Women, Weird and Wonderful: Kalypso-Calypso, who couldn't help loving Odysseus

“Kalypso” means “the concealing one”, and that’s what this nymph is most famous for. She would have concealed war hero Odysseus on her island for seven years. “With wicked sorcery,” they say. But in the Odyssey, she’s not called a witch. Odysseus gets stuck, because he’s lost his ship, and the crew to sail it. And while he’s crying at the beach, Kalypso provides him with food, with clothes, and with all the love she holds in her heart. She even dreams of granting him immortality. But a jealous Athena wants him home, and convinces herself that she has noble motives. Kalypso has to obey the gods, but there’s no spell to be undone. While dying inside, she helps him to make a raft. Odysseus in return, always judging people to his own standards, questions her intentions. Is she trying to poison him, or to sabotage his vessel? She’s not, she swears. OK, then he might as well make the best of their last night together. When he leaves, she sends him a favourable wind, and that’s the only time she uses magic.

Odysseus und Kalypso, Arnold Böcklin, Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland

Odysseus with Calypso, Gérard de Lairesse, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, The Netherlands