Odyssey 1.84 · Book 1, lines 84–87
Send Hermes to Ogygia
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Ἑρμείαν μὲν ἔπειτα διάκτορον ἀργεϊφόντην νῆσον ἐς Ὠγυγίην ὀτρύνομεν, ὄφρα τάχιστα νύμφῃ ἐυπλοκάμῳ εἴπῃ νημερτέα βουλήν, νόστον Ὀδυσσῆος ταλασίφρονος, ὥς κε νέηται·
Then let us send Hermes, the guide, slayer of Argus, to the isle of Ogygia, so that with all speed he may tell the fair-tressed nymph our unerring resolve: the homecoming of steadfast Odysseus, that he may return.
Word by word
The setting
The plan's first half: a divine messenger. Athena names Hermes and his errand — to carry the gods' fixed decision to Calypso, the nymph holding Odysseus on the far island of Ogygia.
A note on this passage
Athena spells out the first move: send Hermes, the messenger-god, to Calypso's island to announce the gods' fixed decision — Odysseus is to go home. It is issued as a decree, a message to be carried and delivered.
The undercurrent is a promise the poem does not keep on schedule. This dispatch to Ogygia is announced here, in Book 1, but Hermes does not actually reach Calypso until Book 5. Athena's real energy is elsewhere — with the son, in Ithaca — and the poem follows her there first.
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