Καλυψω

  1. A Nymph, who in some versions was a daughter of Atlas and Pleione (see PLEIADES) and in others a daughter of Helios (the Sun) and Perseis and, accordingly, the sister of Aeetes and Circe. She lived on the island of Ogygia, which writers place in the western Mediterranean and which is securely identified with the modern peninsula of Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar. Calypso (or 'she who conceals') welcomed the shipwrecked Odysseus. The Odyssey tells how she loved him and kept him with her for ten years (other versions say either one year or seven) offering him immortality, though vainly. Odysseus in his heart always yearned to return to Ithaca and resisted all attempts to entice him to change his mind. Calypso lived in a deep cave with secret rooms, which opened on wild gardens, a sacred wood with great trees and streams which flowed over the turf. She spent her time spinning and weaving with her serving girls who were also Nymphs, and they sang as they worked. In response to Athena's request, Zeus sent Hermes to find Calypso and to ask her to release Odysseus. Calypso sadly let the man she loved depart, giving him wood to make a raft with and food for his journey and showing him the stars by which he could navigate.

    According to some legends which follow the Odyssey, Calypso and Odysseus had a son called Latinus (though he is usually thought to be the son of Circe), but some writers say that Odysseus had two sons by Circe, Nausinous and Nausithous, whose names are derived from the word meaning 'ship' (Ναυς). Calypso and Odysseus were also said to have had a son, called Auson, who gave his name to Ausonia (Table 39).

  2. Calypso was also the name of one of the daughters of Tethys and Oceanus.

{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}

Table of Sources

  1. - Apollod. Epit. 7, 24
    - Hom. Od. 5, 13ff.; 7, 243ff.
    - Hyg. Fab. 125
    - Lydus, De Mens. 1, 13
    - Eustath. on Hom. p. 1796
    - Tzetzes on Lyc. Alex. 174
    - Prop. 1, 15, 9
    - Ovid, Ars Am. 2, 125
     
  2. - Hesiod, Theog. 359