Calypso Sends Odysseus On His Way

Homer's The Odyssey begins with Odysseus imprisoned by Calypso on the island of Ogygia. It might not be completely fair to describe his condition as imprisonment - he has shipwrecked on the island after leaving Troy (following the Trojan war). In Olympus, Minerva feels that Odysseus is being wronged because Zeus has not intervened to help Odysseus get off the island. Zeus, apparently somewhat reluctantly, sends Mercury to tell Calypso that the gods - all except Poseidon, who has a grudge against Odysseus - have decided that Odysseus must be allowed to leave the island. Calypso feels that the gods are prejudicial about immortals living together with mortals but takes pity on Odysseus and informs him he is free to go. Odysseus - having been stranded on the island with Calypso for years - is a bit suspicious at first. But soon enough, they part ways, and Odysseus sets out on the voyage that will be the subject of the rest of the book.

"Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, so you would start home to your own land at once? Good luck go with you, but if you could only know how much suffering is in store for you before you get back to your own country, you would stay where you are, keep house along with me, and let me make you immortal, no matter how anxious you may be to see this wife of yours, of whom you are thinking all the time day after day. Yet I flatter myself that I am no whit less tall or well-looking than she is, for it is not to be expected that a mortal woman should compare in beauty with an immortal."

"Goddess," replied Ulysses, "do not be angry with me about this. I am quite aware that my wife Penelope is nothing like so tall or so beautiful as yourself. She is only a woman, whereas you are an immortal. Nevertheless, I want to get home, and can think of nothing else. If some god wrecks me when I am on the sea, I will bear it and make the best of it. I have had infinite trouble both by land and sea already, so let this go with the rest." 

Presently the sun set and it became dark, whereon the pair retired into the inner part of the cave and went to bed.

...

On the fifth day, Calypso sent him from the island after washing him and giving him some clean clothes. She gave him a goat skin full of black wine, and another larger one of water; she also gave him a wallet full of provisions, and found him in much good meat. Moreover, she made the wind fair and warm for him, and gladly did Ulysses spread his sail before it, while he sat and guided the raft skilfully by means of the rudder. He never closed his eyes, but kept them fixed on the Pleiades, on late-setting Bootes, and on the Bear - which men also call the wain, and which turns round and round where it is, facing Orion, and alone never dipping into the stream of Oceanus- for Calypso had told him to keep this to his left.

Odysseus has a single goal throughout the book: get home to his wife, Penelope, his son, Telemachus, and resume ruling his kingdom. This single-minded focus is a metaphor for any kind of action. To act, you must first have a goal, end or purpose. Even before Odysseus began his journey, he had a goal but he had been frustrated in his aims by the capricious whims of the gods and by Calypso's selfish imprisonment of him.

I have named this blog "Calypso's Farewell" because I see humanity as Odysseus and I believe that we are about to leave the island of Ogygia. I do not believe that humanity has ever really acted for a single aim and purpose because humanity has never had an aim or purpose. When once we have an aim, we become Odysseus, we are on a voyage to get home.

As anyone who has read The Odyssey knows, Odysseus's problems only get worse after he leaves the island of Ogygia - Calypso was telling the truth that he would never have left if he really knew how much trouble was in store for him. The gods in heaven oppose him for a variety of reasons, some having to do with him directly, others not. The mythological creatures that lie along his chosen path attack him and trap him. But he persists and when he reaches his destination, he literally cleans house and takes back his home and kingdom, rejoining his wife and son.

Calypso, on this view, is a metaphor for the comfortable past, the old order of things. Calypso doesn't have any ill-will towards Odysseus and only doesn't want him to leave because she is fond of him - she is, after all, a nymph. To be free is harder than simply wishing to be free. To blame this on the difficulty or danger of our present situation would be like Odysseus refusing to sail off Ogygia because the journey will be difficult and dangerous. Calypso had not really imprisoned him since she did not owe him the property required for him to leave the island. She had simply never sent him on his way until the gods ordered her to do so.

The opening scene of The Odyssey is a sad parting for Calypso but she has the courage to do what must be done. This is Calypso's Farewell. This is the sad parting. This is embarking on a difficult and dangerous journey into the unknown against forces beyond mortal ken, before now.