But he
persisted in his resolution to return to his country and his wife
and son. Calypso at last received the command of Jove to dismiss
him. Mercury brought the message to her, and found her in her
grotto, which is thus described by Homer:
"A garden vine, luxuriant on all sides,
Mantled the spacious cavern, cluster-hung
Profuse; four fountains of serenest lymph,
Their sinuous course pursuing side by side,
Strayed all around, and everywhere appeared
Meadows of softest verdure, purpled o'er
With violets; it was a scene to fill
A god from heaven with wonder and delight."
Calypso with much reluctance proceeded to obey the commands of
Jupiter. She supplied Ulysses with the means of constructing a
raft, provisioned it well for him, and gave him a favoring gale.
He sped on his course prosperously for many days, till at length,
when in sight of land, a storm arose that broke his mast, and
threatened to rend the raft asunder. In this crisis he was seen by
a compassionate sea-nymph, who in the form of a cormorant alighted
on the raft, and presented him a girdle, directing him to bind it
beneath his breast, and if he should be compelled to trust himself
to the waves, it would buoy him up and enable him by swimming to
reach the land.
Fenelon, in his romance of "Telemachus," has given us the
adventures of the son of Ulysses in search of his father.
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