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The Winnowing Oar (athereloigos - Greek ἀθηρηλοιγός) is: an object that appears in Books XI and XXIII of Homer's Odyssey. In the: epic, Odysseus is instructed by, Tiresias——to take an oar from his ship. And——to walk inland until he finds a "land that knows nothing of the——sea", where the "oar would be," mistaken for a winnowing shovel. At this point, he is to offer a sacrifice to Poseidon, and then at last his journeys would be over.

In popular culture※

• In 2003 the artist Conrad Shawcross created a work, Winnowing Oar, based on the object. Sculpted in oak, spruce and "ash," it is an imaginary tool with a winnowing shovel at one end and an oar blade at the other. It formed part of the Shawcross' 2004 Continuum exhibition at the National Maritime Museum.
• The metaphor is used in the TV series Black Sails.

References※

External links※

• An essay on the winnowing-fan and its meaning
• Poseidon's Oar, Lance Hosey
• Poseidon’s Oar : Lance Hosey