Odyssey Study Guide Contents

The 5th book of the Odyssey begins in the world of the gods with Athena once again trying to help her favorite, Odysseus, while Poseidon is away in Ethiopia. She complains about Odysseus' being stuck on Calypso's island and Telemachus facing the treacherous suitors. Zeus tells his daughter that it was her plan that led to the treachery and it's entirely within her power to control it.

As to Odysseus, Zeus takes action sending Hermes to tell Calypso to let Odysseus go on a makeshift raft. Odysseus is to meet the Phaeacians in 20 days, at which time he will be honored with a sea-worthy ship and plunder (enough to make up for what he lost coming home for Troy).
Hermes straps on his sandals and zooms to Calypso's cave where he finds her weaving. Odysseus is out at the shore looking over the waters and bewailing his fate. Before Hermes tells Calypso why he has come, she sets nectar and ambrosia before him. He then tells her Zeus' will, which angers Calypso. She knows resistance is futile so when Hermes leaves, she goes to find Odysseus to tell him that he need no longer mope: she's going to help him get a raft together. Odysseus makes sure she isn't tricking him by having her swear an oath, which she does, using the most binding of the oaths, the River Styx. Although she has agreed to let him go, she can't resist trying to persuade him that she is incomparably better than his aged wife back home.

Odysseus admits that Calypso is probably superior in every way, but he still wants to go home.

At dawn, Calypso gives Odysseus the bronze ax he needs to fell the tall trees and a drill with which to bind them together. She gives him cloth for a sail and rations.

Odysseus sets out on the 5th day. On the 18th day he sees the island of the Phaeacians. But then Poseidon sees him, and thinks the gods have been up to something while he was away. He creates storms and Odysseus is buffeted by them. Leucothea sees Odysseus and has pity on him. She tells him that while Poseidon can terrify him, he can't kill him. She then gives him very specific instructions about what he must do with a scarf she gives him and she tells him to swim for shore.

Once again, Odysseus fears a trick, so he stays with the battered raft until he no longer can and only then swims. When Poseidon sends a devastating wave, Odysseus does as bid, strips, ties the scarf around his waist, and heads for shore with most of the winds calmed by Athena. Odysseus first reaches a dangerous reefy part of shore but then swims on to the mouth of a river into which he can dispose of the scarf as Leucothea had told him.

He climbs to shore, finds a bed of olive bushes, puts leaves over himself as a blanket, and falls asleep.

Book IV Summary|Book VI

Read a Public Domain translation of Odyssey Book V.
Next: Major Characters in Book V, Notes on Book V, Quiz on Book V