Odyssey Archetype Analysis

1. In Book 5 of the Odyssey written by Homer and translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Calypso is a character archetype by being the lover. Calypso saved Odysseus and then ultimately fell in love with him. Since she fell in love with him, Odysseus was trapped there for years. “But it was I who saved him-saw him straddle”(5.136). Calypso also presented her great love for Odysseus, in which she cared for him and wanted to live in immortality. She felt that if she offered him immortality, that he would see her love for him. Ultimately, Odysseus could not express his love back to her, and she was advised to let him go, despite her love for him. Calypso states, “ I fed him, loved him, sang that he should not die nor grow old” (5.142-3). Ultimately, …show more content…
In book 5 of the Odyssey written by Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Homer uses the motif that beauty can be deceptive in the eyes of others as evident of Odysseus’ many encounters with beautiful women such as Helen and Calypso. Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda. She was viewed to be the most beautiful woman in the world and the wife of Menelaus. “ Helen came out her scented chamber, a moving grace like Artemis, straight as a shaft of gold” (IV, 131-133). Despite her beauty, Helen was viewed to be the ultimate cause of the Trojan war. As for Calypso, the daughter of Atlas, she was also viewed to be beautiful, yet her deception comes when she holds Odysseus prisoner for seven years. These women, while beautiful on the outside, are being deceitful because their inner actions are not kind or beautiful. Ultimately, in order for a person to truly be beautiful, it does need to come from not only the physical sense, but also the by what is on the …show more content…
In book 5 of the Odyssey, written by Homer and translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Calypso can be compared as well as contrasted to Suzanne Vegas’ song of the same name. When comparing both the song and the book, they both summarize the story of Calypso, but with varying viewpoints. In both they relate to Calypso and Odysseus meeting in which she saved him from drowning and kept him captive for years. In “Calypso a Song” by Suzanne Vega, she sang “I watched him struggle with the sea, I knew that he was drowning and I brought him into me.” However, book 5 and Suzanne Vega’s song differ in which the song is from Calypso’s viewpoint while the Book 5 is Odysseus’s flashbacks. In the “Calypso a Song” by Suzanne Vega, the lyrics state, “I let him go” where in book 5, the messenger god Hermes is the one who actually tells Calypso to release Odysseus from her captivity. Overall, both book 5 and Calypso a Song by Suzanne Vega, tell the story of the adventures and relationship the occurred between Calypso and Odysseus, but with some varying