For seven years Ulysses tarried in the island of Calypso. And in the
eighth year Zeus sent Hermes to the goddess, to bid her let Ulysses go.
So Hermes donned his golden sandals, and took his wand in his hand,
and came to the island of Ogygia, and to the cave where Calypso dwelt.
A fair place it was. In the cave was burning a fire of sweet-smelling
wood, and Calypso sat at her loom and sang with a lovely voice. And
round about the cave was a grove of alders and poplars and cypresses,
wherein many birds, falcons and owls and sea-crows, were wont to
roost; and all about the mouth of the cave was a vine with purple
clusters of grapes; and there were four fountains which streamed four
ways through meadows of parsley and violet. But Ulysses was not there,
for he sat, as was his wont, on the sea-shore, weeping and groaning
because he might not see wife and home and country.
And Calypso spied Hermes, and bade him come within, and gave him meat
and drink, ambrosia and nectar, which are the food of the gods. And
when he had ended his meal, she asked him of his errand. So he told her
that he was come, at the bidding of Zeus, in the matter of Ulysses,
for that it was the pleasure of the gods that he should return to his
native country, and that she should not hinder him any more. It vexed
Calypso much to hear this, for she would fain have kept Ulysses with
her always, and she said,--
“Ye gods are always jealous when a goddess loves a mortal man. And as
for Ulysses, did not I save him when Zeus had smitten his ship with a
thunderbolt, and all his comrades had perished? And now let him go,--if
it pleases Zeus. Only I cannot send him, for I have neither ship nor
rowers. Yet will I willingly teach him how he may safely return.”
And Hermes said, “Do this thing speedily, lest Zeus be wroth with thee.”
So he departed. And Calypso went seeking Ulysses, and found him on the
shore of the sea, looking out over the waters, as was his wont, and
weeping, for he was weary of his life, so much did he desire to see
Ithaca again. She stood by him and said,--
“Weary not for thy native country, nor waste thyself with tears. If
thou wilt go, I will speed thee on thy way. Take therefore thine axe
and cut thee beams, and join them together, and make a deck upon them,
and I will give thee bread and water and wine, and clothe thee also, so
that thou mayest return safe to thy native country, for the gods will
have it so.”
“Nay,” said Ulysses, “what is this that thou sayest? Shall I pass in a
raft over the dreadful sea, over which even ships go not without harm?
I will not go against thy will; but thou must swear the great oath of
the gods that thou plannest no evil against me.”
Then Calypso smiled and said, “These are strange words. By the Styx I
swear that I plan no harm against thee, but only such good as I would
ask myself, did I need it; for indeed my heart is not of iron, but
rather full of compassion.”
Then they two went to the cave and sat down to meat, and she set before
him food, such as mortal men eat, but she herself ate ambrosia and
drank nectar, as the gods are wont. And afterwards she said,--
“Why art thou so eager for thy home? Surely if thou knewest all the
trouble that awaits thee, thou wouldst not go, but wouldst rather dwell
with me. And though thou desirest all the day long to see thy wife,
surely I am not less fair than she.”
“Be not angry,” Ulysses made reply. “The wise Penelopé cannot indeed be
compared to thee, for she is a mortal woman and thou art a goddess. Yet
is my home dear to me, and I would fain see it again.”
The next day Calypso gave him an axe with a handle of olive wood, and
an adze, and took him to the end of the island, where there were great
trees, long ago sapless and dry, alder and poplar and pine. Of these he
felled twenty, and lopped them, and worked them by the line. Then the
goddess brought him a gimlet, and he made holes in the logs and joined
them with pegs. And he made decks and side-planking also; also a mast
and a yard, and a rudder wherewith to turn the raft. And he fenced it
about with a bulwark of osier against the waves. The sails, indeed,
Calypso wove, and Ulysses fitted them with braces and halyards and
sheets. And afterwards, with ropes, he moored the raft to the shore.
On the fourth day all was finished, and on the fifth day he departed.
And Calypso gave him goodly garments, and a skin of wine, and a skin
of water, and a rich provender in a wallet of leather. She sent also
a fair wind blowing behind, and Ulysses set his sails and proceeded
joyfully on his way; nor did he sleep, but watched the sun and the
stars, still steering, as indeed Calypso had bidden, to the left. So he
sailed for seventeen days, and on the eighteenth he saw the hills of
Phæacia and the land, which had the shape of a shield.
But Poseidon spied him as he sailed, and was wroth to see him so near
to the end of his troubles. Wherefore he sent all the winds of heaven
down upon him. Sore troubled was Ulysses, and said to himself, “It was
truth that Calypso spake when she said how that I should suffer many
troubles returning to my home. Would that I had died that day when many
a spear was cast by the men of Troy over the dead Achilles. Then would
the Greeks have buried me; but now shall I perish miserably.”
And as he spake a great wave struck the raft and tossed him far away,
so that he dropped the rudder from his hand. Nor for a long time could
he rise, so deep was he sunk, and so heavy was the goodly clothing
which Calypso had given him. Yet at the last he rose, and spat the salt
water out of his mouth, and, so brave was he, sprang at the raft and
caught it and sat thereon, and was borne hither and thither by the
waves. But Ino saw him and pitied him--a woman she had been, and was
now a goddess of the sea--and came and sat upon the waves, saying,--
“Luckless mortal, why doth Poseidon hate thee so? He shall not slay
thee, though he fain would do it. Put off these garments and swim to
the land of Phæacia, putting this veil under thy breast. And when thou
art come to the land, loose it from thee, and cast it into the sea; but
when thou castest it, look away.”
But Ulysses doubted what this might be, and thought that he would yet
stay on the raft while the timbers held together, for that the land
was far away. But as he thought, yet another great wave struck it, and
scattered the timbers. And he sat upon one of them, as a man sits upon
a horse; and then he stripped off the garments which Calypso had given
him, and so, leaping into the sea, made to swim to the land.
And Poseidon saw him, and said, “Get to the shore if thou canst, but
even so thou art not come to the end of thy troubles.”
So for two days and two nights he swam, Athené helping him, for
otherwise he had perished. But on the third day there was a calm,
and he saw the land from the top of a great wave, for the waves were
yet high, close at hand. Dear as a father to his son, rising up from
grievous sickness, so dear was the land to Ulysses. But when he came
near he heard the waves breaking along the shore, for there was no
harbor there, but only cliffs and rugged rocks. And while he doubted
what he should do, a great wave bore him to the shore. Then would he
have perished, all his bones being broken; but Athené put it in his
heart to lay hold of a great rock till the wave had spent itself. And
even then had he died, for the ebb caught him and bore him far out to
sea; but he bethought him that he would swim along, if haply he might
see some landing-place. And at last he came to the mouth of a river,
where there were no rocks. Then at last he won his way to the land. His
knees were bent under him, and his hands dropped at his side, and the
salt water ran out of his mouth and nostrils. Breathless was he, and
speechless; but when he came to himself, he loosed the veil from under
his breast and cast it into the sea.
Then he lay down on the rushes by the bank of the river and kissed the
earth, thinking within himself, “What now shall I do? for if I sleep
here by the river, I fear that the dew and the frost may slay me; for
indeed, in the morning-time the wind from the river blows cold. And if
I go up to the wood, to lay me down to sleep in the thicket, I fear
that some evil beast may devour me.”
But it seemed better to go to the wood. So he went. Now this was close
to the river, and he found two bushes, of wild olive one, and of
fruitful olive the other. So thickly grown together were they, that
the winds blew not through them, nor did the sun pierce them, nor yet
the rain. Thereunder crept Ulysses, and found great store of leaves,
shelter enough for two or three, even in a great storm. Then, even as
a man who dwells apart from others cherishes his fire, hiding it under
the ashes, so Ulysses cherished his life under the leaves. And Athené
sent down upon his eyelids deep sleep, that might ease him of his toil.