Essay on the Characterisation of Calypso
Constructive rant done for challange #3 at demigod_elite . 1286 words. Contains copious material from Homer's Odyssey. If anyone reads this and has more informed opinions to add or any criticism, please don't hesitate; I'm not that savvy in Greek mythology...
Introduction: Calypso and The Odyssey
It is arguable that the nymph Calypso is most well known for her role in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, in which the hero, Odysseus, stayed seven years on Calypso’s island Ogygia. In the very first Book of The Odyssey, the bard sings of Calypso, the ‘bewitching Nymph, the lustrous goddess’ who ‘held him [Odysseus] back, /deep in her arching caverns, craving him for a husband.’
Throughout the poem, it is frequently mentioned that though Calypso offered Odysseus immortality and queenly companionship, he longed to return home; and as Calypso craved him for her consort, she held him on her island by force (e.g. 1.65-67; 4.627-628; 5.16). It was only through the intervention of Athena and Zeus that Calypso was forced to let Odysseus go. Therefore, Calypso of The Odyssey is portrayed as a seductress who caused men to turn from their goals and stray from their pre-ordained path.
The Characterisation of Odysseus and Calypso
In the words of Achilles, hero of the Iliad: ‘I hate that man [Odysseus] like the very Gates of Death/ who says one thing but hides another in his heart.’ (9.378-79) He says this when Odysseus comes to recruit him to join Agamemnon’s cause against the Trojans.
For Achilles, a lie is absolutely detestable, but for Odysseus it is second nature, a point of pride. (Did he not trick Polyphemus by telling him his name was ‘nobody’?) When he eventually reveals his identity to the Phaecians, he declares: ‘I am Odysseus, known to the world/ for every kind of craft.’ The Greek word here translated as ‘craft’ is dolos, which can be used in praise or in censure. (The Odyssey, Intro p. 37) Athena uses this word to compliment Odysseus for the elaborate lie he tells her about his past; however she also uses the same word for the murderous ploy of Clytemnestra. (In Aeschylus’s play Agamemnon from The Oresteia, Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, concocts a scheme to murder her husband upon his return from the Trojan War. She does this to avenge the death of their daughter Iphigenia, who was sacrificed by her father to the gods.)
The fact remains that Odysseus’s nature is deceptive. In the most kind light, he can be described as a persuasive speaker and a natural performer; in the other end of the spectrum, a liar and imposter. Of course, without this quality he would not have survived his long and dangerous voyage and the conflict brought on by his wife’s suitors.
But, what I’m interested in is what this tells us about the character of Calypso. The common interpretation of the story is a cautionary tale of ‘beware of temptation and deceit brought by the feminine arts and the straying from one’s goals’. However, in the Odyssey we are given no direct indication of Calypso’s character other than what she says to Hermes and Odysseus in Book V, faced with the grief of parting from her lover of seven years. She is, understandably, quite distraught in that scene. She even asks Odysseus what charms she does not have that his wife Penelope has, in what seems a final effort to entreat him to stay (though she does not ask explicitly). I guess if you’re determined to see her as an enchantress, seducer etc. it would be easy from reading this scene and what various characters say about her through out the poem, especially Odysseus and Athena.
However, we have no idea what happens in those seven years Odysseus stays with Calypso. Given that Odysseus himself is not a particularly honest person, do we know he’s telling, or indeed, acting the truth? Obviously he can’t just say to the gods: ‘Look, I fell in love with a goddess, I’d like to stay on her island.’ Athena, for one, would be extremely angry with him. Is it realistic to think that after seven years with a goddess, in a place that rivals Elysium, that he would not have swayed at all? I leave that to the reader. It may very well be that his desire to return home was greater than his wish to stay, but the vehemence with which he displays his desire to return home seems unrealistic to me.
Calypso of Percy Jackson
So, given the above, I’d like to think that Riordan’s portrayal of Calypso in Percy Jackson is not necessarily incongruent with the Calypso of the Odyssey. He may have invented the curse of the Fates that every thousand years or so she would fall in love with a hero who has to leave her, essentially she is a tragic victim caught up in the war of the gods - not just the Titanomachy, but the rivalries between the Olympians. For example, if Athena did not have to act behind Poseidon’s back to persuade Zeus to send Hermes to Ogygia, she might have done so much sooner and Calypso might have endured less pain at the separation.
In the Odyssey, Calypso lets Odysseus go because she has no choice but to obey Zeus. While this is true, and she lets him go reluctantly, she shows a great amount of love and affection towards Odysseus. When she first told him he could go, Odysseus thought this was a trick. She says: ‘what a wicked man you are, and never at a loss. /What a thing to imagine, what a thing to say!/… the dark cascading waters of the Styx - I swear/ by the greatest, grimmest oath that binds the happy gods:/ I will never plot some intrigue to harm you./ … My every impulse /bends to what’s right. Not iron, trust me,/ the heart within my breast. I am all compassion.’ (5. 202-213)
There. I hang on to the evidence of Calypso’s true character. She swears by the Styx without prompting. Though she is bitter and subtly accuses Odysseus having a heart of iron (‘Not iron, trust me,/ the heart within my breast.’), she can never wish him ill. She could have been lying, but within four days Odysseus’ boat is built with her help and she kept her promise.
In Percy Jackson and Battle of the Labyrinth, Calypso is nothing but compassion. Though she knows all too well what endless loneliness and heartbreak she would endure once she let Percy leave, she still can’t make him stay, or do anything that might persuade him. She does not even want to ask him to stay, because she knows it would be a difficult choice for him. She knows what he would choose, of course, but because it still takes its toll on Percy. Percy observes that Calypso pulls back, as if she’s trying to not enjoy herself. This is most likely reasoned as a form of self-preservation, which it surely is, but I’d like to think it is also Calypso trying to make it easier for Percy as well.
Conclusion:
To me the Calypso of Percy Jackson is the ultimate tragic character. She is gentle and kind, she is compassionate and selfless, but she endures eternal punishment for being the daughter of a Titan, something she has no control over. The portrayal of her in the Odyssey is not favorable, giving rise to the common assumption that Calypso is an enchantress, seen as a kind of weak femme fatale in a cautionary tale. But a look into the deceptive nature Odysseus, from whom most of descriptions of her originate from, makes one wonder whether this portrayal is believable. I think Riordan has perhaps taken the tragic aspects of her character in the original myth and made her even more lamentable tragic character by adding the curse of the Fates and showing her through Percy’s point of view.
References:
Homer. Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. Penguin Books, 1997.
Homer. Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. Penguin Books, 1990
Aeschylus. The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides. Trans. Robert Fagles. Penguin Books, 1979.