Odysseus in The Hero and the Goddess and Calypso and Circe :: Goddess Calypso

Odysseus in The Hero and the Goddess and Calypso and Circe Reflections on the experience of Odysseus as related to Jean Houstons The Hero and the Goddess The Odyssey as arcanum and Initiation and Alicia LeVans Calypso and Circe On the lush, bounteous island of Ogygia, Odysseus spends sevener years of his 10 year journey home with the beautiful seductive nymph Calypso, who well-nigh possesses him and compels him to live a sensual but vegetative existence. For ten years, environ by men, he lived out the male heroic ideal of warrior, accordingly spent several years further testing himself against otherworldly obstacles. In the process, he lost all of his companions, and has nothing left but the fiddling that remains of himself. Here on Calypsos isle, he lives in paradise Thick, luxuriant woods grew circuit the cave, alders, and black poplars, pungent cypress too, and there, birds roosted, folding their wide wings, owls and hawks and the spread beaked ravens of the sea, black skimmers who make their living off the waves. And round the mouth of the cavern trailed a vine laden with clusters, bursting with ripe grapes. Four springs in a row, bubling clear and cold, running side-by-side, took channels left and right. Soft meadows spreading round were starred with violets, lush with beds of parsley. Why, even a deathless idol who came upon that place would gaze in wonder, heart entranced with pleasure. Homer, The Odyssey, V71-82, Fagles interpretation Odysseus is now embraced by Mother Earth, in all her verdant fertility, and also living deep within caverns that are only reminiscent of the womb. For seven years, Calypso protects him from Poseidons wrath. As the devoted and devouring mother, AND the seductive and engulfing mistress/lover, she is two what men most desire, and most fear. Alicia LeVan wrote Perhaps the necessity he has for unity with the feminine, linked with his yearning for home, (an embodiment of the feminine prin ciple representing relationship, community, cooperation, and non-aggression) represents a need for consolidation of the feminine principle within his psyche after years of mental process in war, with the constant testosterone of destroying, killing, raping and surviving in the most inhumane, strife torn, cable drenched, barren plains of Troy. After ten years of functioning as a killer and destroyer,he must heal his numbness and desensitivity by connecting with his feelings.