Here it was, then, that Calypso, standing one morning in the sunny entrance to her cave, first saw Odysseus. The prophecy of Circe had been fulfilled. His crew had impiously laid hands on the sacred Oxen of the Sun, and smitten by an avenging storm sent by the wrathful Apollo, had every one paid the penalty with his life. Odysseus only had been spared; and for nine days and nights he had struggled alone with the waves on a shattered raft. _And on the tenth at night out of the sea To that Far Island the Gods drifted me, Calypso’s home, the fair-tressed mortal-voiced Dread Goddess; and my friend and stay was she._[11] Calypso rescued and tended the shipwrecked man who was thrown upon her shores; and after his awful peril and hardship he was content to forget everything for a time. Days and weeks and months slipped quickly past and Odysseus remained, charmed by the beauty of the island and the gracious society of Calypso. Sometimes, reclined on the yellow sands where he had been washed ashore, she would listen eagerly to the tales of his wanderings. Sometimes, when the evening breeze blew chill from the sea, they would sit together in the cavern: _Where from a brazier by her, burning well, A fire of cloven cedar-wood and pine Far through the island sent a goodly smell._ _And in it she with voice melodious sang, While through the warp her golden shuttle rang As to and fro before the loom she went._[11] As Calypso sang her strange sweet melodies in the fire-lit gloom, the memory of Ithaca and Penelope grew faint. But one day the spell was broken. Standing on a cliff and looking out to sea, he suddenly remembered home and wife and friends; and from that time onward he did not cease to long and pray for release. But year after year dragged wearily on, and Calypso tried by arts and endearments and promises of deathless gifts, to win him to stay with her. All her persuasion was fruitless, however, and Odysseus _Sitting far apart On the sea-beach, as oftentimes before, Fretted with tears and sighs and bitter smart,_ _Out seaward to the barren ocean-rim Kept gazing, and his eyes with tears were dim._[11] Meanwhile, in high assembly of the gods upon Olympus, Athena the loyal friend of Odysseus stood out and pleaded his cause before them all. This austere daughter of great Zeus despised the wiles by which Calypso would keep the hero at her side; and begged her father to release him. “_But for Odysseus wise I am ill at ease, That man unhappy who amid the seas Far from his friends affliction bears for long, Within the sea-girt island set with trees;_ “_The island in whose bounds a goddess dwells, Daughter of Atlas of the guileful spells...._