Odyssey 5.112 · Book 5, lines 112–115
It is not his fate to die here
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τὸν νῦν σʼ ἠνώγειν ἀποπεμπέμεν ὅττι τάχιστα· οὐ γάρ οἱ τῇδʼ αἶσα φίλων ἀπονόσφιν ὀλέσθαι, ἀλλʼ ἔτι οἱ μοῖρʼ ἐστὶ φίλους τʼ ἰδέειν καὶ ἱκέσθαι οἶκον ἐς ὑψόροφον καὶ ἑὴν ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν.
Him now Zeus bids you send off, as quickly as possible; for it is not his fate to perish here, far from his own, but still it is his lot to see his dear ones and reach his high-roofed house and his own fatherland.
Word by word
The setting
The core of Zeus's command. Release the man: his destiny is not to waste away on Ogygia but to see his people again and reach his own home.
A note on this passage
Here is the order stripped to its point: send him away, and quickly. The reason is fate. It is not his allotted portion to die on this island, cut off from everyone he loves; his portion is to see his people and come home.
The undercurrent is the two fate-words the lines lean on, aἶsa and moîra — each a ‘share’ dealt out to a life. Odysseus's suffering is real, but it is bounded: the same destiny that has battered him also guarantees the ending. Calypso can hold him for years, but she cannot hold him forever, because his death here would be a death out of turn. The homecoming is not a hope in these lines; it is a decree.
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