Odyssey 7.244 · Book 7, lines 244–247
The island of Ogygia
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Ὠγυγίη τις νῆσος ἀπόπροθεν εἰν ἁλὶ κεῖται· ἔνθα μὲν Ἄτλαντος θυγάτηρ, δολόεσσα Καλυψὼ ναίει ἐυπλόκαμος, δεινὴ θεός· οὐδέ τις αὐτῇ μίσγεται οὔτε θεῶν οὔτε θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων.
There is a certain island, Ogygia, lying far off in the sea; there dwells the daughter of Atlas, guileful Calypso, the fair-haired, a dread goddess; and no one consorts with her, neither of gods nor of mortal men.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus starts his tale at its most recent link: the far island where he was held. He names Ogygia and its mistress, Calypso, daughter of Atlas — a goddess who lives apart, whom neither god nor mortal visits.
A note on this passage
Odysseus starts his story not at Troy but at its far end, on Ogygia. He names the island, sets it 'far off in the sea,' and gives its one inhabitant: Calypso, daughter of Atlas, a goddess who lives where no one comes.
The detail that no god or mortal visits her marks the island as a place off the map of the living. Her name itself suggests 'the concealer,' and her home is a kind of beautiful oblivion. Beginning here quietly tells Arete that the man before her has come back from somewhere close to the edge of the world.
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