Odyssey 5.148 · Book 5, lines 148–150
Hermes gone, the nymph goes to Odysseus
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ὣς ἄρα φωνήσας ἀπέβη κρατὺς ἀργεϊφόντης· ἡ δʼ ἐπʼ Ὀδυσσῆα μεγαλήτορα πότνια νύμφη ἤιʼ, ἐπεὶ δὴ Ζηνὸς ἐπέκλυεν ἀγγελιάων.
So then, having spoken, the mighty Argus-slayer departed; and she, the queenly nymph, set out toward great-hearted Odysseus, now that she had heard the tidings of Zeus.
Word by word
The setting
The divine errand ends. Hermes, his message delivered, departs Ogygia. Calypso, now bound by Zeus's command, sets off to find Odysseus — the moment the poem turns from the gods to its hero, still unseen.
A note on this passage
The scene closes and pivots. Hermes says his piece and is gone — the god's errand is a single line, the coming and the going. The camera turns from heaven to the island, from the messenger to the nymph who must now do the thing she just argued against.
The last clause is the hinge of the whole book. Calypso goes to find Odysseus ‘now that she had heard the tidings of Zeus’ — and on the far side of this line the poem finally reaches its hero, whom we have not yet seen. He is ‘great-hearted,’ the fixed epithet, but the next scene will show him weeping on the shore. The nymph walks toward him carrying the news that sets him free, and the poem walks with her, at last, to Odysseus.
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