The Odyssey Book 5

Discussion Points and Questions

Romance Between Odysseus and Calypso[…] for long ago the nymph had ceased to please.Though he fought shy of her and her desire,he lay with her each night, for she compelled him.

• Their relationship has lost its excitement. (He’s been with her for eight years.)

• But there’s also some question of *how* exactly unwilling Odysseus is in this romance. It appears that he has had ample opportunity to leave.

As he mourned for a return, since the nymph no longer pleased him.But he slept the nights with her by necessityIn the hollow cave, an unwilling man with a willing woman.

Calypso, Ancient Greek Feminist

• This is what Calypso says to Hermes when he tells her Zeus has decided she has to send Odysseus on his way.

• Calypso is calling out a double-standard here; gods get to carry on love affairs with mortal women all the time (ALL THE TIME), but whenever goddesses fall in love with a human man, something bad seems to happen.

• Ultimately she says that she will heed Zeus’s will, but she’s not happy about it.

“You are cruel, you gods, jealous above all others,Who begrudge it to goddesses when they sleep with menOpenly, if one wants to make a man her dear husband […]And so when fair-braided Demeter yielded in her heartTo Jason, and lay with him in love and in bedIn a thrice-plowed fallow, it did not take Zeus longTo find out; he slew him, hurling a dazzling thunderbolt.So now you gods begrudge a mortal man’s being with me.

Calypso

• So when Calypso tells Odysseus that he is free to go, he is suspicious and tells her that he won’t try to leave unless she swears to him it’s not a trap.

• His doubts, I think, reveal more about his character than Calypso’s, because he is the kind of person who would set a trap for another.

• Ultimately, Calypso seems to be one of the kindest characters in the story. (Think of her as compared to Circe.)

“I would not for my part board the raft against your willUnless you will put up with swearing me a great oath, goddess,That you will not plot some other bad trouble against me.”She caressed him with one hand, and spoke to him directly:“Ah, you are a real rogue, skilled in tricks that are not futile,To have conceived and uttered a speech of this sort […]I will not plot any other bad trouble against you […]The heart in my breast is not of iron, but a pitying one.”

Mortality and ImmortalitySwiftly she turned and led him to her cave,and they went in, the mortal and immortal […]Calypso placed before himvictuals and drink of men; then she sat downFacing Odysseus, while her serving maidsBrought nectar and ambrosia to her side.

• Calypso had offered to turn Odysseus into a god (albeit a minor one) if he would stay with her, but he declined. Why?

Calypso’s Jealousy“[…] even though you would desireTo see your wife, whom you long for always every day.I declare I am not a bit inferior to that womanIn form or in shape, since it is not at all seemlyFor mortals to contend with immortals in looks and in form.”Odysseus of many devices addressed her in answer:“Lady goddess, be not angry with me this way. I myself knowAll this, that beside prudent PenelopeSeen face to face is less striking in form and size.For she is a mortal and you are immortal and ageless.Yet even so I am wishing and longing all my daysTo go home and see the day of my return.”

• Odysseus does a great job of playing politics here. He tells Calypso that she is certainly more beautiful than his wife, and makes the issue not about his desire for Penelope, but Ithaca.

• Notice his epithet, “of many devices.”