Tell me, Muse, of the man of many turns, who wandered far after he sacked the sacred citadel of Troy. He saw the cities of many peoples and learned their minds; on the sea he suffered in his heart, trying to win his life and bring his companions home. He could not save them: fools, they ate the cattle of Helios Hyperion, and the god took from them their day of return. From somewhere in these things, goddess, daughter of Zeus, tell us too.
All who had escaped war and the sea were home — all but Odysseus. Calypso, bright among goddesses, still held him in her hollow caves, wanting him for her husband, though he longed for his own land and his wife. When the year came round that the gods had spun for his return to Ithaca, they pitied him — all but Poseidon, who raged on and would not let him reach home.
Poseidon had gone to the Ethiopians at the ends of the earth to take a hecatomb of bulls and rams. The other gods sat in the halls of Olympian Zeus. The father of men and gods spoke first, with Aegisthus in mind — whom Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, had killed.
“Look how mortals blame the gods,” he said. “They say evils come from us, but they win pain beyond measure by their own reckless acts. Aegisthus took Atreus’s son’s wife against right and killed him when he came home, though he knew destruction. We sent Hermes to warn him not to kill the man and not to court the wife — Orestes would take vengeance when he came of age. Hermes spoke in goodwill, but Aegisthus would not listen. Now he has paid in full.”
Grey-eyed Athena answered: “Father, son of Cronus — that man died as he deserved. So may anyone die who does such things. But my heart is torn for Odysseus, shrewd man, suffering far from his friends on an island, the navel of the sea. Atlas’s daughter holds him there and tries with soft words to make him forget Ithaca. He only wants to see the smoke from his own land, even if he dies. Did he not please you with sacrifices by the Argive ships at Troy? Why are you so angry with him?”
Cloud-gathering Zeus said: “My child, how could I forget Odysseus, beyond mortals in mind, who gave the gods rich sacrifice? But Poseidon is furious over the Cyclops whose eye Odysseus blinded — Polyphemus, whom the nymph Thoosa bore to Poseidon. The earth-shaker will not kill him outright, but drives him wandering from his land. Come — let us all take thought of his return. Poseidon alone cannot strive against all the deathless gods forever.”
Athena said: “If the blessed gods now will that Odysseus return home, send Hermes to Ogygia to tell the fair-haired nymph our fixed resolve. I myself will go to Ithaca, put spirit in his son, and urge him to call the Achaeans to assembly and speak out to the suitors who keep slaughtering his sheep and cattle. I will send him to Sparta and sandy Pylos to ask after his father’s return, so a good report may be his among men.”