111 pages • 3 hours read
Homer, Transl. Emily WilsonThe Odyssey
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Books 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 5 Summary: “From the Goddess to the Storm”
In Book 5 Odysseus is trapped on Calypso’s island, but the Olympian gods intervene to ensure his escape.
The gods hold a council. Athena complains that Calypso is keeping Odysseus on her island, Ogygia, against his will while Penelope’s suitors are plotting to kill Telemachus. Zeus tells her to ensure Telemachus’s safety and orders Hermes to inform Calypso that she must let Odysseus leave.
Calypso greets Hermes and offers him food and drink, after which he delivers Zeus’s message. Calypso is furious at the double standard but agrees to help Odysseus since no god or goddess can go against Zeus’s commands. After Hermes leaves, she finds Odysseus weeping and longing for Ithaca. She says that she will help him return home, making it clear that the gods have obliged her to do so. Odysseus does not trust her and makes her swear an oath that she is not secretly plotting against him. She complies, complimenting his wisdom in extracting an oath.
They eat, then Calypso questions him about his desire to return to Ithaca. She can offer Odysseus immortality and endless youth and is more beautiful than Penelope, yet he still pines for his wife.
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