Odyssey 7.264 · Book 7, lines 264–266
Sent off on the raft
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πέμπε δʼ ἐπὶ σχεδίης πολυδέσμου, πολλὰ δʼ ἔδωκε, σῖτον καὶ μέθυ ἡδύ, καὶ ἄμβροτα εἵματα ἕσσεν, οὖρον δὲ προέηκεν ἀπήμονά τε λιαρόν τε.
She sent me off on a raft of many bindings, and gave many things: bread and sweet wine, and she clothed me in immortal garments, and sent forth a fair wind, gentle and warm.
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The setting
Calypso equips Odysseus for the voyage home: a bound-together raft, provisions of bread and wine, fresh clothing, and a gentle following wind.
A note on this passage
Calypso sends him off well. She builds him a raft of many bindings, loads it with bread and sweet wine, dresses him in immortal clothing, and calls up a mild, following wind to speed him on.
For all that she could not keep him, she equips him generously — the parting of a goddess, not a jailer. The gentle wind is her last gift, and it belongs to a recurring truth of these books: even the powers that hold Odysseus back can, when they let go, help him home. The raft is a fragile thing to set against the sea, and the poem knows it.
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