KALYPSO (or Calypso) was the goddess
nymph of the mythical island of Ogygia, a daughter of the Titan
Atlas. She detained the hero Odysseus for many years during his wanderings after the fall of Troy.
| PARENTS |
| [1.1] ATLAS (Homer Odyssey 1.14, Apollodorus E7.23-24, Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica 4.573, Lycophron Alexandra 743, Hyginus Fabulae 125) |
| OFFSPRING |
[1.1] NAUSITHOOS, NAUSINOOS (by Odysseus) (Hesiod Theogony 1017)
[1.2] TELEGONOS TELEDAMOS (by Odysseus) (Homerica Telegony Frag 2)
[1.3] LATINOS (by Odysseus) (Apollodorus E7.23) |
ENCYCLOPEDIA
CALYPSO (Kalupsô). Under this name we find in Hesiod (Theog.
359) a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and in Apollodorus (i. 2. § 7) a
daughter of Nereus, while the Homeric Calypso is described as a
daughter of Atlas. (Od. i. 50.) This last Calypso was a nymph
inhabiting the island of Ogygia, on the coast of which Odysseus was
thrown when he was shipwrecked. Calypso loved the unfortunate hero, and
promised him eternal youth and immortality if he would remain with her.
She detained him in her island for seven years, until at length she was
obliged by the gods to allow him to continue his journey homewards. (Od. v. 28, &c., vii. 254, &c.)
AEAEA (Aiaia). A surname of Calypso, who was believed to
have inhabited a small island of the name of Aeaea in the straits
between Italy and Sicily. (Pomp. Mela, ii. 7; Propert. iii. 10. 31.)
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
|
Homer, Odyssey 1. 14 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"The tale begins when all those who had escaped the pit of
destruction [the war at Troy] were safe in their own lands, spared by
the wars and seas. Only Odysseus was held elsewhere, pining for home and
wife; the Nymphe Kalypso (Calypso), a goddess of strange power and
beauty, had kept him captive within her arching caverns, yearning for
him to be her husband. And when there came with revolving seasons the
year that the gods had set for his journey home to Ithaka, not even then
was he past his troubles, not even then was he with his own people. For
though all the gods beside had compassion on him, Poseidon's anger was
unabated against the hero until he returned to his own land . . .
The other gods were gathered together [in council] in the palace
of Olympian Zeus . . . Athene, goddess of gleaming eyes made answer: ‘.
. . It is for Odysseus my heart is wrung--so subtle a man and so
ill-starred; he has long been far from everything that he loves,
desolate in a wave-washed island, a wooded island, the navel of all the
seas. A goddess has made her dwelling there whose father is Atlas the
magician; he knows the depths of all the seas, and he, no other, guards
the tall pillars that keep the sky and the earth apart. His daughter it
is who keeps poor Odysseus pining there, and who seeks continually with
her soft and coaxing words to beguile him into forgetting Ithaka; but
he--he would be well content to see even the smoke rising up from his
own land, and he longs to die . . . O son of Kronos, father of us and
sovereign ruler, if indeed the blessed gods now wish that shrewd
Odysseus should come to his own land again, then let us instruct the
radiant Hermes, the Messenger, to go to the island of Ogygia and without
delay to tell the Nymphe of the braided tresses our firm decree that
staunch Odysseus is to depart and journey home.’"
Homer, Odyssey 4. 553 ff :
"[Menelaus captures the prophetic sea-god Proteus who reveals
the location of Odysseus:] I [Menelaus] spoke and at once he [Proteus]
answered: ‘It is Laertes' son, whose home is in Ithaka. I have seen him
on a certain island, weeping most bitterly : this was in the domains of
the Nymphe Kalypso (Calypso), who is keeping him with her there perforce
and thwarting return to his own country. He has no ships and oars and
crew to take him over the wide expanse of ocean.’"
Homer, Odyssey 5. 4 ff :
"The gods were assembling to sit in council, and in their midst
was Zeus the Thunderer, sovereign above them all. Athene began to
recount to them the many distresses of Odysseus that again had come
before her mind, for it irked her that he should still be there in the
dwelling of Kalypso (Calypso): ‘Father Zeus, and you other blessed
immortal gods: I could wish that henceforth no sceptred king should set
himself to be kind and gentle and equitable; I would have every king a
tyrant and evildoer, since King Odysseus goes utterly unremembered among
the people that once he ruled with the gentleness of a father. He is
pent up in an island now, overwhelmed with misery; he is in the domains
of the Nymphe Kalypso, who is keeping him with her there perforce and
thwarting return to his own country. He has no ships and oars and crew
to take him over the wide expanse of ocean. And now men are plotting to
kill his only son as he returns home . . .’
Zeus who masses the clouds made answer: ‘My child, what a word is this
that has passed your lips! Was it not you who framed this plan, so that
Odysseus on his return might take vengeance upon these men? . . .’
And with this he turned to his dear son Hermes: ‘Hermes, you are
always our messenger; go then to the Nymphe of braided tresses and tell
her my firm decree for the homecoming of staunch Odysseus, and how he is
to begin his journey back, unescorted by gods and men. It will be on a
raft firmly put together; on this, in spite of many troubles, he may
come in twenty days' time to fertile Skheria; that is the land of the
Phaiakians, a people whose lineage is divine . . .’
So he spoke; and the Keen Watcher, the Radiant One, did not disobey. At
once he fastened under his feet the immortal sandals of lovely gold that
carried him, swift as airy breezes, over ocean and over boundless
earth. And he took the rod that lulls men's eyes for him, at his
pleasure, or awakens others when they slumber. With this in hand the
strong Radiant One began his flight; over Pieria he passed, then form
the upper air dipped down to the sea and sped on over the waves like the
seagull . . . But when he had reached that far-off island he left the
violet ocean and took to the land until he came to a great cavern; in
this the Nymphe of the braided tresses had made her home, and inside
this he found her now. On the hearth a great fire was burning, and far
and wide over the island was wafted the smell of burning wood, cloven
cedar and juniper.
In the space within was the goddess herself, singing with a lovely
voice, moving to and fro at her loom and weaving with a shuttle of gold.
Around the entrance a wood rose up in abundant growth--alder and aspen
and fragrant cypress. Birds with long wings roosted there, owls and
falcons and long-tongued sea-crows that have their business upon the
waters. Trailing over the cavern's arch was a garden vine that throve
and clustered; and here four springs began near each other, then in due
order ran four ways with their crystal waters. Grassy meadows on either
side stood thick with violet and wild parsley. Even a Deathless One, if
he came there, might gaze in wonder at the sight and might be the
happier in heart. So the Keen Water, the Radiant One, stood there and
gazed there too; and having gazed to his heart’s content, he passed
quickly into the ample cavern. When queenly Kalypso saw him face to
face, she as sure at once who he was, for the deathless gods are no
strangers to one another, though one may live far apart from the rest.
But bold Odysseus was not to be found within; as his custom was, he was
sitting on the shore and weeping, breaking his heart with tears and
sighs and sorrows.
Queenly Kalypso seated Hermes in a gleaming burnished chair. Then she
began to question him: ‘What is your errand here, I wonder, Hermes, god
of the golden wand? You are an honoured and welcome guest, although not a
frequent one hitherto. Tell me the thing that is in your mind; my heart
consents to it already if it si something I can do and something that
has been done before.’
And with these words the goddess drew up a table by him, heaping it with
ambrosia and mixing the rosy nectar. So Hermes began to eat and drink;
when the meal was over and his spirit refreshed with food, he answered
Kalypso thus: ‘At my entrance you put a question to me, goddess to god; I
will tell you the whole matter frankly, as indeed you wish me to. This
visit was not of my own choosing; it was Zeus who commanded me to come.
Who of his own free will would traverse those endless briny waters, with
not one town to be seen where human beings make sacrifice to the gods
and offer choice hecatombs? But when once the master of the aegis has
fixed his own purpose, no other god can cross or thwart it. He says that
you have with you here a man more luckless than all those others who
fought around the great town of Priamos. This man he bade you let go
forthwith, because it is not appointed for him to find his end here, far
away from his own people; he is destined to see his own kith and kin
again and return to his high-roofed house and his own country.’
So he spoke. The queenly goddess Kalypso shuddered, and her words came
forth in rapid flight: ‘You are merciless, you gods, resentful beyond
all other beings; you are jealous if without disguise a goddess makes a
man her bedfellow, her beloved husband. So it was when Eos of the rosy
fingers chose out Orion; you gods who live in such ease yourselves were
jealous of her until chaste Artemis in her cloth-of-gold visited him
with her gentle shafts and slew him in Ortygia. So it was when Demeter
of the braided tresses followed her heart and lay in love with Iasion in
the triple-furrowed field; Zeus was aware of it soon enough and hurled
the bright thunderbolt that killed him. And no so it is with me; you
resent this mortal man beside me. I saved him when he was all alone and
astride his keel, when Zeus with his flashing thunderbolt had shattered
and shivered his rapid vessel in the midst of wine-dark ocean. All his
brave comrades perished then; he alone was borne on to this place by
wind and wave. I welcomed him and tended him; I offered him immortality
and eternal youth. But, as you say, when once the master of the aigis
has fixed his own purpose, no other god can cross or thwart it; so let
the man go--if such is the word and behest of Zeus--go where he will
over the barren sea. I cannot help him to depart; I have no ships or
oars or crew to speed him over the sea’s expanse; but gladly enough,
without concealment, I will counsel him how best to reach his own land
unscathed.’
And the Radiant One answered her: ‘In that way, then, allow him to go,
and have regard to the anger of Zeus; if not, you may feel his
displeasure afterwards.’
With these words the strong Radiant One departed. The queenly Nymphe,
with the message of Zeus still in her ears, went off in quest of bold
Odysseus, and found him sitting upon the shore. His eyes were never dry
of tears while the sweetness of life ebbed away from him in his
comfortless longings for return, since the Nymphe was dear to him no
longer. At night-time, true, he slept with her even now in the arching
caverns, but this was against his will; she was loving and he unloving.
He passed the daytime seated upon the rocky shore, shedding tears and
gazing outwards over the barren sea.
Coming up to him, the queenly goddess began to speak: ‘Listen unhappy
man; no need to stay here lamenting longer, no need to let your life be
wasted; I am willing now, quite willing, to let you go. Come then; take
tools of bronze, cut long beams and fashion them into a wide raft; then
build half-decks on it, well above, so that the craft may carry you over
the misty ocean. I myself will put food in it, with water and with red
wine as well, things that will stave off hunger and please the taste. I
will give you clothes to wear and will send a fair wind behind you to
let you reach your own land unharmed--all this if it please the gods
whose home is wide heaven itself, because they are better able than I
both to plan and to achieve.’
So she spoke, but he much-tried hero shuddered. His words came forth in
rapid flight: ‘Goddess, your purpose cannot be as you say; you cannot
intend to speed me home. You tell me to make myself a raft to cross the
great gulf of ocean--a gulf so baffling and so perilous that not even
rapid ships will traverse it, steady though they may be and favoured by a
fair wind from Zeus. I will not set foot on such a raft unless I am
sure of your good will--unless, goddess, you take on yourself to swear a
solemn oath not to plot against me any new mischief to my ruin.’
These were his words. Queenly Kalypso smiled; and caressing him with her
hand she answered: ‘You are all too cunning. No innocent could have
mustered such words as those. So be it then--let Earth be witness to me
in this, and the arching Heaven above, and the downward water of the
Styx--most solemn and most fearsome of oaths with the blessed gods--that
I will plot against you no new mischief to your ruin. No; I have in
mind--I will ponder now--the very plans I would shape for myself if ever
need pressed as hard on me. My whole bent is to honest dealing; in this
breast of mine there is no heart of iron; I have compassion.’
So she spoke, this lovely divinity, and led the way forthwith; Odysseus
followed in her footsteps. Goddess and man reached the arching cavern;
Odysseus sat down in the chair that Hermes had risen from, and Kalypso
put in front of him all manner of things such as mortal men eat and
drink, then sat down herself facing the king while her handmaids served
her with nectar and ambrosia. He and she stretched out their hands to
the dishes there; but when they had eaten and drunk their fill, Kalypso
the goddess thus began:
‘Son of Laertes, subtle Odysseus--so then, your mind is firmly set on
returning now without delay to your home and country? Go then, and joy
go with you, in spite of all. Yet if you knew--if you fully knew--what
miseries are fated to fill your cup before you attain your own land, you
would choose to stay here, to join with me in calm possession of this
domain, to be beyond reach of death--this despite all your zeal to see
once more the wife that you yearn for, day by day. And yet I doubt if I
fall behind her in form and feature--for indeed it would be unbecoming
that mortal women should vie in form an face with immortal goddesses.’
Subtle Odysseus answered her: ‘Goddess and queen, do not make this a
cause of anger with me. I know the truth of everything you say; I know
that my wise Penelope, when a man looks at her, is far beneath you in
form and stature; she is a mortal, you are immortal and unageing. Yet,
not withstanding, my desire and longing day by day is still to reach my
own home and see the day of my return. And if this or that divinity
should shatter my craft on the wine-dark ocean, I will bear it and keep a
bold heart within me. Often enough before this time have war and wave
oppressed and plagued me; let new tribulations join the old.’
So he spoke; and the sun sank and darkness came; then the pair withdrew,
and in a recess of the arching cavern they took their pleasure in love,
and did not leave one another's side.
Eos (Dawn) comes early with rosy fingers. When she appeared, Odysseus
put on his cloak and tunic; the Nymphe put on a long silvery mantle,
graceful and delicate; she fastened a lovely gold girdle round her waist
and slipped a scarf over her head. Then she turned her mind to helping
his departure. She gave him a great axe of bronze, easy to wield, with
keen double blade; its haft was of olive, handsome and fitting close;
she gave him a polished adze as well. Then she led the way to the far
side of the island; tall trees were standing there, alder and aspen and
towering silver fir; for some time past, these had been dry and sapless,
ready to float easily. When Kalypso had shown him where they stood, she
returned homeward while he began to cut down trees; and the work went
briskly. He felled twenty trees, all told, and trimmed them with the
ace, smoothed them deftly and trued them to the line. Then the goddess
brought him augers ,and he bored all his pieces through and made them
meet exactly, then pinned the craft together with pegs and joints . . .
Meanwhile the goddess brought him pieces of cloth to make a sail of, and
he made that too in proper fashion . . .
By the fourth day all his work was done. On the fifth day, Lady Kalypso
made ready to let him leave her island; she had bathed him first and
clothed him in sweet-smelling garments. Moreover, the goddess had put
aboard one skin of dark wine, and another, a larger one, of water, with
provisions in a sack and many dainties to please the taste; last, she
had summoned up for him a fair wind that was warm and kindly."
Homer, Odyssey 5. 296 ff :
"[As Odysseus is sailing from the island of Kalypso (Calypso),
Poseidon sends a storm to sink his raft:] Then Odysseus felt his knees
and his spirit quail; in desperation he spoke to his own heroic heart:
‘Alas for me! What will become of me in the end? I fear the goddess
[Kalypos] spoke all too truly when she prophesied of trouble on trouble
to bear at sea before I reached my own land. All this is now being
brought to pass.’"
Homer, Odyssey 7. 243 ff :
"[Odysseus tells King Alkinous (Alcinous) of the Phaiakes
(Phaeacians) of his travels:] Far from here there lies an island called
Ogygia. The daughter of atlas has her home there, Kalypso (Calypso), a
goddess of awesome power and many wiles. She is seldom visited, whether
by mortals or by immortals; but I, alas, was brought by ill fortune to
her hearth, a sole survivor when Zeus with his flashing thunderbolt
shattered and shivered my rapid ship in the midst of the wine-dark
ocean. There and then my good comreades perished; for myself, I threw my
arms round the vessel’s keel and was carried on for nine whole days; in
the murkiness of the tenth night the gods brought me to Ogygia. The
goddess welcomed me lovingly, tended me, offered me immortality and
eternal youth; yet she never won the heart within me. I remained with
her for seven full years, and watered with continual weeping the
celestial garments that she gave me. But when the eighth year came
circling round, she told me and urged me to return, perhaps because Zeus
had sent her warning, perhaps because her own mind had changed. So she
sent me away on a firm raft, giving me many gifts, food and sweet wine,
and clothing me in celestial garments; moreover she sent a fair wind for
me, warm and kindly. For seventeen days I sailed on across the ocean,
and on the eighteenth their loomed before me the shadowy hills of this
land of yours . . . [and his raft destroyed in a storm]."
Homer, Odyssey 8. 452 ff :
"The palace of lovely-haired Kalypso (Calypso), though all the
time that he [Odysseus] was with her he had had the comforts a god
might have."
Homer, Odyssey 9. 29 ff :
"[Odysseus addresses King Alkinous (Alcinous):] ‘There was a
time when divine Kalypso (Calypso) kept me within her arching caverns
and would have had me to be her husband, and another time subtle Aiaian
Kirke (Circe) confined me in her palace and would have had me for
husband also. Yet neither of them could win the heart within me.’"
Homer, Odyssey 12. 388 ff :
"[Odysseus tells King Alkinous that the sun-god complained to
Zeus about the slaughter of his holy cattle by Odysseus' men:] ‘All
this I heard from Kalypso (Calypso) of the lovely hair, who herself had
heard it, so she told me, from Hermes, messenger o the gods.’"
Homer, Odyssey 12. 448 ff :
"[Odysseus' ship was destroyed in the whirlpool of Kharybdis
(Charybdis), and he escaped on some floating wreckage:] For nine days I
[Odysseus] drifted; on the tenth night the gods let me reach the island
of Ogygia; there dwells Kalypso (Calypso), the goddess of braided hair
and of strange powers and of human speech; she welcomed me and tended
me."
Homer, Odyssey 17. 124 ff :
"[Telemakhos (Telemachus) tells Penelope of his conversation
with Menelaus:] ‘The old god [Proteus] said he had seen Odysseus in much
distress. This was upon a certain island and in the house of the Nymphe
Kalypso (Calypso); she is keeping him with her there perforce and
thwarting return to his own country. He has no ships and oars and crew
to take him over the wide expanse of ocean. Such were the words of
Menelaus.’"
Homer, Odyssey 23. 236 ff :
"[Odysseus tells Penelope of his travels:] ‘How he came to the
island of Ogygia and to the Nymphe Kalypso (Calypso), who kept him
there in her arching caves, desiring him to be her husband, lavishing
every care upon him and offering him deathlessness and agelessness--yet
all this without winning his heart to it.’"
Hesiod, Theogony 1017 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) :
"Kalypso (Calypso), shining among goddesses, joining in love's delight
with Odysseus, bore him Nausithoos and Nausinoos. These [goddesses] went
to bed with mortal men and, themselves immortal, bore to them children
in the likeness of immortals."
Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragment 40A :
"Patient-souled Odysseus whom in aftertime Kalypso (Calypso) the queenly nymphe detained for Poseidon."
Cinaethon of Sparta or Eugammon of
Cyrene, Telegony Fragment 2 (from Eustathius 1796. 35) (trans.
Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 6th B.C.) :
"The author of the
Telegony, a Kyrenaian, relates that Odysseus had by Kalypso (Calypso) a son Telegonos or Teledamos."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E7. 23 - 24 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"[Odysseus] borne through the sea to the island of Ogygia.
There Kalypso (Calypso), the daughter of Atlas, welcomed him, and after
sleeping with him bore him a son Latinos. He lingered with her for five
years, after which he made a raft and sailed away." [N.B. Latinos was
the eponym of Latium, the ancient kingdom of Rome.]
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 573 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :
"Nymphaia [an island near Sicily], the home of the powerful Kalypso (Calypso) daughter of Atlas."
Callimachus, Fragment 524 (from Ammon. De different 103) (trans. Trypanis) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :
"Gaudos, Kalypso's (Calypso's) little isle."
Lycophron, Alexandra 743 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :
"After brief pleasure in wedlock with Atlantis (the daughter
of Atlas) [Kalypso], he [Odysseus] dares set foot in his offhand
vessel."
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 1. 16d (trans. Gullick) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to 3rd A.D.) :
"In describing Kalypso's (Calypso's) house, Homer causes Hermes to stand in wonder at it."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 125 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Wandering from this place [the island of the sacred cattle of
Helios the Sun], his [Odysseus'] comrades lost in the shipwreck, he
swam to the island of Aeaea, where the nympha Calypso, daughter of
Atlas, lived. She enamoured of the handsome form of Ulysses, kept him a
whole year, and was unwilling to release him until Mercury [Hermes], by
Jove's [Zeus'] command, bade her release him. When a raft had been made
there, Calypso sent him off with an abundance of provisions, but
Neptunus shattered the raft with his waves because he had blinded his
son, the Cyclops."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 243 :
"Calypso, daughter of Atlas, out of love for Ulysses killed herself."
Propertius, Elegies 1. 15 (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) :
"Thus was Calypso affected by the Ithacan's [Odysseus's]
departure, when in ages past she wept to the lonely waves: for many days
she sat disconsolately with unkempt tresses uttering many a complaint
to the unjust sea, and although she was never to see him again, yet she
still felt pain when she recalled their long happiness together."
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 3. 97 (trans. Rackham) (Roman encyclopedia C1st A.D.) :
"[In the Adriatic Sea] ten miles out [from the promontory of Lacinium in
southern Italy] lies the Island of the Dioscuri and another called
Calypso's Island, which is thought to be Homer’s island of Ogygia."
- Homer, The Odyssey - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
- Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th B.C.
- Hesiod, Catalogues of Women - Greek Epic C8th-7th B.C.
- Cinaethon or Eugammon , The Telegony - Greek Epic C8th-6th B.C.
- Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
- Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd B.C.
- Callimachus, Fragments - Greek Poetry C3rd B.C.
- Lycophron, Alexandra - Greek Poetry C3rd B.C.
- Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
- Propertius, Elegies - Latin Elegy C1st B.C.
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History - Latin Encyclopedia C1st A.D.
Other references not currently quoted
here : Eustathius on Homer's Odyssey 1796; Pomponius Mela 2.7; Tzetzes
on Lycophron 44 & 696
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