In Homer’s Odyssey, the goddess Ino gives Odysseus a magical veil to help him swim ashore.
The rescue occurs in Book 5, after Poseidon raises a storm that smashes Odysseus’ raft. Ino, a former mortal princess transformed into a sea goddess, sees him struggling in the water and takes pity on him. She lends him her immortal veil, called a kredemnon, and tells him to abandon the wreckage and swim toward the land of the Phaeacians.
Odysseus initially distrusts the advice, fearing another divine trap. When Poseidon’s waves destroy the last of his raft, however, he ties the veil around his chest and swims. It protects him from drowning long enough to reach shore. Once safely on land, he throws it back into the sea as Ino instructed.
Ino is also known as Leucothea, meaning “white goddess.” She is not Circe, Calypso, or Athena: Calypso helped Odysseus leave her island, while Athena later assists him among the Phaeacians.