Painting of the Month

The Shipwreck

Detail: Jean-Charles Cazin, 'Ulysses after the Shipwreck', about 1880-4.
London, The National Gallery.

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Polyphemus prayed to his father, the sea-god Poseidon, to take revenge on Ulysses. Poseidon responded by creating storms to send his ship off course.

In one of these storms Ulysses was shipwrecked on the island of the nymph Calypso and lost all his crew. Calypso fell in love with Ulysses and kept him with her for many years, though he yearned for home. The gods finally persuaded the reluctant Calypso to let him go, and she gave him wood for a raft and provisions.

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