Drabble: In which Odysseus is not the hero. Pg. 423 words.
Characters/Pairing: Calypso/Odysseus, unrequited. Hermes.
Odysseus was the consummate actor.
That, Calypso knew now. She had learnt her lesson thoroughly. Did he love her? She didn't know. He professed that he did. But now he sobbed his heart out on her island, knowing that the gods are watching, knowing his patroness Athena will soon send aid for him. She wished she could let him go, but seven years has ingrained him so deeply into her being, she could not, for the life of her, let him go.
It would be more painful than death if she let him go now. Yet she must, for he made it painfully clear he did not want her. How the other immortals would scorn her, if they knew the depth of her unrequited passions.
She should have known it wouldn't last. How could it when she was cursed to solitude for all eternity? But she was lolled by his sweet words into a false sense of security and contentment. Night after night he played the willing lover, the caring husband, and little by little she was lost. He never refused her offer for him to stay, nor did he welcome it. His way with words made the listener believe what they desired without offering any truth. Calypso did not care for words, but his devotion to her in the beginning was beyond reproach. So it went on, and on.
Till one day Calypso realized, as her sons played beside her loom, Hermes was waiting to take her family away from her.
She raged. Oh she raged. Out of bitterness and despair, she lashed out at Hermes because he was the only one of the gods luckless enough to come to her island. Ultimately however, she did not have the strength to fight against Fate. Ultimately, she knew the gods have been generous.
She didn't know what would happen if she tries to leave Ogygia, but if anything would convince Atropos to cut her thread it would be to disobey Zeus' decree. So for a while she experienced a fate worse than mortal death in the deepest pits of Tartarus, till Hermes took pity on her and took her back to her island. She didn't think the other gods cared either way.
As he fed her ambrosia while she lay in her cave, crisp white sheets soaked with ichor, he asked: 'Why so foolish? Why so reckless?'
'You know why.' She answered simply. Powerless and unfeeling.
Hermes nodded gravely, his gaze downward and heavy with sadness.
The other gods, the other gods – they glanced her way once a few thousand years, and saw nothing but a Titan's daughter waiting to enchant her next hero.
She's actually waiting to die. If she ever could.
* According to the Theogony by Hesiod, Calypso bore Odysseus two sons: Nausithoos and Nausinoos.