Odyssey 5.121 · Book 5, lines 121–124
Dawn and Orion — the first example
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Calypso — ὣς μὲν ὅτʼ Ὠρίωνʼ ἕλετο ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς, τόφρα οἱ ἠγάασθε θεοὶ ῥεῖα ζώοντες, ἧος ἐν Ὀρτυγίῃ χρυσόθρονος Ἄρτεμις ἁγνὴ οἷς ἀγανοῖς βελέεσσιν ἐποιχομένη κατέπεφνεν.
So when rosy-fingered Dawn took Orion for herself, so long you gods, living at ease, begrudged her that, until in Ortygia golden-throned, chaste Artemis, coming upon him with her gentle shafts, slew him.
Word by word
The setting
Calypso is answering Hermes, who has brought Zeus's order to release Odysseus. Stung, she protests by naming goddesses the gods punished for loving mortal men. Here is her first case: Eos (Dawn), who carried off the hunter Orion, until Artemis killed him.
A note on this passage
Calypso reaches for precedent. Her first example is Dawn and Orion: a goddess who loved a mortal hunter, and the gods who could not abide it, until Artemis shot him down. The grievance is old and repeats.
The undercurrent is the double standard she is building. Gods take mortal lovers constantly; goddesses are punished for it. Calypso lines up the cases like a lawyer — Dawn here, Demeter next — to say that the gods’ anger at her love for Odysseus is not justice but jealousy, one rule for the males of heaven and another for its women.
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