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.