So for seven years Calypso strove to make him forget his longing with
ease and pleasant living and soft raiment. Day by day she sang to him
while she broidered her web with gold; and her voice was like a golden
strand that twines in and out of silence, making it beautiful. She even
promised that she would make him immortal, if he would stay and be
content; but he was heartsick for home.
At last his sorrow touched even the heart of Athena in heaven, for she
loved his wisdom and his many devices. So she besought Zeus and all the
other gods until they consented to shield Odysseus from the anger of
Poseidon. Hermes himself bound on his winged sandals and flew down to
Ogygia, where he found Calypso at her spinning. After many words, the
nymph consented to give up her captive, for she was kind of heart, and
all her graces had not availed to make him forget his home. With her
help, Odysseus built a raft and set out upon his lonely voyage,--the
only man remaining out of twelve good ships that had left Troy nigh
unto ten years before.
The sea roughened against him, but (to shorten a tale of great peril)
after many days, sore spent and tempest-tossed, he came to the land of
the Phaeacians, a land dear to the immortal gods, abounding in gifts of
harvest and vintage, in godlike men and lovely women.
Here the shipwrecked king met the princess Nausicaa by the seaside, as
she played ball with her maidens; and she, when she had heard of his
plight, gave him food and raiment, and bade him follow her home.
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