I


Ever mindful was Pallas Athene of Odysseus although she might not help
him openly because of a wrong he had done Poseidon, the god of the sea.
But she spoke at the council of the gods, and she won from Zeus a pledge
that Odysseus would now be permitted to return to his own land. On that
day she went to Ithaka, and, appearing to Telemachus, moved him, as has
been told, to go on the voyage in search of his father. And on that day,
too, Hermes, by the will of Zeus, went to Ogygia--to that Island where,
as the Ancient One of the Sea had shown Menelaus, Odysseus was held by
the nymph Calypso.

[Illustration]

Beautiful indeed was that Island. All round the cave where Calypso lived
was a blossoming wood--alder, poplar and cypress trees were there, and
on their branches roosted long-winged birds--falcons and owls and
chattering sea-crows. Before the cave was a soft meadow in which
thousands of violets bloomed, and with four fountains that gushed out of
the ground and made clear streams through the grass. Across the cave
grew a straggling vine, heavy with clusters of grapes. Calypso was
within the cave, and as Hermes came near, he heard her singing one of
her magic songs.

She was before a loom weaving the threads with a golden shuttle. Now she
knew Hermes and was pleased to see him on her Island, but as soon as he
spoke of Odysseus and how it was the will of Zeus that he should be
permitted to leave the Island, her song ceased and the golden shuttle
fell from her hand.