Examples Of Calypso In The Odyssey

What is the definition of a monster? Is it a huge, scary creature? Is it something that keeps causing anxiety? Or does it depend on the situation? In the epic poem The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus overcomes several monsters over the course of his twenty year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. During this period when Odysseus manages his crew, he channels his courage, perseverance, and intelligence to succeed. Calypso is a goddess who welcomes Odysseus on her island. This is a kind act, but Calypso doesn’t let him leave for eight years. Over this period of time, Odysseus becomes homesick and wants to return home to his wife, Penelope. Calypso is a powerful woman, which is something ancient Greeks feared. In ancient Greece, women mostly

Odysseus is forbidden from leaving the island for eight years. He was stuck homesick on the island until Zeus gave a message to Hermes for Calypso demanding that she let Odysseus free. When Calypso told him he could leave, he was surprised and responded, “[I hope] you’re not planning some new trouble for me”(75, Homer). This quote shows Odysseus’ distrust in Calypso because he fears her next move. Here, Odysseus fears Calypso’s next move, and whether or not it will make Odysseus’ trip longer home, or if she will take out her anger on Odysseus. This relates to Ariel Castro because of the distrust built over the years between the three girls and their kidnappers. Monsters do not have a good sense of what is right. Although Odysseus was not completely opposed to sex and sleeping with her, Calypso should have known it was wrong because Odysseus was loyal to Penelope. While Odysseus is trapped on Calypso’s island, “[Odysseus] still slept with her at night in her cavern,/An unwilling lover mated to her eager embrace”(74, Homer). Like Calypso, Castro should have known and admitted it was wrong to kidnap and rape these women. Both of these monsters kidnapped people and did not do the right

These characters couldn’t control themselves for many years. Although Calypso takes care of Odysseus, she could have allowed Odysseus to leave her island after a few days, thus making her uncontrollable. She became controllable when Zeus ordered Hermes to give the message to Calypso to send Odysseus home. Because Calypso did not want Odysseus to leave, (making her known that she is uncontrollable) she responded to Hermes in an annoyed voice saying, “You gods are the most jealous bastards in the universe—/Persecuting any goddess who ever openly takes a [man]...So all right, he can go, if it’s an order from above,” in an attitude which made it seem that, “words flew from her mouth like screaming hawks”(73, Homer). She was able to be controlled here—for the first time in eight years—because she feared retaliation by Zeus. Although Calypso was more welcoming and kind, as she fed Odysseus well, she, like Castro was not controllable. For over ten years, Castro was a maniac, starving, chaining, and raping these women daily. If he could control himself, he would have never taken these women into captivity and never have traumatized them. Once these girls escaped, he was able to be controlled by the police once arrested. He was only able to be controlled by the government, who gave him a one-thousand year sentence, but only served a few weeks of it before commiting suicide. Although Calypso and Castro are different on how