Odyssey 5.87 · Book 5, lines 87–90
‘Why have you come, Hermes?’
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Calypso — τίπτε μοι, Ἑρμεία χρυσόρραπι, εἰλήλουθας αἰδοῖός τε φίλος τε; πάρος γε μὲν οὔ τι θαμίζεις. αὔδα ὅ τι φρονέεις· τελέσαι δέ με θυμὸς ἄνωγεν, εἰ δύναμαι τελέσαι γε καὶ εἰ τετελεσμένον ἐστίν.
Why, Hermes of the golden wand, have you come to me — honored and dear? Before now you do not come often. Speak what you have in mind; my heart bids me to accomplish it, if I am able to accomplish it and if it can be done.
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The setting
Calypso's first words to her guest — a warm greeting to a god who rarely visits, and an open promise to do whatever he asks, if she can. She does not yet know what he will ask.
A note on this passage
Calypso greets her guest warmly and a little pointedly: why has Hermes come, honored and dear as he is, when he so rarely visits? Then she makes an open-handed offer — tell me what you want and I will do it, if it can be done at all. It is gracious, generous, and completely in the dark.
The warmth is loaded with irony the goddess cannot see. She promises to accomplish whatever Hermes intends, and what he intends is the loss of the very thing she loves — Odysseus. Her repeated ‘accomplish… accomplish,’ hedged only by ‘if I can,’ will be turned against her: the thing she pledges to do is the thing she least wants. Homer lets her bind herself with courtesy before the blow lands.
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