Odyssey 5.141 · Book 5, lines 141–144
No ship to give — only counsel
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οὐ γάρ μοι πάρα νῆες ἐπήρετμοι καὶ ἑταῖροι, οἵ κέν μιν πέμποιεν ἐπʼ εὐρέα νῶτα θαλάσσης. αὐτάρ οἱ πρόφρων ὑποθήσομαι, οὐδʼ ἐπικεύσω, ὥς κε μάλʼ ἀσκηθὴς ἣν πατρίδα γαῖαν ἵκηται.
For I have no ships fitted with oars, nor comrades who would escort him over the broad back of the sea. Yet with a ready heart I will counsel him, and conceal nothing, so that unscathed he may reach his own native land.
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The setting
Calypso explains that she cannot actually convey Odysseus home: she has no oared ships and no crew. But she pledges to advise him honestly so that he can reach his homeland safely on his own.
A note on this passage
The surrender turns practical, and then generous. She has no fleet, no crew — a goddess on a lonely island cannot ferry a man home. What she can give is knowledge: she will advise him freely and hide nothing, so he can make the crossing and reach Ithaca unharmed.
The phrase ‘the broad back of the sea’ is a standing epithet, but here it measures the task: an unhelped man against the whole width of the water. And ‘conceal nothing’ is the turn that matters — Calypso could sabotage the voyage with a withheld warning, and instead she promises the plain truth. Her love, refused, becomes help. The counsel she gives will build the raft that carries the next four hundred lines.
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Odyssey 5.141 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/5.141/