History Presentation: Calypso

Calypso

[Information about Calypso]

• She is a goddess-nymph                   • She is a daughter of Atlas

• She lives in island Ogygia                  • She fell in love with Odyssey

Personality: lustrous*, bewitching*, attractive, glamorous, selfish, strong obsession, impulsive   

[Information about Odyssey]

• Penelope’s husband.   • King of Ithaca and the surrounding islands.

• couldn’t go back home           • Ulysses is the Latin name of Odysseus

[Calypso and Odyssey]

Calypso imprisons* the fabled Greek hero Odyssey on her island in order to make him her husband but his patron* goddess Athena asked Zeus to help Odyssey get released. With the order of Zeus, Hermes told Calypso to set him free.

[References]

-The Odyssey, Homer, Penguin Classics

(page 78, 205, 206, 525, 534)

-The Myths of Greece and Rome, H.A.Guerber, Dover

(page 301, 316, 360, 373, 388, 395)

-blog.naver.com/seagull6966?Redirect=Log&logNo=20014112811

(picture of calypso)

  

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. The character that I chose to do my presentation on is Calypso who appeared in the book 'the odyssey'. I will start off with introducing some information about Calypso and Odysseus. Calypso is a goddess nymph also known as the nymph of darkness. She is the daughter of Titan Atlas. In comparison Odysseus is just a human, He is the king of Ithaca and the surrounding islands also husband of Penelope. He couldn’t go back to his home Ithaca for 10years and wondered around the sea. Some people know Odysseus as Ulysses and that’s because Ulysses is a Latin name for Odysseus.  

Now I will tell you a short story about Odyssey and Calypso. Some of you might already know the story. Calypso is remembered most for her role in Homer’s Odyssey, in which she locks the Hero Odyssey on her island called Ogygia in order to make him her husband. His protector goddess Athena asks Zeus to set him free from that island. As Zeus was the Lord of the Gods, Calypso was unable to refuse him, although she wished to. Odysseus eventually returned to his homeland of Ithaca, to be with his beloved wife Penelope who waited for him at home. Mythical Calypso fell for Odyssey and wanted to make him her immortal husband and give him the eternal youth but Odyssey didn’t accept it because he really wanted to go back to his homeland. After losing her lover of seven years, she tried to kill herself but because she was immortal, she only went through terrible pain.

Now I would like to present Calypso’s personality. From reading the book of Odyssey, I think Calypso is very lustrous and bewitching. In the book, there’s a line that shows this. ‘He’d been a stranger to comforts such as these since he left the lovely-haired Calypso’s house,’ which I think it shows that Calypso is very attractive and glamorous to men like Odyssey. I think Calypso is also selfish by the story that I’ve mentioned earlier. Even though I understand that Calypso was in love with Odyssey, I think imprisoning him makes everyone’s life even Calypso, herself, miserable. Calypso should of thought of Odyssey’s and his wife Penelope’s feelings before she imprisoned Odyssey just for her momentary happiness. Furthermore, I believe she has a strong obsession too because she didn’t let go of her love until Zeus finally stopped her. I think she should have released him earlier if she really loved him so much and wish all the happiness because that’s what I think of love. In my opinion, I think Calypso is very impulsive. After sending Odyssey back to Ithaca, she tried to suicide but she couldn’t die because she was immortal which I believe is very impulsive thing for Calypso to do.

Calypso was very attractive and lovely but if she thought of what would happen for a moment before imprisoning Odyssey, I think she could have been satisfied; maybe everyone would have been happy. Even though she loved him very much, I think Calypso would have done better instead of making everyone miserable. At first, I didn’t know much about Calypso but after reading the book, though it was hard to understand and I only understood about 50% of it, it was a good chance to actually learn about the myths of Greece and Rome. I hope everyone enjoyed the presentation and learned about Calypso. Thank you~!