Answer:
Ebbs and flows in this context mean that human misery comes and goes.
Explanation:
The poem, Dover Beach, written by Matthew Arnold, uses the term 'ebbs and flows' to describe how human misery comes and goes. Ebbs and flows, in the context of sea movement, refers to the coming (flows) and going (ebbs) of the sea tides.
We can say that though hardships and miseries are experienced by all humans, eventually, it would all go away, drifting into the sea as we continue to live on and experience more happiness and betterment flowing in.
The stanza referred is this excerpt:
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
Agamemnon was the leader of the Greek troops in the Trojan wars and Orestes was his son. When Agamemno returned from the war, he was murdered by his wife's lover in conjunction with his wife. Orestes could not stop them but he seeked vengeance for his father. After a long time, he found them and avenged his father while killing them. He killed his mother, but Greek mythology claims that his act was just and he was spared the remorse and the guilt. There are a lot of similarities with the Ulysses/Telemachus father son pair. Ulysses was also one of the leaders of the excursion to Troy. He still has not returned home, but in a sense the suitors of Penelope are marring his estate and his reputation. While Penelope is faithful to Ulysses, the suitors by taking hold of the palace and committing their shameful acts are dishonoring Ulysses. In the same context, Telemachus is asked just like Orestes to restitute his father's honor, regardless of whether he is alive or dead. Athena is helping him and encouraging him with this example and he himself feels the need to save his father's honor.
Power means almost the same as force.
