Odyssey 5.165 · Book 5, lines 165–170
Provisions, and a caveat
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αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ σῖτον καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ οἶνον ἐρυθρὸν ἐνθήσω μενοεικέʼ, ἅ κέν τοι λιμὸν ἐρύκοι, εἵματά τʼ ἀμφιέσω· πέμψω δέ τοι οὖρον ὄπισθεν, ὥς κε μάλʼ ἀσκηθὴς σὴν πατρίδα γαῖαν ἵκηαι, αἴ κε θεοί γʼ ἐθέλωσι, τοὶ οὐρανὸν εὐρὺν ἔχουσιν, οἵ μευ φέρτεροί εἰσι νοῆσαί τε κρῆναί τε.
And I will stow aboard food and water and red wine in plenty, to keep off your hunger; and clothe you in garments; and send a fair wind behind you, so that quite unscathed you may reach your fatherland, if the gods are willing, who hold wide heaven, who are mightier than me to plan and accomplish.
Word by word
The setting
Calypso finishes her offer: she will stock the raft and send a fair wind, so that Odysseus reaches home safe — with one qualification about the gods who outrank her.
A note on this passage
She completes the provisioning: bread, water, red wine, clothes, a following wind — everything a small craft needs for a long crossing. The list is generous and specific, the send-off of a host who means it, ending on the wish that he come home ‘quite unscathed.’
Then the qualification lands: all of this holds ‘if the gods are willing, who are mightier than me.’ Even a goddess bows to the higher powers of Olympus; her goodwill cannot guarantee a safe passage that Zeus and the other gods must ratify. For the reader it is a quiet piece of foreshadowing — Poseidon is one of those gods, and he is not willing. The escape she outfits so carefully will be nearly undone before Odysseus touches land.
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