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Odysseus and Calypso

But one man alone…
his heart set on his wife and his return – Calypso,
the bewitching nymph, the lustrous goddess, held him back,
deep in her arching caverns, craving him for a husband.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 15-18. Odysseus is trapped on Calypso’s island, where the nymph is keeping him and wants him for her husband. While Odysseus longs to return to his wife Penelope in Ithaca, the bewitching goddess Calypso holds him back. Calypso is portrayed in the epic poem as a maniulative seductress.

"But my heart breaks for Odysseus,
that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long –
far from his loved ones still, he suffers torments
off on a wave-washed island rising at the center of the seas.
…Atlas’ daughter it is who holds Odysseus captive,
luckless man – despite his tears, forever trying
to spellbind his heart with suave, seductive words
and wipe all thought of Ithaca from his mind."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 57-60, 65-68. There is a strong theme of homecoming in The Odyssey, with Odysseus on a long, perious journey home after the end of the Trojan War. In this passage Athena, who has a special relationship with Odysseus, pleads with Zeus to allow the "cursed by fate" hero home. She says that he is being held captive on an island by the goddess Calypso, who is trying to wipe out all thoughts of his homeland. Calypso is portrayed in The Odyssey as embodying the feminine powers of seduction, manipulative language and beauty and using these to keep Odysseus on her island. Athena on the other hand employs her considerable power at a meeting of the gods to help Odysseus and persuade Zeus to allow him return home.

"You are our messenger, Hermes, sent on all our missions.
Announce to the nymph with lovely braids our fixed decree:
Odysseus journeys home – the exile must return.
But not in the convoy of the gods or mortal men.
No, on a lashed, makeshift raft and wrung with pains,
on the twentieth day he will make his landfall, fertile Scheria,
the land of Phaeacians, close kin to the gods themselves,
who with all their hearts will prize him like a god
and send him off in a ship to his own beloved land,
giving him bronze and hoards of gold and robes –
more plunder than he could ever have won from Troy
if Odysseus had returned intact with his fair share.
So his destiny ordains. He shall see his loved ones,
reach his high-roofed house, his native land at last"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 33-46. Zeus instructs his son Hermes to deliver his command to Calypso concerning Odysseus. He has decreed that the exiled hero is to return home. But he is to make the journey alone and on a raft that he must build himself. Zeus also warns that Odysseus’ journey will not be an easy one, but full of pain. However, he prophecies that Odysseus will end up back in his homeland of Ithaca with many treasures, because that is his destiny.

The powerful giant-killer,
swooping down from Pieria, down the high clear air,
plunged to the sea and skimmed the waves like a tern
that down the deadly gulfs of the barren salt swells
glides and dives for fish,
dipping its beating wings in bursts of spray –
so Hermes skimmed the crests on endless crests.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 53-59. As Hermes flies to Calypso’s island, he is compared to a seabird skimming the sea in search of fish. This is one of Homer’s many glorious epic similes to be found throughout The Odyssey and the Iliad. Hermes earned the nickname the giant-killer because he lulled the hundred-eyed giant Argos to sleep with his music and slew him with his sword.

"God of the golden wand, why have you come?
A beloved, honored friend,
but it’s been so long, your visits much too rare.
Tell me what’s on your mind. I’m eager to do it,
whatever I can do…whatever can be done."
And the goddess drew a table up beside him,
heaped with ambrosia, mixed him deep-red nectar.
Hermes the guide and giant-killer ate and drank.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 98-105. Even the gods abide by the ancient Greek rule of hospitality. Here Calypso provides food and drink for visiting messenger of the gods, "honored friend" Hermes.

"Now Zeus commands you to send him off with all good speed:
it is not his fate to die here, far from his own people.
Destiny still ordains that he shall see his loved ones,
reach his high-roofed house, his native land at last."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 125-128. Hermes tells Calypso of Zeus’ command that she must release Odysseus. Destiny has ordained that the Greek hero will return to native land and home at last, Hermes says. This prophecy foreshadows that Odysseus will reach his home in Ithaca.

A great fire
blazed on the hearth and the smell of cedar
cleanly split and sweetwood burning bright
wafted a cloud of fragrance down the island
Deep inside she sang, the goddess Calypso, lifting
her breathtaking voice as she glided back and forth
before her loom, her golden shuttle weaving.
Thick, luxuriant woods grew round the cave,
alders and black poplars, pungent cypress too,
and there birds roosted, folding their long wings,
owls and hawks and the spread-beaked ravens of the sea,
black skimmers who make their living off the waves.
And round the mouth of the cavern trailed a vine
laden with clusters, bursting with ripe grapes.
Four springs in a row, bubbling clear and cold,
running side-by-side, took channels left and right.
Soft meadows spreading round were starred with violets,
lush with beds of parsley.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 64-81. We get this description of Calypso singing with her beautiful voice as Hermes arrives to her cavern. She is weaving on her loom with a golden shuttle while she sings. The depiction of her and the lush woodland surroundings, teeming with plant life and wildlife, is meant to reflect Calypso’s sensuality and seductive skills with men.

"Hard-hearted
you are, you gods! You unrivaled lords of jealousy –
scandalized when goddesses sleep with mortals,
openly, even when one has made the man her husband."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 130-133. Calypso tells Hermes that the gods are being unfair. Accusing them of jealousy, she says that they punish when goddesses sleep with mortals, even when they are marry. Calypso is highlighting the double standards of the male gods, who take mortal lovers but object when goddesses do the same. She wants Odysseus for a husband and is upset by Zeus’ order to release him.

"But since there is no way for another god to thwart
the will of storming Zeus and make it come to nothing,
let the man go – if the Almighty insists, commands –
and destroy himself on the barren salt sea!
I’ll send him off, but not with any escort."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 152-156. Calypso agrees to Zeus’s command, delivered to her by Hermes, to allow Odysseus leave her island. She acknowledges that no other god can go against the will of Zeus. This foreshadows Odysseus’ release from Ogygia.

on the headland, sitting, still,
weeping, his eyes never dry, his sweet life flowing away
with the tears he wept for his foiled journey home,
since the nymph no longer pleased. In the nights, true,
he’d sleep with her in the arching cave – he had no choice –
unwilling lover alongside lover all too willing.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 167-172. The goddess and nymph Calypso keeps Odysseus as a sex slave on her island of Ogygia for seven years. Here the narrator describes Odysseus’ typical day in captivity: weeping by day because he is prevented from returning home, and being an unwilling lover by night. This is an exception to the patriarchal world of the time, with the woman having the power and the man being her captive.

"So then,
royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, man of exploits,
still eager to leave at once and hurry back
to your own home, your beloved native land?
Good luck to you, even so. Farewell!
But if you only knew, down deep, what pains
are fated to fill your cup before you reach that shore,
you’d stay right here, preside in our house with me
and be immortal."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 223-231. Begging Odysseus to stay with her, Calypso tries to seduce him with the offer of immortality and promise to save him from future woes. His journey back to his homeland will be filled with pain, she prophesies. This foreshadows that the rest of Odysseus’ journey to Ithaca without his crew will be a very difficult one.

"Much as you long to see your wife,
the one you pine for all your days…and yet
I just might claim to be nothing less than she,
neither in face nor figure. Hardly right, is it,
for mortal woman to rival immortal goddess?
How, in build? in beauty?"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 231-236. Here we see a battle for Odysseus’ heart between two powerful love rivals, Calypso and Penelope. The nymph claims that she is more beautiful than Penelope who waits for Odysseus at home. She pleads with Odysseus to remain with her, questioning how a human woman could rival an immortal goddess.

"Ah great goddess
…don’t be angry with me,
please. All that you say is true, how well I know.
Look at my wise Penelope. She falls far short of you,
your beauty, stature. She is mortal after all
and you, you never age or die…
Nevertheless I long – I pine, all my days –
to travel home and see the dawn of my return.
And if a god will wreck me yet again on the wine-dark sea,
I can bear that too, with a spirit tempered to endure.
Much have I suffered, labored long and hard by now
in the waves and wars. Add this to the total –
bring the trial on!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 236-246. In the tug of war for Odysseus’ heart, it is Penelope who wins over Calypso. Odysseus declines the goddess’ offer to stay with her and be immortal. This shows how powerful a woman Penelope is. Odysseus longs to be back home with her in Ithaca, no matter what trials he faces along the way. Ultimately his loyalty to family and homeland is more important than anything Calypso can offer.

Even as he spoke
the sun set and the darkness swept the earth.
And now, withdrawing into the cavern’s deep recesses,
long in each other’s arms they lost themselves in love.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 246-249. After seven years trapped on Calypso’s island as her sex-slave, the goddess-nymph and enchantress has agreed to free Odysseus. But fascinatingly Odysseus willingly beds Calypso one more time before he sails away on the raft she allowed him to build. Is he not being disloyal to Penelope here?

"Outrageous! Look how the gods have changed their minds
about Odysseus – while I was off with my Ethiopians.
Just look at him there, nearing Phaeacia’s shores
where he’s fated to escape his noose of pain
that’s held him until now."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 317-319. An angry Poseidon hates Odysseus for blinding his son and wants to continue punishing him. He is outraged that the other gods have allowed the Greek hero leave Calypso’s island and escape his fate there. When it comes to the administration of divine justice, the gods are not always at one. A metaphor in this passage compares Odysseus’ entrapment on Calypso’s island to a noose tied around his neck.

"I’ll give that man his swamping fill of trouble!"
With that he rammed the clouds together – both hands
clutching his trident – churned the waves into chaos, whipping
all the gales from every quarter, shrouding over in thunderheads
the earth and sea at once – and night swept down from the sky –
East and South Winds clashed and the raging West and North,
sprung from the heavens, roiled heaving breakers up –
and Odysseus’ knees quaked, his spirit too.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 320-327. The fate of Odysseus and his hope of returning home appears to be very much in the hands of the gods. While he escapes Calypso’s island with the support of Athena and Zeus, an angry Poseidon is bent on making his journey as difficult as possible. He whips up a storm which drive him off course. In this passage the winds are personified, as they clash and rage and roil up the sea.

"Wretched man – what becomes of me now, at last?
I fear the nymph foretold it all too well –
on the high seas, she said, before I can reach
my native land I’ll fill my cup of pain! And now,
look, it all comes to pass. What monstrous clouds –
King Zeus crowning the whole wide heaven black –
churning the seas in chaos, gales blasting,
raging around my head from every quarter –
my death-plunge in a flash, it’s certain now!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 329-337. Odysseus fears his imminent death after Poseidon creates a storm at sea while he is sailing home from Calypso’s island. He believes that the gods are against him and his position is hopeless. He remembers Calypso’s prophecy about the painful journey home he would have.

"the gods cast me up on Ogygia, Calypso’s island,
home of the dangerous nymph with glossy braids,
and the goddess took me in in all her kindness,
welcomed me warmly, cherished me, even vowed
to make me immortal, ageless, all my days –
but she never won the heart inside me, never."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 292-297. Odysseus’ unshakable loyalty to his homeland is spelled out when he tells Arete the story of his time on Calypso’s island. Despite spending seven years on Ogygia, Calypso never won his heart, it remained in Ithaca. She even tempted him with the prize of immortality if he would be her husband, but he resisted that.

"True enough,
Calypso the lustrous goddess tried to hold me back,
deep in her arching caverns, craving me for a husband.
So did Circe, holding me just as warmly in her halls,
the bewitching queen of Aeaea keen to have me too.
But they never won the heart inside me, never."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 32-37. Odysseus tells Alcinous that beautiful goddesses like Calypso and Circe tried to seduce him to stay with them. But he didn’t succumb to their temptations, he reveals, because his heart always yearned for home and family.

"But I do know this: you were kind to me in the war years,
so long as we men of Achaea soldiered on at Troy.
But once we’d sacked King Priam’s craggy city,
boarded ship, and a god dispersed the fleet,
from then on, daughter of Zeus, I never saw you,
never glimpsed you striding along my decks
to ward off some disaster."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 13, lines 357-363. Odysseus complains that he has not seen Athena since the Trojan war, and believes that she abandoned him. Here we have dramatic irony, because the reader knows that during his journey back from Troy Athena helped him a number of times. She petitioned Zeus to free him from Calypso’s island and allow him home. She helped save him when the raft he escaped the island in is wrecked by Poseidon. She ensured that he was received more favorably by the Phaeanians by making him bigger and stronger.

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