Great Works of Literature I (Fall 2016)

Line 148 – 155

‘Calypso composed herself and went to Odysseus, Zeus’ message still ringing in her ears. She found him sitting where the breakers rolled in. His eyes were perpetually wet with tears now, his life draining away in homesickness. The nymph had long since ceased to please. He still slept with her at night in her cavern, an unwilling lover mated to her eager embrace.’

What really struck me from this passage is the theme of unwavering, albeit, one-sided love. It was palpable how much pain Calypso was feeling at the thought of letting Odysseus go. You can almost picture the heaviness in her heart as she was approaching him with the news that she will send him off. There are various ways of looking at Calypso’s relationship with Odysseus. Some may look upon her as a scorned woman who has to let go of the man that she truly loves. Others may view her as a kidnapper, a villain of sorts for keeping Odysseus at her grasp for so long. Some may argue that her love towards him was selfish – only catering towards her needs and desires. The concept of one-sided love is a very interesting theme to explore. When one thinks of love, they think of it as a consensual romantic relationship for both parties. So this begs the questions: Did Calypso truly love Odysseus if her love was rooted in selfishness? Could love ever exist between a captor and her captive?

The line ‘The nymph had long ceased to please’ screams out from the page. The nymph had initially pleased Odysseus, sexually and emotionally. She had the relationship that she desired from him, if even for a brief flickering moment. However, that soon began to get old for Odysseus – he longed for Penelope and Telemachus. Calypso’s allure and excitement began to pale in comparison to the old life that he longed for. Calypso picked up on Odysseus’s sadness as she saw him ‘his eyes perpetually wet with tears’. Despite his desire to leave, she still would have kept him, had it not been for Hermes arrival with Zeus’s message. What added to Calypso’s and Odysseus’s relationship of captor and captive in a sexual relationship, was the complexity of their mortal and immortal status. A truly consensual romantic relationship can not exist between a mortal and immortal, it is akin to a romantic relationship between an adult and a minor. Immortals have more power than mortals  – they are generally stronger, faster and wiser. The relationship between Odysseus and Calypso has made rethink relationships between mortals and immortals, as I do not believe that a union between the two could ever be considered to be consensual.

“Tendrils of ivy curled around the cave’s mouth, The glossy green vine clustered with berries. Four separate springs flowed with clear water, criss-Crossing channels as they meandered through meadows Lush with parsley and blossoming violets. It was enough to make even a visiting god Enraptured at the sight” (Book 5, Lines 72-78).

When I first read this excerpt from Book 5, there was something about it that made me want to go back and reread it. So, when I reread it, I realized how much alliteration is used in these lines, such as, “glossy green” and “meandered through meadows.” Stanley Lombardo specifically chose these words when he translated the text to enhance the imagery of the cave. Even though it is the cave where Calypso (Odysseus’ imprisoner) resided, it is illustrated in a way that beautifies the setting. The ivy is described like hair that surrounds the mouth of the cave; the springs are described as flowing with clear water, and the vegetation is described as lush and blossoming. In addition, Lombardo’s diction evokes positive and peaceful connotations. Glossy, clear, and meadows are all examples of words that have positive connotations. These imageries and choice of diction work together to create a sense of calmness, serenity, and an almost paradise, even though it is also the same setting where Odysseus was held captive.

Lombardo’s translation of this passage in The Odyssey connects back to the epic’s overall theme and depiction of the gods and goddesses. Even though Calypso is part of the reason why Odysseus cannot return back to Ithaca, because she is a goddess, her cavern is not described with negativity, instead it is described with beauty. Her dwelling is so captivating, even other gods are enchanted by its aestheticism. Also because she is a goddess, as opposed to god, her home is described with more serene words, as opposed to the more rugged words that describe Zeus and Poseidon, i.e. lightning blast and Earthshaker. In addition to this, this excerpt relates back to one’s home being one’s greatest preference. Similar to how Telemachus preferred Ithaca’s rocky scape to Sparta’s rich and wealthy land, Odysseus was surrounded by all of the beauty and nature on Calypso’s island, but still desired to go back to his home in Ithaca. No matter how great another land is compared to one’s home, one’s home is always more desired in comparison.

“You ask me, goddess to god, why I have come.

Well, I’ll tell you exactly why. Remember, you asked.

Zeus ordered me to come here; I didn’t want to.

Who would want to cross this endless stretch

Of deserted sea? Not a single city in sight

Where you can get a decent sacrifice for men.”

(5.97-102).

In this passage, Hermes reminds me of another being that is not quite human, but yearns  for their lives, or at least their activities:

“I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see, wanna see them dancing’
Walking around on those – what do you call ’em?
Oh – feet!”

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“When he finally arrived at the distant island
He stepped from the violet-tinctured sea
On to dry land and proceeded to the cavern
Where Calypso lived. She was at home.
A fire blazed on the hearth, and the smell
Of split cedar and arbor vitae burning
Spread like incense across the whole island.
She was seated inside, singing in a lovely voice
As she wove at her loom with a golden shuttle.”

In this passage of Book V (lines 58-66), the reader is introduced to the physical realm of Calypso, whom we have heard so much about—as seen by Hermes. There are lots of sensory details that make the reader feel as though he himself is stepping into Calypso’s domain. The violet tinctured sea could be seen glinting behind Hermes, along with the feeling of stepping on dry land after a twenty-day sea voyage. The smell of the cedar and evergreen trees looming in the air like incense draws Hermes closer to the cavern where Calypso is leisurely at work weaving while singing a song.

From this description, the reader is lured closer to Ogygia as Hermes and Odysseus were. After Hermes’ own journey of twenty days of tribulation at sea on a rickety raft, the reader can feel the pleasant relief of landing at this beautiful, welcoming island where a godly woman toils at her leisure everyday. How could anyone resist this? Homer’s description here of a seaman landing at Calypso’s island provides insight into how Odysseus must have felt when he arrived there, and why he has not been able to leave. Odysseus’ journey leading up to his arrival at Ogygia was much longer and had much more tribulation than Hermes’ trip there. The feeling of relief that Odysseus felt when he arrived on must have felt much stronger than for Hermes. This passage begins to explain a part of the reason why Odysseus was so seduced by Calypso and cannot leave Ogygia.

“A fire blazed on the hearth, and the smell

Of split cedar and arbor vitae burning

Spread like incense across the whole island.

She was seated inside, singing in a lovely voice

As she wove at her loom with a golden shuttle.

Around her cave the woodland was in bloom,

Alder and poplar and fragrant cypress.

Long-winged birds nested in the leaves,

Horned owls and larks and slender-throated shorebirds

That screech like crows over the bright saltwater.

Tendrils of ivy curled around the cave’s mouth,

The glossy green vine clustered with berries.

Four separate springs flowed with clear water, criss-

Crossing channels as they meandered through meadows

Lush with parsley and blossoming violets.”

(The Odyssey, Book 5, Line 62 – 76)

This passage contains a strong, descriptive imagery of Calypso’s cave, where she holds Odysseus captive. Homer begins the description by tingling with one of our senses — smell. We begin with the burning of two different types of wood: cedar and arbor vitae, which both give off a rich aroma while being burnt. The burning of wood, especially arbor vitae, whose name means “tree of life”, symbolizes a much darker aspect of the cave. Similarly, to the burning of the “tree of life”, Odysseus’ life is rotting and draining away in Calypso’s cave day by day as he is held hostage. Every moment he spends in the cave, his eyes become more lifeless and hallow. Moreover, the longer Odysseus stays in the cave, the happier Calypso is, which corresponds to the richer and stronger aroma of wood that has been burning longer.

Homer entices our sense of hearing by describing Calypso’s voice as “lovely”. Calypso’s uses her voice to enchant Odysseus. Although her singing is lovely and attractive, there is a hint of wariness and skepticism.

Then Homer moves on to describe the sights around the cave in astonishing detail. The Island of Ogygia is described as a luscious, green woodland, where the fertility and beauty of the land juxtaposes the blood-drenched and barren plains of Troy. The land seems to be completely embraced by Mother Nature with its cypress, “tendrils of ivy”, and “blossoming violets”. The cave’s mouth, where Odysseus remains, can be seen as a womb. For years, Calypso has protected Odysseus from Poseidon’s wrath, and has nurtured Odysseus, like a devoted mother, which brings us to question why Odysseus is so unwilling to remain on the island.

The passage highlights the theme of femininely verse masculinity by depicting the feminine and motherly aspect of the island and Odysseus’ need to escape from it. After ten years of killing and destroying during the Trojan War, Odysseus has been desensitized towards violence and detached from his emotions. He has lost touch with his feminine psyche after years of being surrounded by men, but through Calypso he is able to reunite with it. The tears Odysseus has shed on the island prove that the feminine was within him. Calypso emasculates Odysseus and strips him of any power, making him feel like a powerless boy. However, Odysseus despises his union with his feminine psyche, because after being in touch with his masculinity for many years, there is no space for the feminine. As a result, he tries to escape from it and Calypso. Odysseus seeks masculinity and fears femininity. In essence, The Odyssey is about Odysseus search for masculinity, which he can only find at home, next to his wife, Penelope, who can make him feel like a husband, a father, and a king.

(Book V: Lines 118-143. Page 388.)

“You gods are the most jealous bastards in the universe—

Persecuting any goddess who openly takes

A mortal lover to her bed and sleeps with him.

When Dawn caressed Orion with her rosy fingers,

You celestial layabouts gave her nothing but trouble

Until Artemis finally shot him on the Ortygia—

Gold-throned, holy, gentle-shafted assault goddess!

When Demeter followed her heart and unbound

Her hair for Iason and made love to him

In a late-summer field, Zeus was there taking notes

And executed the man with a cobalt lightning blast.

And now you gods are after me for having a man.

Well, I was the one who saved his life, unprying him

From the spar he came floating here on, sole survivor

Of the wreck Zeus made of his streamlined ship,

Slivering it with lightning on the wine-dark sea.

I loved him, I took care of him, I even told him

I’d make him immortal and ageless all of his days.

But you said it, Hermes: Zeus has the aegis

And none of us gods can oppose his will.

So all right, he can go, if it’s an order from above

Off on the sterile sea. How I don’t know.

I don’t have any oared ships or crewmen

To row him across the sea’s broad back.

But I’ll help him. I’ll do everything I can.

To get him back safely to his own native land.”

In this passage, the nymph Calypso bitterly complains to Hermes about Zeus’s order to send Odysseus back home. She accuses the gods of obsessively policing goddesses’ love affairs with mortals. Calypso’s language is intense–as Homer warns us in the preceding lines, “words flew from her mouth like screaming hawks” (line 117). However, the most impressive facet of the speech is its clever structure, which by its conclusion convinces the reader that Calypso is the victim of a grave injustice.

Calypso starts off on the offensive. Not only does she charge the gods as being “the most jealous bastards in the universe”, but more importantly, she characterizes them as being in the practice of ‘persecuting’—rather than merely prosecuting or even judging—those goddesses who sleep with mortal men. From there, Calypso attempts to portray herself as the latest victim in the long line of abused goddesses. She references two examples of goddess-man relationships ended by “celestial layabouts [who are] nothing but trouble”. From her perspective, the gods meddled in Dawn’s and Demeter’s relationships not out of any genuine sense of moral outrage, but rather to alleviate their boredom and create drama. Calypso ends off this part of the speech with a line of self-pity: “And now you gods are after me for having a man.”

The latter half of the speech serves as a contrast between a powerful, but destructive Zeus, and a benign and helpful Calypso. “I was the one who saved [Odysseus’s] life,” not Zeus. “I loved him,” Calypso says, “I took care of him.” In contrast, Zeus may be the possessor of “the aegis and none of us gods can oppose his will,” but is essentially useless to Odysseus—after all, it was he who struck lightning at Odysseus’s ship and wrecked it. Finally, Calypso acquiesces to Zeus’s demands and resolves to help Odysseus reach home. “I’ll do everything I can. To get him back safely to his own native land.”

Besides for this speech, the reader is only exposed to Calypso through the perspective of others. Indeed, at least through the end of Book VIII, Calypso is invariably cast in an unflattering light, an immortal captor barring a weary hero from returning home to his family. The reader is compelled to view Calypso more positively. Of course, the hypocrisy here is all too apparent; by imprisoning an unwilling lover for several years, Calypso is guilty of the very crime that she accused the other gods of committing—namely, negative and unproductive interference into human affairs. However, this passage serves another role besides for rehabilitating Calypso’s image. In the bigger picture, the reader gains a more honest understanding of the way Greek gods work. They are essentially humans with superpowers. Though Calypso is a goddess, her impassioned speech is humanizing, and helps readers empathize with her predicament. Similarly, Zeus may be all-powerful, but he’s at the very least inconsistent—a classic human flaw that would otherwise be unexpected of a godly figure.

He pushed aside the bushes, breaking off

with his great hand a single branch of olive

whose leaves might shield him in his nakedness;

so came out rustling, like a mountain lion,

rain-drenched, wind-buffeted, but in his might at ease

with burning eyes—who prowls among the herds

or flocks, or after game, his hungry belly

taking him near stout homesteads for his prey.

Odysseus had this look, in his rough skin

advancing on the girls with pretty braids;

and he was driven on by hunger, too.

Streaked with brine, and swollen, he terrified them,

so that they fled, this way and that. Only

Alkînoos’ daughter stood her ground, being given

a bold heart by Athena, and steady knees.

The Norton Anthology of World Literature Second Edition Volume A. Book VI: 135-149

Classic Homeric prose can be found in this section of Odysseus’ travels. Odysseus’ “great” hand breaks off an olive—a motif found throughout book VI— branch as he arises from an apparent grave that he dug for himself. It is truly chilling to imagine a heavily bearded, naked man arising from a pit as he rustles and growls “like a mountain lion.” Homer’s description of Odysseus’ hunger is both painful and frightening to the reader as one can sense his starvation while considering that he is “advancing on the girls with pretty braids.” It certainly seems as though Odysseus’ was on the verge of a violent plundering. Additionally, the text reemphasizes his hunger immediately following the mention of the pretty girls. Exactly what one might expect occurs: the girls flee out of terror from the bare man approaching them. To the reader’s satisfaction, however, one girl does remain, and the story unfolds subsequently. This resulting scene of Odysseus and Alkînoos encounter is not surprising, per se, given the background of Alkînoos. However, Homer constructed the stanza in such a manner that the listeners of the story would be on the edge of their seats, eager to know what would ensue between the two characters.

The specific elements of these lines are far superior to their style. After Odysseus is released from the imprisonment of Kalypso and has successfully set sail on the sea, Poseidon sends a storm that completely overwhelms Odysseus and his ship, sending him into the depths of the water. With assistance from various gods, Odysseus manages to stay afloat and arrive at a shore. It is crucial to note that Odysseus is naked in the water (V: 345 “Shed that cloke…”). After experiencing an unparalleled immersion in a vast body of water, he digs a hole in which he will sleep. Nude, overnight in a pit, Odysseus rises in the morning with might that he had lost after Poseidon’s reign of terror. Like a baby was Odysseus, floating through the sea, helpless to care for himself, only to be saved by the gods. Now he has returned—rebirthed, perhaps—to continue on his journey. He is naked, but elects to cover himself with an olive branch. Olive oil and branches have already been mentioned in this book. Thoughts journey to Noah and the flood, where the dove returns with an olive branch in its mouth to indicate that the flood has ceased. The end is seemingly not with regard to the parallels between biblical creation accounts and this portion of the epic. There are more thoughts on the creation of man and the subsequent creation of his “helper,” but too many words are needed for here. There are possibly elements of resurrection or those related to Jesus, but I am not as well versed in those areas, though they seem interesting paths to pursue, nonetheless. It seems, plainly, that there is a plethora to draw on in comparing various creation stories to the epic of the Odyssey.

Book V; 118-119, 130-137

“You gods are the most jealous bastards in the universe-

Persecuting any goddess who ever openly takes

A mortal lover to her bed and sleeps with him…

Well, I was the one who saved his life, unprying him

From the spar he came floating here on, sole survivor

Of the wreck Zeus made of his streamlined ship,

Slivering it with lightning on the wine-dark sea.

I loved him, I took care of him, I even told him

I’d make him immortal and ageless all of his days.

But you said it, Hermes: Zeus has the aegis

And none of us gods can oppose his will.”

     Here, we have a Goddess whining and complaining. The Gods are regarded as divine beings, far above us mortals from the way they carry themselves to the way that they look. However, this passage is a great example of how that weakly supported that belief is. Calypso demonstrates immature and childlike behavior which, arguably, can only be expected of someone who never grows older. She uses the word “jealous” suggesting that she feels personally attacked by Zeus’ order to release Odysseus, expressing complete inability to empathize or otherwise understand a contrary point of view. According to her, it is blasphemous that she should have to release her item of affection, and inconceivable that Odysseus refuse immortality at her side. This is like trying to teach a child why you need to give back toy which does not belong to them. This repaints the reader’s image of the Gods because it shows that they are not all wise and stately, clearing the stage to make comparisons later with more admirable mortal characters such as Odysseus himself. 

     In relation to a larger theme, this is also a great scenario for exploring the controversy regarding Godly authority. Are they truly divine, or  just glittered, glorified and self-entitled? Are they actually powerful ? If so, to what extent?

     Calypso is a Goddess previously introduced as all powerful on her island of Ogygia. It is her realm, and the other Gods acknowledge that. However, similar to the way a state must bend to the will of the federal government, she must obey Zeus. Despite her reluctance, she agrees to allow Odysseus to leave her island. Further, she does not half-heartedly comply. Calypso could have sent him off with the the bare minimum, but the fact that she later makes a respectable effort to obey Zeus’ will (sending Odysseus with clothes, provisions, and a breeze) shows that she understands the hierarchy of power to be far greater than her personal desires. She may interfere, but she cannot disrupt fate. She is influential considering she did detain Odysseus for years, but not exactly powerful because she cannot keep him forever as she would like. 

“You know how precious a father’s life is

To children who have seen him through a long disease,

Gripped by a malevolent spirit and melting away,

But then released from suffering in a spasm of joy. 

The land and woods were that welcome a sight

To Odysseus…”

The continuity of the narrative is interrupted by these Homeric similes which possess an aesthetic function for the text. The similes follow after a particular action a character has done or a heavy felt emotion a character is presently feeling. The purpose of these similes is the question at hand. In this particular simile, Odysseus’ spotting of land is compared to children witnessing the joy their father is feeling after being released from the hands of suffering. It starts off by addressing the reader (or the audience) directly: “You know…”; drawing in the reader more deeply into the story by engaging the reader’s personal experience. The narrator seeks to awaken the subjectivity of the reader when it supposes that the reader knows “how precious a father’s life is”. The purpose of engaging the subjectivity of the reader is to put him/her into a first person perspective, whereas throughout the text the reader has been an objective third person observer. But now that the narrator has awaken the reader and has brought him/her to the foreground, the “spasm of joy” Odysseus feels as he sees land should be felt by the reader as well. Therefore, in it’s immediate context, this simile helps transition the reader from a third-person observer to a phenomenological first-person perceiver of Odysseus’ feeling of joy.

From a more holistic perspective this simile may serve a more deeper purpose. In it’s displacement from its immediate context, this simile invokes the relationship between Telemachus and Odysseus. The spasm of joy that rubs off Odysseus’ suffering will occur when Odysseus meets Telemachus once again. In this context, the simile arouses the anticipation of the moment when the hero encounters his son. But what is troubling in the reading so far is that Odysseus has mentioned Penelope to Calypso, his native land and even his high-ceiling halls of his home to Alcinous, but he has not said a word of Telemachus yet. This bolsters the effect of the future encounter further. It raises questions and doubts whether Odysseus even remembers that he has a son, or if he would be able to recognize him when they meet. Odysseus even goes on to say that the “young are thoughtless” (line 315, book 7)- while his own young son is sailing the wine-dark seas collecting memories and information of his father’s whereabouts. The third line, “Gripped by a malevolent spirit and melting away” could be paralleled to the divine trials and tribulations that keep holding Odysseus back from reaching his home, but is Odysseus going through these divine hardships and this journey home for the sake of his son or does he have a different ulterior motive? Thus, in this holistic perspective, this outlier serves as an anticipation of the moment the hero meets his son; and keeping the subjective nature of this simile in mind we shouldn’t be dormant third-person observers when this event occurs.

Passage analyzed: Book 5, Lines 493-502 (p 396 in The Norton Anthology, 3rd ed.)

Stanley Lombardo’s translation of the Odyssey uses italics to set off striking similes like the one in this passage. The visual and sonic arrangement of the lines in the simile—bookended by the short lines “A solitary man” (5.493) and “From who knows where” (5.498)—further emphasizes the image of solitary and uncertain survival. Then this picture melts into our protagonist’s experience with “So Odysseus buried / Himself in the leaves” (5.498-99). The most obvious similarity is the mirrored action: hiding, burying. But where a flame grasps at fuel, a man relaxes in oblivion. Conjunctions begin the three sentences that end Book 5, threading the reader easily through the sentences as Odysseus drifts off the sleep. The last sentence seems to almost drop off the page, pressed to the right and surrounded by white space. Athena closes Odysseus’ eyelids, and the finality of that statement cuts like a curtain falling. With the mention of Athena, what seems to be a strong contrast between the simile and Odysseus blooms: Odysseus is not truly alone in his survival, supported as he is by the gods. However, if we dig a bit further, this is both a superficial company and a superficial comparison. When the simile is related to Odysseus’ journey as a whole, the image becomes arresting in its accuracy. He is the ember harboring the “fire’s seed” (5.497), keeping his will to return home alive through years of tribulations.

Years trapped on Calypso’s island after losing his entire crew, several days struggling against the open sea after losing his raft, and Odysseus is still bright with the determination to live. He does not flop to the earth and give up, asking only to die in peace. He immediately evaluates the situation, the weather, the landscape, calculating his best chance of survival. Odysseus finds the olive trees, burrowing beneath the warm leaves, and only then does Athena grant him the small gift of sleep. Since Odysseus’ appearance in the story, he seems to have received constant godly assistance—Calypso, Hermes, Ino, Athena. This passage reminds us of Odysseus’ personal strength. The gods may nudge and whisper, but Odysseus has survived alone, in the wilderness, far from home, and he has managed to keep his compass set on Ithaca, because he knows if that fire goes out, no nymph, no god, no cyclops nor princess will be kind enough to rekindle it for him.