon had his revenge, so why does he continue with all this evil?
my thoughts about this are:
I think that Zeus let him do it because after all this is his brother and he needs to respect him. I also think that Zeus is smart that he said
“turn her to stone”. He knew that otherwise Poseidon would kill them.
2nd I think that Poseidon did a big mistake, and not only because he turn the ship into stone, but because of the fact that the Pheaecians people said that they will not help anyone anymore. The results might be that someone that close to Poseidon will not get help.
This is an interesting detail, I did not notice that when I read this chapter. In my opinion, after all, Poseidon is Zeus’ older brother, so Zeus needs to appease Poseidon in order to balance the power. They maintain the so-called respect between each other and unlikely to explode direct conflict. Their conversation looks very polite on the surface, but we can feel some other things under it. Therefore, Poseidon asks Zeus, “I lose face among the gods, Zeus,/When I’m not respected by mortal men—” (BOOK XIII, 132-33) and Zeus answered, “What a thing for you to say—you, the Temblor!/Dishonored by the gods? It would be hard for us/To sling insults at our eldest and best.” (BOOK XIII, 145-47).
In my opinion, Gods is only care about themselves. For Zeus, who wants to have a stable relation with his brother Poseidon and allows Poseidon to punish Phaeacian. turning the ship into stone and sinks it to the bottom of the sea. Zeus and Poseidon both show no interest on people. Gods, choose to play their power on moral people rather than having an open conflict with other gods.
In book 8, we are told that such an act would occur, “Safe passage to men. He said that one day/Poseidon would smite a Phaeacian ship/As it sailed back home over the misty sea.” (Book VIII, 609-14). Because of what Poseidon had done, the Phaeacians as you stated revoked any newcomers, which may be detrimental at some point. Considering that, I think Gods, namely Zeus enjoy watching men, no matter of stature, cowering, begging for help, keeping them honest. It was an act of dominance is the way I see it.
I agree with lf163232 (sorry I can’t see the names). I think that the point of this punishment is to keep balance. However, I think that the balance not between Zeus and Poseidon, but between Athena and Poseidon. I this book Athena acts very positively, while Poseidon is always mad and causes much suffering. I also think that in the first place, Homer, as a story teller and the one who draws the inspiration from muses, wants to keep the balance between good and bad.
Madelene, that was a good little detail to notice . But I think that Zeus ultimately know that even Poseidon ‘s vengeance will not kill Odysseus , even though it will affect his companions .Favoritism comes into play again .As we have noticed since an early stage when a god favor someone they seem to really not care about what would happen to others. It may not seem justified to us but perhaps Homer himself wanted the reader to focus on Odysseus’ actions more than on “Odysseus and his companions”.
If you agree that people should stick to their own kind then isn’t Poseidon doing the right thing by making odysseus suffer because now Poseidon’s son has to suffer the rest of his life with no eye!
Maybe Zeus does agree with his brother about that situation at times?