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– Odysseus leaves Kalypso

(I’m going into more detail here with some of Powell’s notes)

The narrative returns to the council of the gods on Mt. Olympus, so the action in Book 5 takes place at the same time as Books 1-4, according to Powell. Shifting timelines and parallel narratives are not just an invention of modern storytellers! It will be interesting to see how the new movie version of the Odyssey (The Return) tells the story. It’s also interesting to me how Powell points out information ancient readers would have known which provides background depth — for example, Tithonos is only briefly mentioned, but he’s a brother of King Priam of Troy, who the goddess Dawn took for her husband. She gave him immortal life, but unfortunately not eternal youth. Perhaps Odysseus has that in mind when Kalypso offers him immortality!

Athena takes up the cause of Odysseus at the council. Zeus allows her to help Telemachos avoid the ambush planned by the suitors, but declares Odysseus will return home “without the guidance of gods or mortal men” (31). Since this clearly contradicts later events in the story (as we shall soon see) and seems to put the outcome entirely too much in the hands of “god-like” Odysseus himself, we have to ask, how closely does Zeus really control things? Even the gods are subject to fate, so maybe he’s only “predicting” how events will unfold. He can say, “it is his [Odysseus’] fate to see his friends and arrive to his high-roofed home” (40) but maybe he can’t say exactly how that will happen. It’s almost comical how quickly Athena ignores Zeus’ decree and steps in to help Odysseus whenever he appears in danger of not completing the journey.

Zeus sends Hermes (the soul guide) to Kalypso (the concealer), telling her to release Odysseus. Apparently she has held his soul in Hades (the “hidden” realm) for the seven years he’s been on her island. Kalypso greets Hermes as a proper host should, tending to his needs as a traveler first. She asks why he has come, but doesn’t press him for information until she has provided comfort, food (ambrosia, “undying” and nectar, the food and drink of the gods) and entertainment.  Hermes says he didn’t want to make the long journey (though it would be much longer and harsher for mortals, such as Odysseus) and complains about the lack of cities along the way to give him sacrifices (not as food, but as the sustenance of worship?)

Kalypso says the gods are cruel to her because she has slept with a mortal (it doesn’t seem there are many gods who haven’t done the same!) and claims Orion was killed by the “gentle arrows” of Artemis (ironic? or was she sparing him the fate of Tithonus?) when Dawn took him as her lover. Kalypso says she offered to make Odysseus “deathless and ageless for all time” (127) if he would stay with her, but the will of Zeus cannot be denied — though it seems she has been trying to do just that!