poseidon · Chapter 4 of 4
The Longest Grudge
A name given away · A father's prayer · Ten years, in order
The curse was specific. That is how you know it was granted.
In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus and escapes, and would have got away with it clean — except that on the way out he gives his real name, because he wants credit. Polyphemus, who is Poseidon's son, prays. The prayer is not for death. It asks that he never reach home — or, if he must, let him come home late and badly, with all his companions lost, in someone else's ship, and find trouble in his house. That is exactly what happens, in that order. The Odyssey is careful to show Poseidon away in Ethiopia when the other gods decide to let Odysseus go, because the grudge is not strategy. It is simply that he does not forget.
- A blinded son
- A specific curse
- Ten years
Unlocks in-game at Mastery 4.
