The Odyssey - Book 5 (CALYPSO)

• Athene reminds all of the gods on Odysseus' misfortunes, she makes the gods feel sorry for him.
• Zeus tells Athene she is able to guide Telemachus home without being harmed by the suitors. 
• Zeus tells Hermes to tell "the nymph" Calypso that Odysseus is to return home, but he will have no gods of men to help him home. 
• "He shall set out on a raft put together by his own hands, and on the twentieth day reach Scherie, the rich country of the Phaeacians. 
• Zeus explains how the Phaeacians will look after Odysseus and give him a ship, bronze and gold and woven goods to prepare him for his voyage home.
• Hermes flew over the sea until he reached Calypso's island. 
• He found Calypso on the island of Ogygia "singing with her beautiful voice" "weaving with a golden shuttle" 
• "The cave was sheltered by a copse of alders" "Trailing around the mouth of the cavern was a thriving garden vine"
• "It was indeed a spot where even an immortal visitor must pause to gaze in wonder and delight"
• Odysseus was "sitting disconsolate on the shore" crying whilst looking across the sea. 
• Calypso say Hermes down on a "brightly polished chair" and asked him what he was doing on her island, but she offers him hospitality first. 
• Calypso fed him some ambrosia and a cup of red nectar, Hermes began to eat and drink, after he had finished he answered Calypso's questions. 
• Hermes tells Calypso that Zeus has sent him- he wouldn't have come at his own accord. 
• Hermes explains how Zeus wants Calypso to let go of "the man who has been dogged by misfortune" as he is not doomed to end his days on the island, he is destined to go home and live with his friends and family. 
• Calypso get angry- stating how it is unfair that they are outraged if a goddess sleeps with a man, even if she has chosen him as her husband. She reminds Hermes that she was the one who saved Odysseus. 
• Hermes told Calypso to let him go immediately and then he flew off and left. 
• Calypso went to Odysseus to tell him about letting him go, but she found him sitting on the short "eyes wet with weeping as they always were" "he shed for his lost home" Calypso stood by him and said "don't waste any more of your life on this island". She told him to make a raft whilst she packed him bread, water, red wine and clothing. 
• Odysseus explains how he won't trust Calypso unless she gives him her word. 
• Calypso made "the greatest and most solemn oath the blessed Gods can take"
• They went back to the cavern together and Odysseus sat on the chair that Hermes had left. 
• Calypso gave him loads of food and drinks that men consume - they helped themselves to the meal.
• After the meal Calypso asks Odysseus if Penelope is prettier that she is. Odysseus tells Calypso that "Penelope's looks and stature are insignificant" compared to Calypso's but Penelope is mortal whereas Calypso is immortal. 
• When the sun went down they had sex for the last time. 
• in the morning Calypso got dressed in her most elegant clothes. 
• Calypso gave Odysseus a "great axe of bronze" - with a sharp blade, and a adze of polished metal. 
• She took him to the farthest part of the island where all of the trees are. 
• Odysseus felled 20 trees quickly. 
• Calypso brought him tools which he used to build the raft. 
• After he built the raft he dragged it to the sea on rollers. 
• On the fifth day Calypso saw him off from the island. 
• She had stowed two skins in his boat, one full of wine and the other of water, a leather sack of grain. 
• Odysseus sailed for seventeen days and on the eighteenth he could see the Phaeacians country. 
• Poseidon saw Odysseus sailing and it angered him "he marshaled the clouds and stirred up the sea"
• Odysseus started to worry, he doesn't want to die at sea because no one will know what he went through, he won't get to tell his story. "But now it seems I was predestined to an ignoble death"
• A wave crashed onto him and whirled his raft around and a huge gust of wind snapped the rafts mast in half, breaking the raft. 
• Odysseus was weighed down in the water by the clothes that Calypso had given to him. 
• He did not forget the raft. 
• He scrambled onto the raft and sat in the middle- avoiding his death. 
• Ino had witnessed the incident and felt sorry for Odysseus so she rose from the water and settled on his raft- she gave him a veil and told him to wind it around his waist for protection.
• Odysseus was scared it was a trap and decided not to take her advice to abandon the raft. 
• Athene intervened and calmed down the winds to blow him in the right direction. 
• Odysseus starts going over his options about how he will make it onto land when he was reaches the cliff.
• Athene put in his head to grab hold of a rock with both hands before he was hurt by the rugged shore. 
• A huge wave caught him and flung him out to sea- tearing skin off his hands. 
• Odysseus swan alongside the coastal breakers. 
• Odysseus came to a fast running stream and prayed to the River God to let him take sanctuary in the stream. 
• In answer the River God checked its current and made the waves back to make it easier for Odysseus to swim. 
• He got out of the river and crept under a pair of bushes (one an olive and the other a wild olive). He covered himself with a blanket of leaves. 
• "Athene filled his eyes with sleep to soothe his pain"