Kalypso takes Odysseus to the edge of her island where there are birch, poplar, and fir trees, ample resources for building a “raft.” She also gives him tools, including a bronze two-headed axe with a handle of olive wood, and an adze. Powell says this passage (224-239) is difficult to translate because it’s full of words used only once by Homer, perhaps attesting to the early state of the Greek language, but it appears Odysseus is building a small ship rather than a flat raft, because it has gunwales, ribs, and wicker sides. Kalypso bids him a fond farewell, though she is sad she has to let him go, and provides him with wine, food, and advice for navigating by the stars. This seems to indicate he is far from the known world in unfamiliar seas. The help she gives him is again counter to the edict of Zeus.
When he encounters a storm (277-305), Odysseus loses heart and wishes he had died a “happy death” with the other Greeks at Troy. It’s an emotional roller coaster for him, tossed on the waves, plunging from the crest of his earlier confidence and willingness to “endure” any hardship, to this trough of despair. Hope leaves him, and his self esteem.
It’s the forbidden intervention of the gods which once again saves him. Ino, daughther of Kadmos (aka Leukotha, the White Goddess of death? who in the saga of the Argonauts leapt into the sea with her infant son) gives an immortal veil (a life preserver) in place of the heavy, wet clothes from Kalypso which he has cast off (a symbolic rebirth after his sojourn on her hidden isle). Ino asks him to return the veil to the sea when he reaches land, maybe to hide the evidence of the aid she has given him. Odysseus hesitates to also abandon his raft/ship as Ino suggests, until at the last moment it is overwhelmed by a great wave. Poseidon finally relents, and Athena steps in to hold back the winds.
During his quite understandable distress, fearing the waves will crush him against the stony shore, Odysseus speaks directly “to his own great-hearted spirit” (375) in an effort to find some hope. It’s a frequent tag-line used by Homer to characterize his hero, but Odysseus seems especially human and vulnerable here. He enumerates his fears of being killed by the sea, by monsters, or Poseidon. “Then wretched Odysseus would have died, contrary to what was fated, if flashing-eyed Athena had not given him a plan.”Taken literally, this is more divine interference, but since it furthers the will of Zeus, maybe it isn’t. Or maybe we can just say Odysseus is divinely inspired. In any case, it seems the will of Zeus is not inevitable without human participation, and the aid of the other gods!
Odysseus at last is washed ashore and prays to the “king” of the river (apparently a demigod) who stops the flow of the river and brings him safely to its mouth. Still, Odysseus worries, relating all his fears about spending the night in the open, exposed to the weather, helpless prey for any wild animal. “God-like Odysseus” must crawl under a thick bush and brambles for protection, naked and alone. The contrast with the heroic warrior of the Iliad is starkly ironic, as we see him stripped by Zeus of all his glory.
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