"ὤ μοι, ἐπεὶ δὴ γαῖαν ἀελπέα δῶκεν ἰδέσθαι
Ζεύς, καὶ δὴ τόδε λαῖτμα διατμήξας ἐπέρησα,
ἔκβασις οὔ πῃ φαίνεθ᾽ ἁλὸς πολιοῖο θύραζε·410
ἔκτοσθεν μὲν γὰρ πάγοι ὀξέες, ἀμφὶ δὲ κῦμα
βέβρυχεν ῥόθιον, λισσὴ δ᾽ ἀναδέδρομε πέτρη,
ἀγχιβαθὴς δὲ θάλασσα, καὶ οὔ πως ἔστι πόδεσσι
στήμεναι ἀμφοτέροισι καὶ ἐκφυγέειν κακότητα·
μή πώς μ᾽ ἐκβαίνοντα βάλῃ λίθακι ποτὶ πέτρῃ415
κῦμα μέγ᾽ ἁρπάξαν· μελέη δέ μοι ἔσσεται ὁρμή.
εἰ δέ κ᾽ ἔτι προτέρω παρανήξομαι, ἤν που ἐφεύρω
ἠιόνας τε παραπλῆγας λιμένας τε θαλάσσης,
δείδω μή μ᾽ ἐξαῦτις ἀναρπάξασα θύελλα
πόντον ἐπ᾽ ἰχθυόεντα φέρῃ βαρέα στενάχοντα,420
ἠέ τί μοι καὶ κῆτος ἐπισσεύῃ μέγα δαίμων
ἐξ ἁλός, οἷά τε πολλὰ τρέφει κλυτὸς Ἀμφιτρίτη·
οἶδα γάρ, ὥς μοι ὀδώδυσται κλυτὸς ἐννοσίγαιος."
ἧος ὁ ταῦθ᾽ ὥρμαινε κατὰ φρένα καὶ κατὰ θυμόν,
τόφρα δέ μιν μέγα κῦμα φέρε τρηχεῖαν ἐπ᾽ ἀκτήν.425
ἔνθα κ᾽ ἀπὸ ῥινοὺς δρύφθη, σὺν δ᾽ ὀστέ᾽ ἀράχθη,
εἰ μὴ ἐπὶ φρεσὶ θῆκε θεά, γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη·
ἀμφοτέρῃσι δὲ χερσὶν ἐπεσσύμενος λάβε πέτρης,
τῆς ἔχετο στενάχων, ἧος μέγα κῦμα παρῆλθε.
καὶ τὸ μὲν ὣς ὑπάλυξε, παλιρρόθιον δέ μιν αὖτις430
πλῆξεν ἐπεσσύμενον, τηλοῦ δέ μιν ἔμβαλε πόντῳ.
ὡς δ᾽ ὅτε πουλύποδος θαλάμης ἐξελκομένοιο
πρὸς κοτυληδονόφιν πυκιναὶ λάιγγες ἔχονται,
ὣς τοῦ πρὸς πέτρῃσι θρασειάων ἀπὸ χειρῶν
ῥινοὶ ἀπέδρυφθεν· τὸν δὲ μέγα κῦμα κάλυψεν.435
ἔνθα κε δὴ δύστηνος ὑπὲρ μόρον ὤλετ᾽ Ὀδυσσεύς,
εἰ μὴ ἐπιφροσύνην δῶκε γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη.
κύματος ἐξαναδύς, τά τ᾽ ἐρεύγεται ἤπειρόνδε,
νῆχε παρέξ, ἐς γαῖαν ὁρώμενος, εἴ που ἐφεύροι
ἠιόνας τε παραπλῆγας λιμένας τε θαλάσσης.440
ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δὴ ποταμοῖο κατὰ στόμα καλλιρόοιο
ἷξε νέων, τῇ δή οἱ ἐείσατο χῶρος ἄριστος,
λεῖος πετράων, καὶ ἐπὶ σκέπας ἦν ἀνέμοιο,
ἔγνω δὲ προρέοντα καὶ εὔξατο ὃν κατὰ θυμόν·
"κλῦθι, ἄναξ, ὅτις ἐσσί· πολύλλιστον δέ σ᾽ ἱκάνω,445
φεύγων ἐκ πόντοιο Ποσειδάωνος ἐνιπάς.
αἰδοῖος μέν τ᾽ ἐστὶ καὶ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν
ἀνδρῶν ὅς τις ἵκηται ἀλώμενος, ὡς καὶ ἐγὼ νῦν
σόν τε ῥόον σά τε γούναθ᾽ ἱκάνω πολλὰ μογήσας.
ἀλλ᾽ ἐλέαιρε, ἄναξ· ἱκέτης δέ τοι εὔχομαι εἶναι."450
notes
Odysseus struggles against the dashing waves to reach the shore of Phaeacia.
Book 5 opens with Odysseus marooned on the island of Calypso. By the time he finally crawls under the bushes on another island, he seems to have escaped the clutches of his affectionate captor. But the last word in the book might give us pause.
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ὡς δ᾽ ὅτε τις δαλὸν σποδιῇ ἐνέκρυψε μελαίνῃ
ἀγροῦ ἐπ᾽ ἐσχατιῆς, ᾧ μὴ πάρα γείτονες ἄλλοι,
σπέρμα πυρὸς σώζων, ἵνα μή ποθεν ἄλλοθεν αὔοι,
ὣς Ὀδυσεὺς φύλλοισι καλύψατο· τῷ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ Ἀθήνη
ὕπνον ἐπ᾽ ὄμμασι χεῦ᾽, ἵνα μιν παύσειε τάχιστα
δυσπονέος καμάτοιο φίλα βλέφαρ᾽ ἀμφικαλύψας.
As when someone buries a burning log in a black ash heap
on the edge of a field, who has no neighbors nearby,
preserving the spark of a flame, with no other place to get a light,
so Odysseus covered himself up with leaves. And Athena
poured sleep over his eyes, so as quickly to relieve him,
by covering over his eyelids, of his painful toil.
Odyssey 5.488–93
Once again, the hero is “covered up,” this time by Athena. Is the hero free at last, or has he only moved from one kind of captivity to another? The nymph on Ogygia will not be the only agent of nothingness in the poem, it seems. The hero’s time (or perhaps, timelessness) with her is, as we will see, one of many descents into anonymity—sometimes voluntary, sometimes not—from which he must assert himself and make his way back to his heroic identity. As he struggles to reach Ithaka, the cycle will recur many times, building to the triumphant moment when Penelope acknowledges him as her husband (23.205–30). The Odyssey opens by asking, “Where is Odysseus?” But the more persistent question is, “Who is Odysseus?”
When Odysseus finally sights land after eighteen days at sea, Homer describes his joy with a striking simile:
ὡς δ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἂν ἀσπάσιος βίοτος παίδεσσι φανήῃ
πατρός, ὃς ἐν νούσῳ κεῖται κρατέρ᾽ ἄλγεα πάσχων,
δηρὸν τηκόμενος, στυγερὸς δέ οἱ ἔχραε δαίμων,
ἀσπάσιον δ᾽ ἄρα τόν γε θεοὶ κακότητος ἔλυσαν,
ὣς Ὀδυσῆ' ἀσπαστὸν ἐείσατο γαῖα καὶ ὕλη,
As when life, so welcome to his children, returns to a father,
after he has lain sick, suffering pain, wasting long away,
and the hateful death spirit has attacked him,
but then the gods bring welcome release to him from the evil,
so the land and woods were welcome to Odysseus.
Odyssey 5.394–98
By portraying Odysseus as a child, the simile suggests a surprising parallel, the reverse of what we might expect, since he is a father struggling to get back to his children. But in another sense, the model fits: he is still, in the poem’s chronology as opposed to the story’s, early in his struggle to become himself again after seven years away from the world where his identity is established. When he crawls on shore, he is beginning again, like a child, naked and alone:
ἁλὶ γὰρ δέδμητο φίλον κῆρ.
ᾤδεε δὲ χρόα πάντα, θάλασσα δὲ κήκιε πολλὴ
ἂν στόμα τε ῥῖνάς θ᾽· ὁ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἄπνευστος καὶ ἄναυδος
κεῖτ᾽ ὀλιγηπελέων, κάματος δέ μιν αἰνὸς ἵκανεν.
ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δή ῥ᾽ ἄμπνυτο καὶ ἐς φρένα θυμὸς ἀγέρθη,
καὶ τότε δὴ κρήδεμνον ἀπὸ ἕο λῦσε θεοῖο.
But his very heart was sick from the sea.
His skin was all swollen, and sea water gushed
from his mouth and nose; speechless and out of breath,
he lay faint, and a bitter weariness swept over him.
But when he revived and his life came back to him,
then he let go of the nymph’s veil.
Odyssey 5.454–59
Weak and barely breathing, the hero has escaped the annihilating force of the sea. Then he starts to breathe and gather life into himself again. In describing this recovery, Homer uses language that appears elsewhere associated with someone losing consciousness after a severe shock, followed by a symbolic rebirth (Il. 22.475; Od. 24.349). Under the twin bushes, Odysseus begins the process of coming back to life.
Because the series of cyclical movements from anonymity to identity that inform the Odyssey’s narrative structure begins on Ogygia, and because Odysseus appears there first, the episode is important for our understanding of the poem’s central character and for its overall meaning. The richness and subtlety of Homer’s description of the exchanges between Hermes, Calypso, and Odysseus focuses our attention on the hero’s choice; the decision he makes in response to the nymph’s offer of ageless immortality defines the terms of his existence as he sets forth into the story and toward Ithaka. For the Greek hero, to be unsung is to be as good as dead. Odysseus’s stay with Calypso, pleasant as it might have been in some respects, represents a symbolic death for the hero, the equivalent of the dismal end that Telemachus imagines for his father when Athena comes to rouse him in Book 1:
“ξεῖνε φίλ᾽, ἦ καὶ μοι νεμεσήσεαι ὅττι κεν εἴπω;
τούτοισιν μὲν ταῦτα μέλει, κίθαρις καὶ ἀοιδή,
ῥεῖ᾽, ἐπεὶ ἀλλότριον βίοτον νήποινον ἔδουσιν,
ἀνέρος, οὗ δή που λεύκ᾽ ὀστέα πύθεται ὄμβρῳ
κείμεν᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἠπείρου, ἢ εἰν ἁλὶ κῦμα κυλίνδει.
εἰ κεῖνόν γ᾽ Ἰθάκηνδε ἰδοίατο νοστήσαντα,
πάντες κ᾽ ἀρησαίατ᾽ ἐλαφρότεροι πόδας εἶναι
ἢ ἀφνειότεροι χρυσοῖό τε ἐσθῆτός τε.
νῦν δ᾽ ὁ μὲν ὣς ἀπόλωλε κακὸν μόρον, οὐδέ τις ἡμῖν
θαλπωρή, εἴ πέρ τις ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων
φῇσιν ἐλεύσεσθαι: τοῦ δ᾽ ὤλετο νόστιμον ἦμαρ.”
“Dear friend, would you be resentful if I speak my mind?
Dancing and singing are what these men care about,
an easy life, since they eat up another man’s substance,
whose bleached bones lie out on the beach,
festering in the rain or rolling in the wash of the breakers.
If these men were to see that man coming back to Ithaka,
they would all pray to be faster on their feet
instead of richer in gold and fine clothing.
But now, since an evil fate has fallen upon him, for us
there will be no comfort, even if some mortal says
he will return. His homecoming day has perished.”
Odyssey 1.158–68
This dark fate is exactly what Odysseus himself fears when Poseidon’s storm destroys his boat (306–12), disappearing alone with no one to preserve the memory of his kleos. But as we have seen, physical death is only one of the ways that Odysseus can be erased. When he leaves Calypso’s island, he chooses to define his identity through struggle, against all the numbing forces of oblivion, physical and psychic, that threaten to erase him. Athena’s final gesture is ambiguous, nurturing, and maternal, yet perhaps carrying too the lingering potential for submersion he fights against. In his final image, Homer gives us a reassuring sign: like a glowing ember, his hero is ready to burst forth into the light again.
Further Reading
Foley, H. 1978. “Reverse Similes and Sex Roles in the Odyssey.” Arethusa 11: 6–26.
408 ἰδέσθαι: infinitive of purpose with δῶκεν (Smyth 2009).
409 λαῖτμα: the object of both διατμήξας and ἐπέρησα.
409 διατμήξας: “having cleaved” (i.e., traversed) > διατμήγω.
410 θύραζε: “out of,” with preceding genitive.
411 ἀμφὶ: “(all) around,” adverbial.
412 βέβρυχεν: 3rd sing. pf. act. indic. > βρυχάομαι, with present force (“intensive perfect,” Smyth 1947).
412 ἀναδέδρομε: “shoots up,” 3rd sing. pf. act. indic. > ἀνατρέχω, with present force.
413 οὔ πως ἔστι: “it is not in any way possible.” Note accentuation of ἔστι.
414 στήμεναι: “to stand,” aor. act. infin. > ἵστημι.
415 μή … βάλῃ: “may (the wave) not hurl …,” prohibitive subj. The subject of βάλῃ is κῦμα.
416 ἁρπάξαν: neut. nom. aor. act. ptc., modifying κῦμα. Its object, and the object of the finite verb βάλῃ, is με in line 415.
417 εἰ δέ κ᾽ … παρανήξομαι: the protasis of a future more vivid conditional (εἰ κε = ἐάν). παρανήξομαι could be taken as a short-vowel subjunctive, or a rare instance of the future indicative in the protasis of a future more vivid conditional (Smyth 2327c).
417 ἤν … ἐφεύρω: a second protasis (ἤν = ἐάν), added to the first protasis without a conjunction.
417 ἐφεύρω: 1st sing. aor. act. subj. > ἐφευρίσκω.
419 δείδω μή … / … φέρῃ: clause of fearing (Smyth 2221).
420 βαρέα: adverbial.
420 στενάχοντα: masc. acc., modifying με in line 419.
421 κῆτος: neut. acc., modified by τί (= τι) and μέγα.
421 ἐπισσεύῃ: “sets (acc.) against (dat.).” 3rd sing. pres. act. subj., in a clause of fearing.
422 οἷά τε: “the sort that …,” understand κήτεα, the plural of κήτος, as the antecedent (compare 12.97).
424 ἧος … / τόφρα: “while …,” in place of the more common correlative pair ὄφρα … τόφρα.
426 κ᾽ ἀπὸ ῥινοὺς δρύφθη: “he would have been stripped of his skin,” apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact conditional.
426 ῥινοὺς: accusative of respect.
426 ἀπὸ … δρύφθη: 3rd sing. aor. pass. indic., tmesis > ἀποδρύπτω.
426 σὺν … ἀράχθη: "was smashed to pieces," 3rd sing. aor. pass. indic., tmesis > συναράσσω.
426 ὀστέ(α): either the neuter plural subject of the singular verb συναράχθη, or accusative of respect like ῥινοὺς.
427 ἐπὶ φρεσὶ θῆκε: “put (an idea) into his mind” (LSJ τίθημι A.II.6).
429 τῆς ἔχετο: “he clung to it.”
429 ἔχω: mid., with partitive genitive.
430 τὸ: i.e, the wave (κῦμα).
431 ἐπεσσύμενον: neut. nom. sing., modifying the subject κῦμα.
431 πόντῳ: dative of place where.
432 ὡς δ᾽ ὅτε: introducing a simile.
432 πουλύποδος θαλάμης ἐξελκομένοιο: “of an octopus dragged from its lair.” The genitives πουλύποδος … ἐξελκομένοιο are possessive, modifying κοτυληδονόφιν. The genitive θαλάμης is a genitive of separation, governed by the ἐξ- in ἐξελκομένοιο.
433 πρὸς … ἔχονται: “cling to,” tmesis > προσέχω, with dative (LSJ προσέχω I.6).
433 κοτυληδονόφιν: dat. pl.
434 τοῦ: “his,” modifying χειρῶν.
434 πρὸς: “against,” with dative.
436 κε … ὤλετ(ο): apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact conditional.
436 ὑπὲρ μόρον: “contrary to fate” (LSJ ὑπέρ B.II.2).
438 τά τ᾽: rel. pron., with κύματος as its antecedent. The Epic τε is untranslatable.
439 ὁρώμενος: middle with same sense as active (LSJ ὁράω II.4).
439 εἴ που ἐφεύροι: “(looking to see) if he might find …,” indirect question, introduced by ὁρώμενος. Compare line 417.
440 a repetition of line 418.
442 ἐείσατο χῶρος ἄριστος: is the subject of the verb, and ἄριστος is a predicate nominative adjective.
442 ἐείσατο: 3rd sing. aor. mid. indic. > εἴδομαι.
443 λεῖος πετράων: “free from rocks” (LSJ λεῖος 2.b).
443 ἐπὶ σκέπας: “sheltered from” (lit., “in the shelter”), with genitive.
444 προρέοντα: understand as modifying ποταμόν.
445 ἱκάνω: “I approach,” “I come to,” frequently of approaching a god in prayer.
446 φεύγων ἐκ πόντοιο … ἐνιπάς: ἐνιπάς is the object of φεύγων, and ἐκ πόντοιο modifies φεύγων adverbially.
447 ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν: dative of interest.
448 ἀνδρῶν ὅς τις ἵκηται: “whoever of men approaches,” “whatever man approaches,” partitive gen., followed by a general relative clause (subj. without ἄν / κεν). The relative clause forms the subject of the verb ἐστί, with αἰδοῖος as predicate nominative.
450 ἱκέτης δέ τοι εὔχομαι εἶναι: indirect discourse, with ἱκέτης as a predicate agreeing with the subject of the verb εὔχομαι (which here simply means “I declare”).