Finsbury Park

Ancient Greek Mythology

Homer's Odyssey - The Goddess Calypso

8th century BC, Ancient Greek.

Calypso is a daughter of the Titan god Atlas and she lives alone on an island, in a cave in which she spends her days weaving.

After defeating the Trojans in battle, the victorious Achaeans sail for home. But Odysseus finds his way, somehow - perhaps a surprise and murderous attack by his enemies and a life-threatening storm have something to do with it - but he finds his way into an enchanted sea in which he visits an island of lotus-eaters, two islands where giants live, the abode of the goddess Circe who turns his men into animals, lands of strange and mythical monsters; he sails into the realm of Hades, the underworld, the land of the dead, and at last, with his entire flotilla lost and all his men perished, he is washed up, clinging to the last remaining piece of his last remaining ship, onto the island of the goddess Calypso.

Here he spends many years, making love to this goddess at night but craving the island on which he was born during the day. She is a daughter of Atlas, one of the giants who warred with the Olympian gods. She lives alone on this island, in a cave in which she spends her days weaving, and from which four springs emerge, each flowing away in different directions. If these recall the four rivers that flow from the Garden of Eden, then it should be added that if Odysseus were to agree to become Calypso’s husband, we are told, she would offer him immortality and eternal youth.