Odyssey 5.201 · Book 5, lines 201–202
Calypso begins to speak
Read the full text in our reader
αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ τάρπησαν ἐδητύος ἠδὲ ποτῆτος, τοῖς ἄρα μύθων ἦρχε Καλυψώ, δῖα θεάων·
When they had feasted on food and drink, Calypso began speaking among them, divine among goddesses:
Word by word
The setting
The meal-closing formula gives way to a speech-opening one: with eating done, the goddess starts to speak — the frame around the offer she is about to make.
A note on this passage
Two formulas back to back: the meal ends when they have had their fill of food and drink, and the goddess begins to speak, crowned with the epithet ‘divine among goddesses.’ This is the connective tissue between eating and speech.
The undercurrent is the timing of the epithet. ‘Divine among goddesses’ insists on Calypso's rank precisely at the moment it will count for least — for the man she addresses is about to prefer a mortal home and an aging wife to her and her deathlessness. The calm ritual frame also holds back, for one more beat, a speech that is really a last plea.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 5.201 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 5.201 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/5.201/