Book Thirteen: Ithaca at Last

It was amazing how Odysseus spent so long in Phaeacia while doing nothing other than tell his story and prepare his ship. When he finally leaves, Odysseus sleeps the entire way to Ithaca. The crew dumps him on a beach with all of his gifts, which seems like something odd. Why wouldn't they wake him up when they arrived at Ithaca? It only made their job harder, and Odysseus was extremely disoriented and irritate at the beginning. Poseidon punished the Phaeacians as was prophesied. He stopped one of the ships, the one that took Odysseus and decided to put a mountain around the Phaeacian port. Alcinous realized what was going to happen, and told his people to sacrifice twelve bulls to Poseidon. Athena surrounded Odysseus with mist so he could not tell where he was, and Athena disguised herself as a shepherd boy. After revealing that the land was Ithaca and asking about Odysseus, Odysseus told a lie about how he ended up in Ithaca. Only afterwards did Athena become a woman and reveal herself. Odysseus and Athena hid the treasure and talked about how Athena will get Telemachus back from Sparta and Odysseus, disguised as an old beggar, will seek information from the swineherd. Athena decided to hide Ithaca in mist and talk to Odysseus as a shepherd boy, which does not seem to make much of a difference. It would have been easier to just tell Odysseus what to do rather than test him thus. Also, how blocking off Phaeacia would express how angry Poseidon was with Odysseus escapes me as no one would go by there often enough to hear the news, and Odysseus is not immediately impacted.