Odyssey 5.262 · Book 5, lines 262–264
The fourth day done, the fifth to sail
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τέτρατον ἦμαρ ἔην, καὶ τῷ τετέλεστο ἅπαντα· τῷ δʼ ἄρα πέμπτῳ πέμπʼ ἀπὸ νήσου δῖα Καλυψώ, εἵματά τʼ ἀμφιέσασα θυώδεα καὶ λούσασα.
It was the fourth day, and by then everything was finished; and on the fifth shining Calypso sent him off from the island, having bathed him and clothed him in fragrant garments.
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The setting
The building is done. Homer marks the days — four to finish, the fifth to depart — and Calypso readies Odysseus for the voyage with the bath and fresh clothes owed a departing guest.
A note on this passage
Time is folded into a formula: four days of work, and on the fifth she sends him off. The parting keeps the shape of hospitality — she bathes him and dresses him in fragrant clothes, the same care a host gives an honored guest, here given to a guest who is leaving her for good.
The tenderness is the undercurrent. Calypso begged to keep Odysseus forever and was overruled by Zeus; now she is the one who washes him, perfumes his clothes, and points him at the sea. The goddess performs, with her own hands, the ritual that ends her hope. Homer does not name her grief again here — he lets the bath and the fragrant garments carry it.
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