| Calypso | |
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Real Name |
Calypso |
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First Appearance |
Ancient Greece |
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Created by |
Greek Folklore |
Origin[]
In Greek mythology, Calypso was a nymph who lived on the island of Ogygia, where, according to Homer's Odyssey, she detained Odysseus for seven years against his will. She promised Odysseus immortality if he would stay with her, but Odysseus preferred to return home. Eventually, after the intervention of the other gods, Calypso was forced to let Odysseus go.
Calypso is generally said to be the daughter of the Titan Atlas. Her mother is mostly unnamed, but Hyginus wrote that it was Pleione, mother of the Pleiades. Hesiod, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, mention either a different Calypso or possibly the same Calypso as one of the Oceanid daughters of Tethys and Oceanus. Apollodorus includes the name Calypso in his list of Nereids, the daughters of Nereus and Doris. John Tzetzes makes her a daughter of Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse, the parents of Circe, perhaps due to her association with Circe; the two goddesses were sometimes confused due to their behavior and connection to Odysseus. According to a fragment from the Catalogue of Women, Calypso bore the Cephalonians to Hermes as suggested by Hermes' visits to her island in the Odyssey.
In Homer's Odyssey, Calypso tries to keep the fabled Greek hero Odysseus on her island to make him her immortal husband, while he also gets to enjoy her sensual pleasures forever. According to Homer, Calypso kept Odysseus prisoner by force at Ogygia for seven years. Calypso enchants Odysseus with her singing as she moves to and from weaving on her loom with a golden shuttle.
Odysseus comes to wish for circumstances to change. He can no longer bear being separated from his wife, Penelope, and wants to tell Calypso. He spends the daytime sitting on a headland or at the sea-shore crying, while at night he is forced to sleep with her in the cave against his will. His patron goddess Athena asks Zeus to order the release of Odysseus from the island; Zeus orders the messenger Hermes to tell Calypso to set Odysseus free, for it was not Odysseus's destiny to live with her forever. She angrily comments on how the gods hate goddesses having affairs with mortals.
Calypso provides Odysseus with an axe, drill, and adze to build a boat. Calypso leads Odysseus to an island where he can chop down trees and make planks for his boat. Calypso also provides him with wine, bread, clothing, and more materials for his boat. The goddess then sets wind at his back when he sets sail. After seven years Odysseus has built his boat and leaves Calypso.
Homer does not mention any children by Calypso. By some accounts that came after the Odyssey, Calypso bore Odysseus a son, Latinus, though Circe is usually given as Latinus' mother. In other accounts, Calypso bore Odysseus two children, Nausithous and Nausinous.
A fragment from the Catalogue of Women, erroneously attributed to Hesiod, claimed that Calypso detained Odysseus for years as a favour to Poseidon, the sea-god who detested Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus.
According to Hyginus, Calypso killed herself because of her love for Odysseus.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Calypso from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- The Odyssey
- Theogony
- Catalogues of Women Fragments
- The Telegony Fragments
- The Library
- The Argonautica
- Callimachus, Fragments
- Alexandra
- Fabulae
- Elegies
- Natural History
Notes[]
- The story of Odysseus and Calypso has some close resemblances to the interactions between Gilgamesh and Siduri in the Epic of Gilgamesh in that "the lone female plies the inconsolable hero-wanderer with drink and sends him off to a place beyond the sea reserved for a special class of honored people" and "to prepare for the voyage he has to cut down and trim timbers".