What the person on top of me said or probably the bottom
Answer:
The answer is that it keeps him from drowning. The scarf has magical powers that kept Odysseus alive when Poseidon wrecked his boat. He makes it Phaeacia where he is helped by the King who listens to his stories. He makes it back to Ithaca after that.
Explanation:
A complex situation that often involves an apparent mental conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another.