Calypso in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Calypso

11 passages from 3 ancient authors that tell of Calypso, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Calypso was the nymph of Ogygia in Greek mythology, known for keeping Odysseus on her island and offering him immortality before Zeus ordered his release. For the story in one place, read our article on Calypso.

Hesiod (1)

Hesiod, Theogony 960–1022Goddesses and mortal men; the end of the poem (960-1022)The Muses are asked to sing of the goddesses who lay with mortal men. Demeter bears Plutus to Iasion, Harmonia bears Ino, Semele, Agave, Autonoe and Polydorus to Cadmus, and Callirrhoe bears Geryon. The list continues with Eos and Tithonus, Aphrodite and Anchises, Thetis and Peleus, and ends with Circe and Calypso bearing sons to Odysseus before the poet turns to the company of women.

Homer (9)

Homer, Odyssey 5.1–147Hermes is sent to CalypsoAt dawn the gods sit in council, and Athena again pleads for Odysseus, who is held on Calypso's island without a ship or companions. Zeus tells Hermes to go to the nymph and tell her that the hero is to be sent home on a raft. Hermes flies down over the sea, finds Calypso at work in her cave, and delivers the message, which she accepts with anger.
Homer, Odyssey 5.228–281Odysseus builds the raftCalypso gives Odysseus an axe and an adze and shows him a grove of tall trees, and in four days he builds a raft with a mast, a steering-oar and a sail. She gives him bread, wine, water and a fair wind, and on the fifth day he puts to sea, steering by the stars. For seventeen days he sails, and on the eighteenth sees the dark hills of the Phaeacian land.
Homer, Odyssey 7.240–347Odysseus tells of CalypsoOdysseus tells how he stayed seven years with Calypso on Ogygia, built a raft and was wrecked, and how Nausicaa found him and helped him. Alcinous says his daughter erred in not bringing him to the house herself, and Odysseus excuses her. Alcinous wishes that such a man might be his son-in-law, promises a ship on the morrow, and they go to rest.
Homer, Odyssey 1.1–95Invocation; the gods in councilThe poet asks the Muse to sing of the man who wandered long after the sack of Troy and lost his comrades through their folly in eating the cattle of the Sun. Odysseus is held on Calypso's island, longing for home, while Poseidon, who is angry with him, is away among the Ethiopians. In the council of the gods Zeus speaks of Aegisthus, and Athena pleads for Odysseus and obtains leave to send Hermes to Calypso and to go herself to Ithaca.
Homer, Odyssey 5.148–227Calypso lets Odysseus goCalypso goes to Odysseus, who sits weeping on the shore, and tells him that he may build a raft and go. Odysseus is wary until she swears that she means him no harm. She sets a meal before him and warns him of the sorrows still awaiting him, but he answers that, though Penelope is less fair, he longs for home. They spend the night together in the cave.
Homer, Odyssey 4.425–624Menelaus seizes ProteusProteus comes up from the sea at midday to count his seals and lie down to sleep, and Menelaus and his men leap on him. The old man changes into a lion, a snake, a leopard, a boar, water and a tree, but they hold him fast until he tells Menelaus what the gods require. He tells of the deaths of Ajax and Agamemnon, and that Odysseus is held by Calypso on her island. Menelaus returns home and offers Telemachus horses, but Telemachus asks for a gift that can be stored, since Ithaca has no meadows.
Homer, Odyssey 5.282–381Poseidon's storm; Ino's veilPoseidon, returning from the Ethiopians, sees Odysseus sailing and in anger sends a storm from every quarter. Odysseus is thrown from the raft, and the goddess Ino, called Leucothea, takes pity and gives him a veil to bind round his chest, telling him to swim for the land and throw the veil back into the sea when he reaches it. He fears a trick, but a great wave breaks the raft to pieces, and he binds on the veil and plunges in, while Poseidon drives off.
Homer, Odyssey 12.403–453The shipwreck; Charybdis; CalypsoZeus sends a west wind and a thunderbolt, which splits the ship, and the men, thrown out like sea-gulls, are drowned. Odysseus lashes the keel and the mast together and rides them back toward Charybdis, where he clings to a fig-tree till she spews them out again. He drifts for nine days, and on the tenth is thrown on Calypso's island, where she takes him in, and he ends his tale.
Homer, Odyssey 23.288–372Odysseus tells his tale; the dawnThey go to bed, and Odysseus tells Penelope the story of his wanderings, the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, Circe, Hades, the Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, the cattle of the Sun, Calypso and the Phaeacians. At dawn he tells Penelope to stay in her room and goes out to the country with Telemachus and the two herdsmen, to see his father, with Athena casting night about them.

Epic Cycle (1)

Epic Cycle, Summaries and Fragments 9.1–10.2Returns and TelegonyProclus' summary of the Returns begins with Athena causing a quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus about the voyage from Troy. The fragments mention Medea and Aeson, Heracles at Themiscyra, and Telemachus marrying Circe. The Telegony, in two books, has Odysseus sailing to Elis after the suitors are buried, and the author says that Odysseus had a son Telegonus by Calypso.