Who is Calypso in The Odyssey?

Calypso is a beautiful goddess who keeps Odysseus captive for seven years on the island of Ogygia because she falls in love with him. She wants him to stay with her forever as her husband, and she even offers to make him immortal. When the poem begins, Odysseus is still trapped with her, while suitors are trying to woo his wife Penelope and take over his home back in Ithaca.

Although Calypso treats him kindly, Odysseus longs for home and spends his time grieving on the shore. Hermes eventually arrives with orders from Zeus that she must let Odysseus leave. At first Calypso angrily complains that the gods are unfair to goddesses who love mortal men, but she obeys the command and helps Odysseus build a raft for his journey home.

Odysseus later explains that Calypso “tried to hold me back, / deep in her arching caverns, craving me for a husband,” but “they never won the heart inside me, never. / So nothing is as sweet as a man's own country.” Calypso and Circe both tempt Odysseus away from Ithaca, yet his memory of Penelope and his desire for home remain stronger.

Calypso’s island represents the choice between an easy, endless life versus a mortal life full of difficult responsibilities. Odysseus rejects immortality with Calypso because he wants a human life with Penelope in Ithaca, even if that life includes suffering and death.