Athena gives a speech at Mount Olympus and pleads to the gods including Zeus on the behalf of Odysseus and Telemachus. She explains to them how Odysseus is held at the nymph Calypso’s house by force (153). Zeus sends Hermes, who the messenger of the gods, to the island of Calypso. He tells him “Announce to the nymph with lovely braids our fixed decree: but in the convoy of the gods or mortal men. No, on a lashed, makeshift raft and wrung with pains, on the twentieth day he will make his landfall, fertile Scheria, the land of Phaeacians”, This part really just stood out to me. Did Zeus just basically outline Odysseus future prospects? Once Hermes arrives at Calypso’s estate, he tells her to let go of Odysseus starts complaining about how the male gods get to keep mortal lovers, while the female gods are not. She is in a way forced to release him after Hermes states “Release him at once, just so. Steer clear of the rage of Zeus! Or down the years he’ll fume and make your life a hell” (157). Odysseus was in fact help captive without his will, “unwilling lover alongside lover all too willing…” (157). When Odysseus sits down to feast and converse with the goddess Calypso, he show’s of his loyalty (to his family/homeland) and his bravery, but then as the sun sets he goes back and sleeps with her. “Even as he spoke the sun set and the darkness swept the earth. And now, withdrawing into the cavern’s deep recesses, long in each other’s arms they lost themselves in love” (159). This small section right here completely threw me off, one minute Odysseus is sitting on the rocks and beaches, crying and wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish (157) and next he’s sleeping with her one last time before he ventures off. This is telling me that he does love her, but he wants to return to his homeland more.
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