Odyssey 5.318 · Book 5, lines 318–321
Dragged under by Calypso's clothes
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τηλοῦ δὲ σπεῖρον καὶ ἐπίκριον ἔμπεσε πόντῳ. τὸν δʼ ἄρʼ ὑπόβρυχα θῆκε πολὺν χρόνον, οὐδʼ ἐδυνάσθη αἶψα μάλʼ ἀνσχεθέειν μεγάλου ὑπὸ κύματος ὁρμῆς· εἵματα γάρ ῥʼ ἐβάρυνε, τά οἱ πόρε δῖα Καλυψώ.
Far off the sail and the yard-arm fell into the sea. And the wave held him under a long time, nor could he rise quickly at all from under the great wave's force; for the clothes weighed him down which divine Calypso had given him.
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The setting
With the mast down, the sail and yard-arm fall into the sea and Odysseus is plunged beneath the water — held there by the weight of the garments Calypso had given him for the voyage.
A note on this passage
The rigging is gone — sail and yard-arm pitch into the sea — and Odysseus goes under. The wave holds him down a long time, and he cannot fight quickly back to the surface, because the clothes Calypso gave him are soaked and heavy, dragging him deep.
The detail of the clothing is precise and cruel. Calypso's gift, a token of her care, becomes the very thing that nearly kills him: her generosity clings to him as dead weight even after he has left her island. Homer does not point the moral, but the image holds — the nymph's parting kindness, turned to ballast, pulling him down toward the death he is trying to escape.
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