*Being added to _ShortStory_ "Myth and Legend Anthology"

Homer, that frightfully boring and unimaginative Greek poet whom everyone has been raving on and on about for a thousand years, was nothing more than a shameless liar. His account of my life, in that disgraceful tabloid he called the Odyssey, was a complete misrepresentation of me! That man portrayed me to all of the world as a lonely, bitter, self-serving nymph who captured and detained a married man, against his will, just to satisfy my own selfish longings! Hogwash! There isn't a bit of truth to any of it! 

Where that schemer got these scandalous ideas, I will never know. It isn't as if he'd ever spoken a word to the King of Ithaca, Odysseus, or traveled to my island, Ogygia, to speak with me. Yet, the trials and the tribulations his undocumented and unverified piece of dribble has caused me is great. I find I am at my wits end about it all. I must and I will tell you the truth now or I risk my twitter account imploding!

Allow me reader to, first, set the record straight for you by addressing the false accusations made against me in the Odyssey; and second, to give you a first-hand account of my love story in which I assure you Odysseus played no part!

Firstly, I was never lonely, not in the sense it was portrayed at least in that god-awful rag called the Odyssey. Ogygia was my island. She was made for me and me alone. I was her husbandman, her caretaker, her guardian and keeper. From morning till night and from night until morning I watched over her and helped her flourish from her infancy. She was my greatest love, my life, my joy and I felt she was the best part of me. I did not sit on the shores of my island pining for a lover. I had no time for one! I did not cry myself to sleep dreaming of the faces of semi-mortal children to fill my island with. I had a child already. Her name was Ogygia - my island.

Secondly, I was rarely alone on the island contrary to Homer's claims. The idea that I snatched up the first mortal man to come along and seduced him for 7 years to keep me company is so ridiculous as to be laughable. The seas are a dangerous place when gods and monsters begin to play. Why, my island was a safe haven in tempest driven seas for fisherman, sailors and immortals alike. Anyone seeking to escape the wars waged on the seas in the name of one god or another were welcome on Ogygia. My island, though not teeming with men all the time, had no shortage of strong, handsome and eligible young men streaming by its shores who were all quite willing to be my lovers. Odysseus was neither the first man I rescued from the sharp shoals nor was he the last.

Lastly, Odysseus did not stay on Ogygia for seven years because I seduced him. Poppycock! He remained in my care those seven years because he was terrified Zeus would drown him if he set out on the sea again. It was Zeus that shipwrecked him in the first place. It was Zeus who left him in the sea to die! Furthermore, when Hermes came with his message from Zeus seven years later, the message did not read,

"Calypso, Stop playing around and let the poor boy go home to his wife! ~ Zeus"

No, the message read,

"Calypso, Athena is on my case again. Tell Odysseus he may leave the island. ~ Zeus".

Odysseus was never my captor or my unwilling lover. In fact, the love of my life was not Odysseus at all but rather an immortal who is hitherto unknown to you I imagine.

My heart's desire was a warrior sea-nymph called Thalos, whom I was well acquainted with long before Odysseus ever came to my island. But you wont find any record of him in Homer's trash novel, the Odyssey, or in any other scandalous rag like it! I'm more than a little relieved that at least one of our names will remain forever untarnished by that terrible tabloid!

Thalos was a terror in the sea and trouble from the moment I laid eyes on him. Half the reason my island was besieged from time to time with shipwrecked fishermen and sailors was because Thalos couldn't keep a lid on his temper when he was a young nymph. He was perpetually stirring up the seas and fighting losing battles with any number of sea monsters such as Cetus, Scylla or Charybdis.

For years, I yelled at him and lectured him from the safety of my island about all the needless trouble he caused me. I called him selfish and irrational and every name I could think of. He'd ignore me. Then sometimes he'd fire back with insults of his own about the ugly island-bound nymph. And, other times, he'd stir up the waves and try to drown me in them! I thought he was the stupidest sea-nymph I had ever known and let everyone know it too.

Things changed when my island was swamped by the bulbous mass of Scylla with her 12 enormous and destructive tentacles. This time it was nothing to do with Thalos. Poseidon and Proteus were fighting over some old grudge, each wanting to be master and commander of the seas alone. My poor island got caught up in the middle of their proxy war in which they pitted sea monster against sea monster in an attempt to gain superiority of the seas without actually battling each other. Scylla was going to climb over and destroy my island in this senseless fight between the two sea gods. I was helpless to prevent her until Thalos appeared.

I begged him to save my island. It was the most precious thing in all the world to me and I got down on my knees and begged that brat to save it from Scylla. He stood upon a wave, very near my shore and looked uncertain for a moment. He cleared his throat and said, "To save it, I'll have to drown it and you along with it."

He planned to wash Scylla off my island but in order to do so the entire island would be submerged under the tidal wave he'd use. In fact, it would be such a huge wave that it would likely ruin much of the vegetation on my island he told me. Scylla's 12 tentacles would do so much more damage though. They would smother, crush, and smash the life on my island to smithereens. I simply couldn't risk leaving her to thrash back and forth on my little piece of heaven. So, I gave him permission to do it - to drown the island and I in order to save us!

But, there was a price he said. He would not do it without receiving some sort of payment.

I was in a desperate panic and promised him anything he wanted – anything at all. He made me promise that I would be his lover for a full year. In that time I could have no lover but him and he would come and go from the island whenever he pleased.

I quickly agreed. What was it to me if he was my lover for a year! An immortal's life is a long time. If he'd asked me to sacrifice 10, 100 or a 1000 years of my independence to him for my Ogygia, I would have gladly said yes!

The deal was struck. I gave my word. It was such a small price.

He told me to climb to the highest peak of my island and to tie myself to the strongest cedar I found there. Then, I was to take a deep breath and hold it when the wave crashed down on my Ogygia. Thalos told me to hold my breath for as long as I could or risk drowning in the wave that would sweep Scylla off my island.

I tied myself off and braced for the wave. It was like a tsunami. It swept Scylla away and along with her much of the island's trees and vegetation. When I stood, looking down over my island, I wept openly. The destruction was devastating. Only a few trees were left standing.

Thalos found me weeping and inconsolable. He untied me from the cedar tree and carried me down to the bottom of the island. There he made me a home in a sea cave and cared for me every day, from morning until night and from night until morning, for a full year. He never once touched me as a lover. He only tended to me and watched over me as I tended to Ogygia and brought her back to life. He was my rock during that dark time.

When the year was up, the year I had promised him, he stood on the shore and told me it was time for him to return to the depths of the sea. My heart broke when I heard those words. He was leaving me and I could not go with him. I was tied to this island eternally and could never follow him into the depths of the sea. I cried out in my despair and threw my arms around his neck. I wept on his shoulder while he held me very close.

"Why are you weeping so, Calypso?" He asked after a long while.

"Because my heart is breaking!" I said.

"Why does your heart break?" He asked tenderly.

"Because I cannot follow you into the depths of the sea." I said.

He pulled me so close to him that I could feel the beating of his heart under my breast.

"Why would you follow me into the depths of the sea? I am not your lover," he said in a hoarse whisper.

"Because I love you!" I replied in a mournful wail.

It was true. He was not my lover. But, I knew I loved him. I knew it deep within the very marrow of my being. I loved him so much that I wanted to leave my precious Ogygia for him. My heart, my mind and my eyes were full of him. And he was going to leave me and go where I could not follow. I clung to his neck and cried all the harder as my heart broke still more.

"I must return," he said gently after a very long while.

"I'll wait for you," I declared.

He laughed but smiled sweetly at me. "How long will you wait?"

"For eternity," I replied in a fierce whisper.

I did not have to wait for eternity to see my love again. He returned in the spring and my heart bloomed with new life and new love at the sight of him. He confessed his love for me in a thousand kisses and we have rarely spent more than a few weeks apart since.

As a last note reader, I would like you to know that my Thalos was well acquainted with Odysseus. The two had become fast friends while Odysseus laid low on my island waiting for Zeus' wrath to pass. It burns me up still to think of the terrible lies that horrid mortal Homer spread about me and Odysseus. There simply wasn't a bit of truth to any of it and I'm just relieved that Thalos took it all in stride when the news of Homer's trashy bard first came out. It was harder to deal with once it was written down on papyrus, of course. However, Thalos only laughed and said it was 'old' news. I wish I could be so blithe about it. But my heart is full of bitterness and I despise that wicked, nymph-hating Homer. I always will. 

(1992)