Book I - Telemachus and Mentor, in search of Ulysses, arrive on the island of Calypso; the nymph is still bemoaning the departure of Ulysses

Summary

Telemachus, conducted by Minerva in the guise of Mentor, after being shipwrecked, goes ashore on the island of the goddess Calypso, who still lamented the departure of Ulysses. The goddess gives him a favorable reception, becomes enamored of him, offers him immortality, and desires to know his adventures. He entertains her with a story of his voyage to Pylos and Lacedaemon; his shipwreck on the coast of Sicily; the risk he ran of being sacrificed to the soul of Anchises; the assistance which Mentor gave Acestes during an incursion of the barbarians; and the king's gratitude for that service, in bestowing upon them a Tyrian ship to return to their country.

Calypso remained inconsolable for the departure of Ulysses. In her sadness, she found herself miserable in being immortal. Her grotto no longer resounded with her song; her attendant nymphs were afraid to speak to her. She often walked alone upon the flowery turf, which a perpetual spring had diffused around her island; but these beautiful places, far from assuaging her grief, served only to recall the melancholy remembrance of Ulysses, by whom she had been so often accompanied. Frequently did she stand motionless on the beach of the sea, which she watered with her tears; and her face was always turned towards that quarter where the ship of Ulysses, plowing the waves, had disappeared from her eyes.