Odyssey 5.159 · Book 5, lines 159–161
‘Mourn no longer’
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ἀγχοῦ δʼ ἱσταμένη προσεφώνεε δῖα θεάων·
Calypso — κάμμορε, μή μοι ἔτʼ ἐνθάδʼ ὀδύρεο, μηδέ τοι αἰὼν φθινέτω· ἤδη γάρ σε μάλα πρόφρασσʼ ἀποπέμψω.
Standing near, she addressed him, divine among goddesses: “Ill-fated one, mourn no longer here, nor let your life waste away for you; for already, right gladly, I will send you off.
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The setting
Calypso, now under orders from Zeus to release him, comes and stands over the weeping hero. Her first words are gentle — and, after years of holding him, suddenly generous.
A note on this passage
Calypso stands over the weeping man and speaks kindly. She tells him to stop grieving, not to let his life pine away — and then the surprise: she will send him off, and gladly. After seven years of keeping him, the goddess opens the door herself.
What the reader knows, and Odysseus does not, is why: Zeus has commanded it, and Hermes has just left. So her ‘right gladly’ is doing delicate work — she puts a willing face on an order she cannot refuse. The tender address κάμμορε, ‘ill-fated one,’ is real feeling, but the sudden generosity is not entirely hers to give. Odysseus, who trusts nothing on this island, will hear the strangeness in it at once.
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