Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Calypso.
The gallery
Odysseus and Calypso
Arnold Böcklin, 1882
Böcklin's oil (Kunstmuseum Basel) stages Odyssey 5 on Ogygia: the nymph Calypso, who detained Odysseus seven years longing to make him her husband, confronts the hero turned away in columnar grief. The lyre at her side and his averted back fix the island paradise as a place of exile.
Calypso Abandoned by Odysseus
Angelica Kauffmann, c. 1782
Neoclassical canvas by Angelica Kauffmann: Calypso watches Odysseus' ship leave Ogygia after Hermes has forced her to release him. The nymph who offered immortality is left on the shore — the Homeric detention rewritten as a scene of abandoned love.
Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus
Gerard de Lairesse, c. 1670
Dutch classical oil in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-212): Mercury delivers Zeus' command while Calypso receives the order that ends Odysseus' seven-year stay. Lairesse makes the nymph the still centre of the scene — hostess and detainee alike, compelled to let the wanderer go.
The Goddess Calypso Rescues Ulysses
Cornelis van Poelenburgh, c. 1630
Italianate landscape by Cornelis van Poelenburgh in which Calypso draws the shipwrecked Odysseus from the sea onto Ogygia. Before the long detention and Hermes' summons, the nymph appears as rescuer — the Homeric welcome that will become a seven-year captivity.
Calypso
Henri Lehmann, 1869
Academic oil by Henri Lehmann in the Minneapolis Institute of Art: Calypso alone, idealized as a solitary goddess of the shore. Stripped of Odysseus, the portrait still names the Ogygian nymph — the detainee-hostess of the Odyssey reduced to a single contemplative figure.