In article in NYT “Austrian girl describes 8 years of captivity and her escape” is stated that a man, Wolfgang Priklopil, 44, a communication technician, kidnapped and was keeping in captivity for 8 years Natascha Kampuch, 18. She spent “[e]ight years of her childhood incarcerated in a basement cell outside Vienna.” “In a handwritten statement read to journalists by a psychologist made available to her by the Austrian government, Ms. Kampusch, 18, gave a scant, matter-of-fact account of her everyday life in captivity, spoke of a psychological standoff with her captor and asked the public to wait until she was ready to talk more directly about her ordeal. Her words, and the tale of how she got away from the man who seized her when she was 10, hinted at an intelligent, articulate young woman who managed somehow to educate herself and maintain a sense of optimism despite her isolation.”
She ran away when the captor asked her to vacuum his car and went away to talk on his phone. As she described his attitude to her she stated that it was both loving and punishing. She refused to comment anything about his abusive behavior as she wanted to remain it private.
She turned out to be very intelligent and educated young woman who didn’t looked scared or badgered. “According to her account, they had breakfast together on most days — ‘he rarely worked’ — then she would do housework for him and cook. The rest of the time, she said, they talked and she listened to the radio and watched television. Investigators found stacks of schoolbooks and other reading material in her narrow, windowless cell, which the police are still searching for evidence.”
Same in Homer’s Odyssey the protagonist spent 7 years in captivity on Calypso’s Island. “[C]alypso, the bewitching nymph, the lustrous goddess, held him back, deep in her arching caverns, craving him for a husband (A, 259)”. The difference is that she released Odysseus by being under the pressure as it was Athena’s will. “[B]ut my heart breaks for Odysseus, that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long (A, 260). ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/world/europe/29austria.html?scp=27&sq=in%20captivity&st=cse
