Calypso’s Family Tree

About Calypso →

Family

• Atlas(parent)

  Atlas fathered Calypso, the nymph who held Odysseus captive on Ogygia for seven years, whom Homer calls 'daughter of baneful Atlas who knows the depths of all the seas.'

• Odysseus(spouse)— Consort

  Calypso detained Odysseus on the island of Ogygia for seven years as her lover, offering him immortality if he would stay. Zeus sent Hermes to command his release.

Rules over

• Ogygia

  Calypso dwelt on Ogygia in a beautiful vine-hung cave, ruling the remote island at the navel of the sea as her solitary domain far from gods and mortals alike.

Member of

• Oceanids

  The Oceanids were three thousand freshwater nymphs born to Oceanus and Tethys who nurtured rivers, springs, and streams across the world. Hesiod named the eldest and most honored among them in the Theogony.

Associated with

• Caduceus

  In Odyssey Book 5, Hermes carried the Caduceus when Zeus sent him to Calypso's island to command the nymph to release Odysseus. Homer describes him taking up the staff that charms men's eyes to sleep or wakes them.

• Hermes

  In the Odyssey, Hermes delivered Zeus's command to Calypso on the island of Ogygia, ordering her to release Odysseus after seven years of captivity.

• Iasion

  In Odyssey 5, Calypso cites Iasion's death as a parallel to her own situation with Odysseus, arguing that the gods punish goddesses who take mortal lovers. She names Iasion alongside Orion as victims of divine jealousy.

• Penelope

  Zeus commanded Calypso to release Odysseus so he could return to Penelope. Calypso bitterly contrasted mortal Penelope with herself, arguing she surpassed the queen in beauty and could offer immortality.

• River Styx

  Calypso swore by the River Styx to Odysseus that she harbored no hidden plot against him when she finally agreed to let him leave her island, as told in the Odyssey.