Meanwhile Antinous had taken steps to carry out his villainous design.
At nightfall he went down to the sea with twenty picked men, boarded
the vessel which had been prepared for their use, and sailed out to a
little island which lies in the middle of the strait between Samos and
Ithaca. There they anchored in a sheltered bay, and waited for the
coming of Telemachus.
Odysseus and Calypso
I
We have waited long for the appearance of Odysseus, and at last he is
about to enter the scene, which he will never leave again until the
final act of the great drama is played out. Hitherto he has been
pursued by the malice of Poseidon, who wrecked his fleet, drowned all
his men, and kept him confined for seven years in Calypso's island, in
vengeance for the blinding of his son Polyphemus.
But now the prayers of Athene have prevailed, and Hermes, the
messenger of the gods, is on his way from Olympus, bearing a
peremptory summons to Calypso to let Odysseus depart. Shod with his
golden, winged sandals, which bear him, swift as the wind, over moist
and dry, and holding in his hand his magic wand, Hermes skimmed like a
seagull over the blue waters of the AEgaean, until he came to that far
distant isle. Arrived there, he went straight to the great cavern
where Calypso dwelt; and he found her there, walking about her room,
weaving with a golden shuttle, and singing sweetly at her work.
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