"We are speaking god and goddess
to one another, one another, and you ask me why I have come here, and
I will tell you truly as you would have me do. Zeus sent me; it was
no doing of mine; who could possibly want to come all this way over
the sea where there are no cities full of people to offer me
sacrifices or choice hecatombs? Nevertheless I had to come, for none
of us other gods can cross Zeus, nor transgress his orders [his
noos]. He says that you have here the most ill-starred of
all those who fought nine years before the city of King Priam and
sailed home in the tenth year after having sacked it. On their way
home [nostos] they erred against Athena, who raised
both wind and waves against them, so that all his brave companions
perished, and he alone was carried here by wind and tide. Zeus says
that you are to let this by man go at once, for it is decreed that he
shall not perish here, far from his own people, but shall return to
his house and country and see his friends again."
Calypso trembled with rage when
she heard this, "You gods," she exclaimed, "ought to be ashamed of
yourselves. You are always jealous and hate seeing a goddess take a
fancy to a mortal man, and live with him in open matrimony. So when
rosy-fingered Dawn made love to Orion, you precious gods were all of
you furious till Artemis went and killed him in Ortygia. So again
when Demeter fell in love with Iasion, and yielded to him in a thrice
ploughed fallow field, Zeus came to hear of it before so long and
killed Iasion with his thunder-bolts. And now you are angry with me
too because I have a man here. I found the poor creature sitting all
alone astride of a keel, for Zeus had struck his ship with lightning
and sunk it in mid ocean, so that all his crew were drowned, while he
himself was driven by wind and waves on to my island. I got fond of
him and cherished him, and had set my heart on making him immortal,
so that he should never grow old all his days; still I cannot cross
Zeus, nor bring his counsels [noos] to nothing;
therefore, if he insists upon it, let the man go beyond the seas
again; but I cannot send him anywhere myself for I have neither ships
nor men who can take him. Nevertheless I will readily give him such
advice, in all good faith, as will be likely to bring him safely to
his own country."
"Then send him away," said
Hermes, "and fear the mênis of Zeus, lest he grow angry
and punish you"’
On this he took his leave, and
Calypso went out to look for Odysseus, for she had heard Zeus’
message. She found him sitting upon the beach with his eyes ever
filled with tears, his sweet life wasting away as he mourned his
nostos; for he had got tired of Calypso, and though he was
forced to sleep with her in the cave by night, it was she, not he,
that would have it so. As for the daytime, he spent it on the rocks
and on the sea-shore, weeping, crying aloud for his despair, and
always looking out upon the sea. Calypso then went close up to him
said:
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
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