"Hear me –
Poseidon, god of the sea-blue mane who rocks the earth!
If I really am your son and you claim to be my father –
come, grant that Odysseus, raider of cities,
Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca,
never reaches home. Or if he’s fated to see
his people once again and reach his well-built house
and his own native country, let him come home late
and come a broken man – all shipmates lost,
alone in a stranger’s ship –
and let him find a world of pain at home!"
So he prayed
and the god of the sea-blue mane, Poseidon, heard his prayer.
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 585-596. Polyphemus prays to his father Poseidon for justice after Odysseus blinds him. His powwerful prayer sets up Odysseus’ fate of suffering for many more years to come. The powerful god of the sea, in revenge for wounding his son, curses Odysseus to endure an additional ten years at sea before he finally returns to his homeland.