The Antagonist Of Poseidon In Homer's The Odyssey

Every good story must have a character that goes against the protagonist and attempts to bring him down (also known as an antagonist). In the case of Homer’s The Odyssey, the biggest antagonist in the story is Poseidon (god of the sea) who makes continual attempts to bring revenge to Odysseus. Throughout history it is apparent that human beings enjoy and often take revenge on people who do them wrong or do wrong to people that they care about. Instances of revenge are seen in modern society quite frequently, from minor acts of revenge on social media to more severe acts of revenge such as murder. In the story of The Odyssey Poseidon wants to bring revenge to Odysseus for mocking and blinding his son, Polyphemus the Cyclops. After Odysseus blinds and tricks Polyphemus, he shouts at the Cyclops revealing his name and true identity. This action leads to Polyphemus praying to Poseidon and asking him to never let Odysseus reach his home at Ithaca or at least have all his men killed on the way home and also face trouble at home. Poseidon grants his son’s wish and continous to cause trouble for Odysseus. Poseidon’s temper and persistent attempts

Although Odysseus was wrong to mock Polyphemus, he had reason to blind him. Polyphemus was slowly murdering and devouring each one of Odysseus’s men which would’ve eventually led to the death of Odysseus himself if he did not stab Polyphemus in the eye. Poseidon did not recognize his son’s negative actions but only focused on Odysseus’.This is much like a human parent in the sense that when human children fight, their parents almost always think the other child is at fault or at least more at fault than their own. Poseidon’s action of deliberately ignoring his own son's wrongdoing and attempting to avenge his son demonstrates a human like quality, but Poseidon goes an extra step to avenge his son and hurts other people as well, not just