Existen, entre los navegantes, varios viajes legendarios encabezados sin duda por el de Odiseo Laertíada, recogido en la obra homónima de Homero, y que llevó al héroe de la Guerra de Troya desde las ruinas aún humeantes de la orgullosa Ilión hasta su hogar natal en Itaca. A menudo se menciona la larguísima duración de dicho viaje, nada menos que diez años, durante los cuales su hijo Telémaco creció hasta convertirse en un hombre y su esposa, la paciente Penélope, tuvo que inventar todo tipo de artimañas para defender el patrimonio familiar frente la horda de pretendientes que ansiaban heredar el sustancioso legado del rey "fecundo en ardides".
Veteran sailors speak
about some legendary travels, headed by the Odisseus Laertiades one, told in
the homonimous tragedy by Homer, starting in the steaming ruins of Troy when
the heroe of the Trojan Horse begun his sailing back home to Itaca. Oftenly,
the large duration of such journey is mentioned, no less than 10 years long,
while his son Telemachus grew up to man and his wife, the patient Penelope,
defended the family heritage from the crowd of pretenders focused on taking the
Cunning King’s belongings.
Such duration is
surprising; after all, even the slowest sailboat, counting with a reasonable
amount of bow wind, should be able to cover the route, more or less agreed by
the archeologists, in less than 2 months. Why delaying for ten years, then? The
best answer is, probably, to enjoy reading the Odissey but here it is a little info
in advance: seven out of those ten years where spent smooching with goddess
Calypso, after Odisseus’s ship wrecked in front of the coast of Ogigia island [3].
And it was no more time only because Athena, who probably took pity (not too
soon, anyway) on selfless Penelope, asked Zeus to break the status quo in the
island. The Father of Gods action ended with Odisseus return to the sea,
leaving a crying Calypso and four children with her behind [4].
Aside the question
about heroes infidelities (we could speak some other day about nighty knights
of the Round Table, who can provide subject for another interesting moral discussion),
it should be asked why was Ogigia such special to hold a man out of his mission. If
we accept the local legends, Ogigia is located in Gozo island, northwest of
Malta, a little paradise in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, populated by
only 30.000 inhabitants and hosting ruins of a 5.000 b.C. human settlement.
La morada de Calypso
estaba, según algunos autores, junto a la actual localidad de Marsalforn, en la
costa norte, con vistas a la preciosa playita de Ramla Bay, de brillante arena
amarilla. La visita bien vale la pena porque el entorno es ciertamente bello
(se puede pasar en ferry desde Malta y alquilar un ciclomotor, o una bicicleta
si se está en buena forma) ahora bien, volvamos a la pregunta original
¿realmente es como para quedarse 7 años?
Calypso’s cave was,
according to some authors, besides the current Marsalforn village, in the north
coast, with a view to the beautiful Ramla bay and his colorful yellow sand beach.
This visit is pretty worthy as the environment is absolutely breathtaking
(there is a ferry from Malta and there are bikes to rent in the island)
however, is it really a place to stay for 7 years?
La gruta hoy día ya
no es más que un agujero en las rocas; desgraciadamente, las paredes de caliza
se desmoronan con facilidad y el tiempo no ha pasado en balde. Sin embargo, la
descripción que nos da Homero especifica que "al llegar allí, hasta un inmortal se hubiera admirado, sintiendo que se
le alegraba el corazón". Un comentario que sin duda hace justicia al
panorama que se contempla desde la entrada de la cueva. Si además contamos con
el amor de una diosa "con quienes
las mortales no pueden competir ni por su cuerpo ni por su belleza" es
de justicia confesar que la tentación es muy fuerte, quizá no para un héroe
felizmente casado pero para un solterón vagabundo.... ¡¡sin duda alguna!!
The cave is nothing
more than yet another hole in the rocks currently: unfortunately, the limestone
walls tend to fall frequently and time transformed the ample cave into a tiny
hole not enough even for a regular standing man. Buf the Homer’s description
says that “even a god, who lives forever, coming there, would be amazed to see
it, and his heart would fill with pleasure”. The comment is right to the
landscape seen from the cave’s Entrance. Morevoer, if we count with the love
from a goddess “since no woman can reasonably compete with the gods in form or
face” the temptation is really hard to stand, perhaps not for a happily married
heroe but, for a trampskipper…. no doubts!!!!
[1] En realidad la Odisea
no menciona cuántos años permaneció Odiseo con Calypso pero siete es la cifra
en la que los estudiosos del mito parecen coincidir.
[2] De nuevo, estos datos
no se mencionan en el texto de la Odisea y pertenecen a la imaginería popular.
De acuerdo con Homero, Atenea se apiadó de Odiseo quien lloraba al borde del
mar suspirando por volver a casa, lo que de todas formas no le impedía, según
el texto original, "hallar contentamiento en el amor con la Diosa".
Los lectores que quieran saber más pueden hallar todo el pasaje referido a su
relación Calypso en el Canto V - La balsa
de Odiseo
[3] The time spent with Calypso is not actually
specified in the Homer’s text but seven is the amount of years that experts in
myths seem to agree.
[4] Again, this data is not found in the original text by Homer and it
is given by popular legends. The complete story can be read in The Odissey:
Book V
