dwelt the nymph of the braided tresses:  and he found her within.  And on the hearth there was a great fire burning, and from afar through the isle was smelt the fragrance of cleft cedar blazing, and of sandal wood.  And the nymph within was singing with a sweet voice as she fared to and fro before the loom, and wove with a shuttle of gold.  And round about the cave there was a wood blossoming, alder and poplar and sweet-smelling cypress.  And therein roosted birds long of wing, owls and falcons and chattering sea-crows, which have their business in the waters.  And lo, there about the hollow cave trailed a gadding garden vine, all rich with clusters.  And fountains four set orderly were running with clear water, hard by one another, turned each to his own course.  And all around soft meadows bloomed of violets and parsley, yea, even a deathless god who came thither might wonder at the sight and be glad at heart.  There the messenger, the slayer of Argos, stood and wondered.  Now when he had gazed at all with wonder, anon he went into the wide cave; nor did Calypso, that fair goddess, fail to know him, when she saw him face to face; for the gods use not to be strange one to another, the immortals, not though one have his habitation far away.  But he found not Odysseus, the greathearted, within the cave, who sat weeping on the shore even as aforetime, straining his soul with tears and groans and griefs, and as he wept he looked wistfully over the unharvested deep.  And Calypso, that fair goddess, questioned Hermes, when she had made him sit on a bright shining seat: 

’Wherefore, I pray thee, Hermes, of the golden wand, hast thou come hither, worshipful and welcome, whereas as of old thou wert not wont to visit me?  Tell me all thy thought; my heart is set on fulfilling it, if fulfil it I may, and if it hath been fulfilled in the counsel of fate.  But now follow me further, that I may set before thee the entertainment of strangers.’

Therewith the goddess spread a table with ambrosia and set it by him, and mixed the ruddy nectar.  So the messenger, the slayer of Argos, did eat and drink.  Now after he had supped and comforted his soul with food, at the last he answered, and spake to her on this wise: 

’Thou makest question of me on my coming, a goddess of a god, and I will tell thee this my saying truly, at thy command.  ’Twas Zeus that bade me come hither, by no will of mine; nay, who of his free will would speed over such a wondrous space of brine, whereby is no city of mortals that do sacrifice to the gods, and offer choice hecatombs?  But surely it is in no wise possible for another god to go beyond or to make void the purpose of Zeus, lord of the aegis.  He saith that thou hast with thee a man most wretched beyond his fellows, beyond those men that round the burg of Priam for nine years fought, and in the tenth year sacked the city and departed homeward.  Yet on the way they sinned against Athene, and she raised upon them an evil blast and long waves of the sea.  Then all the rest of his good company was lost, but it came to pass that the wind bare and the wave brought him hither.  And now Zeus biddeth thee send him hence with what speed thou mayest, for it is not ordained that he die away from his friends, but rather it is his fate to look on them even yet, and to come to his high-roofed home and his own country.’