'Woe to me,' she said, 'and woe to any immortal who loves a mortal, for
the gods are always jealous of their love. I do not hold him here
because I hate Odysseus, but because I love him greatly, and would have
him dwell with me here,--more than this, Hermes, I would make him an
immortal so that he would know neither old age nor death.'

'He does not desire to be freed from old age and death,' said Hermes,
'he desires to return to his own land and to live with his dear wife,
Penelope, and his son, Telemachus. And Zeus, the greatest of the gods,
commands that you let him go upon his way.'

'I have no ship to give him,' said Calypso, 'and I have no company of
men to help him to cross the sea,'

'He must leave the Island and cross the sea--Zeus commands it,' Hermes
said.

'I must help him to make his way across the sea if it must be so,'
Calypso said. Then she bowed her head and Hermes went from her.

Straightway Calypso left her cave and went down to the sea. By the shore
Odysseus stayed, looking across the wide sea with tears in his eyes.

She came to him and she said, 'Be not sorrowful any more, Odysseus. The
time has come when thou mayst depart from my Island. Come now. I will
show how I can help thee on thy way.'

She brought him to the side of the Island where great trees grew and she
put in his hands a double-edged axe and an adze. Then Odysseus started