Odyssey Study Guide Contents
In the Iliad, the messenger is Iris, but in the Odyssey, Hermes is sent as messenger by Zeus. He wears sandals that allow him to fly and he carries a sleep-conferring wand. He is also known as the slayer of giants. When he arrives at the luscious home of the immortal Calypso, the laws of hospitality are obeyed. Even the gods provide food and drink to the presumed weary traveler before he is obliged to answer questions.Calypso, who weaves like any mortal woman, is petulant about having to do what Zeus says, but Zeus is not to be messed with. When Athena complained to her father (Zeus), he told her that what she complained about was her own doing, and besides, she had it within her power to do something about it. Perhaps she was just checking in with him first before overstepping her bounds. Poseidon has been away in Ethiopia while the other Olympians have been helping Odysseus and family, but he has returned. Odysseus thinks it's Zeus who's causing storms until Leucothoea tells him it's Poseidon. Leucothoea has some very exact and odd instructions Odysseus must follow. Why he should be naked makes sense, especially later, but why he should not watch when he returns the scarf to the water seems part of a tradition against looking back -- like Orpheus, without any immediate sense.
I don't know if my image of the two entwined olive trees is right, but when I had an olive tree, it was wild and bushy like some lilacs, so that is what I envision as a suitable cradle lifted off the earth.
