Odyssey Book 5: Athena and Calypso

• The gods met in council in high Olympus.
• Athena reminded them of Odysseus's suffering.

Athena's Plea to Zeus

• Athena expresses her concern that Odysseus has been forgotten by his subjects.
• Odysseus has been suffering for years on an island, held against his will by the nymph Calypso.
• Calypso is preventing Odysseus from leaving and trying to make him forget his home.
• Odysseus is unable to leave Calypso's island because he cannot find ships, preventing his return home.
• Wicked people are now attempting to murder Telemachus, Odysseus's son.
• Telemachus is traveling to Pylos and Sparta, seeking news of his father.
• Zeus assures Athena that Telemachus is able to be protected and safely returned home.

Zeus Sends Hermes to Calypso

• Zeus commands Hermes to tell Calypso to release Odysseus and send him home.
• Hermes puts on his golden sandals to quickly fly over land and sea to Calypso's island.

Hermes and Calypso

• Hermes flew to the cave where Calypso lived, noticing a straggling vine with grapes growing across the cave.
• Hermes heard Calypso singing and saw her weaving at her loom within the cave.
• Calypso gave Hermes ambrosia and mixed him some red nectar.
• Zeus is ordering Calypso to release Odysseus, considering it decreed that he must not perish far from his own people.
• Odysseus is described as the most ill-fated of all those who fought, nine years before the city of King Priam, and sailed home in the tenth year after sacking the city.
• Calypso laments the fate of immortals who love mortals, as the gods are often jealous of their love.
• Calypso denies holding Odysseus out of hatred. instead because she loves Odysseus, and wants him to live with her, with her making him immortal.
• Hermes responds, stating Odysseus wants to return to his own land, for his wife Penelope, and his son, Telemachus, and Zeus commands that she let him go.

Calypso Helps Odysseus

• Calypso tells Odysseus he is free to leave her island and return to his home.
• She instructs him to cut beams of wood to build a raft for his journey.
• Calypso provides bread, wine, and water to prevent Odysseus from starving at sea.
• Calypso will provide clothes and a fair wind to guide him home.
• Odysseus suspects Calypso has ulterior motives.
• Odysseus asks Calypso to solemnly swear she intends no harm to him.

Build of the Raft

• Calypso swears by heaven and earth she is not planning treachery and will help him on his way.
• Calypso guided Odysseus to trees, where she gave Odysseus a double-edged axe.
• Odysseus felled twenty trees with his axe made of bronze.
• Day after day Odysseus crafted his raft.
• He set a mast upon it and fixed a rudder to guide it, while Calypso wove a web of cloth for sails.
• Calypso gives Odysseus clothing and provisions for his journey.
• She teaches him to navigate by referencing the constellation some call the Bear.
• Calypso hints at immense suffering awaiting Odysseus before reaching his homeland.
• Calypso tells Odysseus she would make him immortal, and asks if Penelope is so rare to prefer her to her of an immortal goddess.
• Odysseus acknowledges Calypso's superior beauty to his mortal wife, Penelope.
• Odysseus longs to return home and see Penelope's face, preferring death at sea to remaining with Calypso.

Odysseus Sails

• Odysseus takes his place on the raft and sails away from Calypso's island.
• A fierce gust broke the mast in the middle, and the sail sank into the deep.
• Odysseus was flung down on the raft, as water broke over him, while the winds drove the raft to and fro.

Ino’s Veil

• Ino, a sea nymph, saw Odysseus' troubles and offered her pity.
• She rose from the waves in the likeness of a seagull, and advised Odysseus.
• She warns that Poseidon is still angry, and the sea is still angry, and Poseidon will destroy the raft.
• Ino gives Odysseus a veil to wind around his chest, which will prevent him from drowning.
• Once Odysseus reaches mainland, he must untie the veil and cast it back into the sea.
• Odysseus wraps the veil around his chest, before a wave shatters the raft.
• Odysseus grabs single piece of wood, and for two nights and days, he was tossed about on the waters.

Reaching Land

• On the third day, when dawn came, the winds calmed, and Odysseus saw land nearby.
• He swam towards it heard the crash of waves as they struck against the rocks.
• A wave flung Odysseus towards the shore.
• Odysseus rushes towards a rock and clings to it with both hands to not break his bones.
• The retreating waves carried him back to the deep with the skin stripped from his hands.
• Odysseus looked for a place with a opening into land, avoiding the rocks.
• He saw the mouth of a river.
• Odysseus swam, flesh swollen, and with streams of salt water gushing from his mouth and nostrils.
• Odysseus reached land, laying gasping on the ground

Resting Up

• Odysseus, remembering Ino's veil, loosened it and let it fall into the river, where a wave carried it back to Ino.
• He climbed to olive trees growing side by side in woods,.
• Odysseus covered himself with leaves, and slept.