THE RETURNS AND THE ODYSSEY 485Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus, by Gerard de Lairesse (1641-1711). Oil on
canvas, 1670; 36 X 45 in. Odysseus, loosely garbed in a scarlet robe, and Calypso embrace
on a voluptuous bed. Above, Zeus addresses the council of the gods (Apollo is behind
him), from which Hermes descends to bring the commands of Zeus. To the left a child
plays with the armor of Odysseus, and to the right in the background servants prepare
a feast in a columned banqueting hall. At the right is a clothed statue of a woman hold-
ing a basket in which is a bird, perhaps Aphrodite and her dove. De Lairesse has changed
Calypso's cave into a luxurious palace, and there is no hint of the longing of Odysseus
for Ithaca and Penelope in his splendid reinterpretation of Homer's text. (Dutch. © The
Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, 92.2.)f
Of the man tell me, O Muse, the man of many ways,^8 who traveled afar after he
had sacked the holy city of Troy. He experienced the cities and the thoughts of
many men, and his spirit suffered many sorrows on the sea, as he labored for
his own life and for the homecoming of his companions. Yet even so he could
not protect his companions, much though he wished it, for they perished by
their own folly, when thoughtlessly they had eaten the cattle of Helius, Hyper-
ion the sun-god. And the god took away the day of their homecoming. From