The wrath of the gods is a heavy burden for any mortal, even one as cunning and resilient as Odysseus, the King of Ithaca. Following the long and bloody siege of Troy, Odysseus had faced a decade of trials on the wine-dark sea, but none were as isolating as the fate that befell him after his crew committed the ultimate sacrilege. Having ignored the warnings of the prophet Teiresias and the goddess Circe, the hungry sailors slaughtered the sacred cattle of Hyperion Helios on the island of Thrinacia. In retribution, Zeus, the king of the gods, struck their vessel with a thunderbolt during a violent storm. The ship was splintered into a thousand pieces, and every man on board perished in the churning waves, save for Odysseus.
Clinging to the broken mast and the keel of his ship, which he lashed together with a piece of ox-hide rigging, Odysseus drifted across the Mediterranean for nine agonizing days. He was at the mercy of the currents, parched by the sun and battered by the spray. On the tenth night, the dark silhouette of an island rose from the sea. This was Ogygia, a place of profound beauty and deep isolation, far removed from the paths of men and the reach of his enemies. Exhausted and near death, the hero was washed onto the red sands of the bay, now known as Ramla Bay on the island of Gozo. It was here that he was discovered by Calypso, a daughter of the Titan Atlas, a nymph of great power and incomparable grace who lived in a cavern deep within the cliffs overlooking the sea.
Calypso took the broken man into her care, nursing him back to health with nectar and ambrosia. The cave where she dwelt was a marvel of nature, surrounded by a lush grove of poplars, alders, and fragrant cypresses. Four springs of clear water wound their way through meadows of violet and wild parsley, and a heavy vine laden with grapes draped over the mouth of the cavern. The air was perpetually sweet with the scent of cedar and sandalwood burning upon her hearth. Calypso herself was a creature of divine radiance, and she soon found herself captivated by the mortal king's wisdom and his rugged spirit. She offered him everything a man could desire: she promised to make him immortal and ageless, to live forever in this paradise as her husband, free from the pains of human existence.
However, Odysseus was a man defined by his ties to the earth and his home. Though he shared Calypso's bed and enjoyed the comforts of her island, his heart remained in Ithaca. For seven long years, a routine of sorrow established itself. By night, he would lie with the goddess in the hollow of her cave, but by day, he would sit upon the rocky headlands, his eyes fixed on the horizon, weeping for his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. The immortality offered by Calypso felt like a gilded cage. He did not wish for the static perfection of the gods; he wished for the struggle and the eventual rest of a human life among his own people. The beauty of Gozo, with its unique geology and the haunting resonance of the cave, served only as a backdrop to his profound melancholy.
As the years passed, the goddess Athena, who had long championed Odysseus, took advantage of Poseidon’s absence from the divine council on Mount Olympus. She pleaded with Zeus to show mercy to the hero who had suffered more than enough for his transgressions. Zeus, acknowledging that Odysseus’s fate was to return home, dispatched Hermes, the messenger god, to Ogygia. Hermes donned his golden sandals and flew like a gull over the waves, arriving at the hidden island to deliver the command of the All-Father. He found Calypso at her loom, singing with a beautiful voice as she wove with a golden shuttle. When Hermes delivered the decree that she must release Odysseus, the nymph was struck with indignation and grief.
Calypso lashed out at the hypocrisy of the Olympian gods, noting that they often took mortal lovers for themselves but grew jealous and cruel when goddesses did the same. She reminded Hermes that it was she who had saved Odysseus when he was astride the keel of his ship, alone in the sea. Yet, she knew she could not defy the will of Zeus. With a heavy heart, she sought out Odysseus on the shore and told him the news. At first, the wary king suspected a trap, fearing that she was sending him to his death on the open sea. He made her swear a great oath by the River Styx that she harbored no secret mischief against him. Only then did he believe that his liberation was at hand.
For the next four days, Calypso provided Odysseus with the tools and materials to build a vessel. Although she was losing her companion, she assisted him with divine grace. Odysseus, ever the master craftsman, felled twenty tall trees—oaks, poplars, and firs that had dried out and would float lightly. He hewed them with a bronze axe, planed them smooth, and bored them with augers. He built a wide-bottomed raft, decking it over and adding a mast and a yardarm. Calypso brought him cloth to make the sails, which he fashioned with skill, and she provided him with a store of wine, water, and grain, as well as a great sack of clothing. On the fifth day, with a warm and gentle wind provided by the nymph, Odysseus set sail from the island of Gozo.