# Neptune — The Odyssey character guide

> Neptune in The Odyssey by Homer.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Poseidon, King Neptune, mighty Neptune, Earthshaking Neptune, monarch Neptune

**First appearance:** 0001-the-odyssey

## Snapshot

The earthshaking sea-god whose implacable grudge against Ulysses turns every voyage home into a trial of storms and shipwreck.

## Who they are

Neptune hates Ulysses for blinding his son Polyphemus, and his wrath is the wandering's relentless engine: he cannot kill the hero, but he can keep him from home. While the other gods pity Ulysses, Neptune is away among the Ethiopians, and his absence at the council is itself a plot device. His feud gives the poem its sense of vast, impersonal danger beneath the human story.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_odyssey_se/characters/neptune
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_odyssey_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_odyssey_se/characters