Calypso
(
Καλυψώ). A daughter of Atlas, according to Homer (
Od. ii. 52). Hesiod, however, makes her an ocean-nymph
(
Theog. 359), and Apollodorus a Nereid (i. 2). Like Circé, she was a
goddess of human appearance, and dwelt in solitary state with her attendant nymphs on an
island named Ogygia, in the midst of the ocean. Her isle presented such a scene of sylvan
beauty as charmed even Hermes, one of the dwellers of Olympus (
Od. v. 72). Calypso received and kindly entertained
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Calypso. (From a painted Vase.)
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Odysseus, when, in the course of his wanderings, that hero was thrown upon her
domains after his shipwreck. She detained him there for seven years, designing to make him
immortal and to keep him with her forever; but Hermes arriving with a command from Zeus, she
was obliged to consent to his departure. She gave the hero tools to build a raft or light
vessel, supplied him with provisions, and reluctantly took a final leave of him. As regards
her island, Homer seems to have conceived Ogygia to lie in the northwestern parts of the
Western Sea, far remote from all other isles and coasts; and he thus brought his hero into all
parts of that sea, and informed his auditors of all its wonders. Odysseus had two sons by
Calypso, named Nausithoüs and Nausinoüs.