... the fate of Kalypso, by comparing it to a common image many of the Greeks would have witnessed. Homer also uses a simile to portray the fate of Odysseus' raft. Odysseus has to endure Poseidon's anger as he tosses his raft "about the current now here, now there;/as the North Wind in autumn tumbles and tosses thistledown along the plain, and the bunches hold fast one on another,/so the winds tossed her on the great sea , now here, now there/and now it would be South Wind that push her between/them,/and then again East Wind and West would burst in and follow". The fact that a wind is doing this adds a natural edge to proceedings, which is further enhanced when one considers that a super natural entity, such as Poseidon, is the purveyor of such doom. The weakness of the "thistledown" compares well with the weakness of Odysseus' handmade ...

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