View source for Ogygia

{{Short description|Island home of Calypso in Homer's Odyssey}}
{{about|the mythical island|for the actual island see|Ogygia Island|the orchid genus|Acianthera|the Irish history|Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh|the ''Prison Break'' episode|Ogygia (Prison Break)}}<!---{{about|the trilobite genus|Ogygia (trilobite)}}--->

[[File:Odysseus and Calypso.jpg|thumb|right|260px|Odysseus and Calypso in the caves of Ogygia. Painting by [[Jan Brueghel the Elder]] (1568–1625)]]

'''Ogygia''' ({{IPAc-en|oʊ|ˈ|dʒ|ɪ|dʒ|i|ə}}; {{langx|grc|Ὠγυγίη|Ōgygíē}} {{IPA|el|ɔːɡyɡíɛː|}}, or {{lang|grc|Ὠγυγία}} ''Ōgygíā'' {{IPA|el|ɔːɡyɡíaː|}}) is an island mentioned in [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'', Book V, as the home of the [[nymph]] [[Calypso (mythology)|Calypso]], the daughter of the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]] [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]]. In Homer's ''Odyssey'', Calypso detained [[Odysseus]] on Ogygia for seven years and kept him from returning to his home of [[Homer's Ithaca|Ithaca]], wanting to marry him.

[[Athena]] complained about Calypso's actions to [[Zeus]], who sent the messenger [[Hermes]] to Ogygia to order Calypso to release Odysseus. Hermes is Odysseus's great grandfather on his mother's side, through [[Autolycos]]. Calypso finally, though reluctantly, instructed Odysseus to build a small raft, gave him food and wine, and let him depart the island.

The ''Odyssey'' describes Ogygia as follows:

{{quote|...and he (Hermes) found her within. A great fire was burning in the hearth, and from afar over the isle there was a fragrance of cleft cedar and juniper as they burned. But she within was singing with a sweet voice as she went to and fro before the [[loom]], weaving with a golden shuttle. Round about the cave grew a luxuriant wood, [[alder]] and [[Populus|poplar]] and sweet-smelling [[cypress]], wherein birds long of wing were wont to nest, owls and falcons and sea-crows with chattering tongues, who ply their business on the sea. And right there about the hollow cave ran trailing a garden vine, in pride of its prime, richly laden with clusters. And fountains four in a row were flowing with bright water hard by one another, turned one this way, one that. And round about soft meadows of violets and [[parsley]] were blooming...<ref>''Odyssey'' V.58-74</ref>}}

==Location==
[[File:Calypso Cave, Gozo, Malta (8272543788).jpg|thumb|[[Calypso's Cave|Calypso Cave]] in [[Xagħra]], [[Gozo]]. According to Maltese tradition this was the cave of Calypso and Odysseus.]]

A long-standing tradition begun by [[Euhemerus]] in the late 4th century BC and supported by [[Callimachus]],<ref>Strabo 7.3.6, referencing Callimachus' account in relation to Euhemerus. Also, Ernle Bradford (1963), ''Ulysses Found''.</ref> endorsed by modern [[Malta|Maltese]] tradition, identifies Ogygia with the island of [[Gozo]], the second-largest island in the [[Maltese archipelago]].

[[Aeschylus]] calls the Nile Ogygian, and [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]] the Byzantine grammarian said that Ogygia was the earliest name for Egypt, while other suggested locations for Ogygia include the [[Ionian Sea]].

[[File:Epirus - Laurenberg Johann - 1661.jpg|thumb|Map by Johann Lauremberg showing Othonoi Island as "Ogygia{{snd}}Calypsus Island", 1661]]

Maps of historians and geographers like [[Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville]], [[Philipp Clüver]], [[Petrus Bertius]] and [[Aaron Arrowsmith]] refer to Ogygia as an island northwest of [[Corfu]], [[Ionian Islands]], Greece, which adds fuel to modern [[Greeks|Greek]] tradition that Ogygia is, indeed, the same island as the island of [[Othonoi]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.diapontia.gr/2020/04/1801-wwwdiapontiagr.html|title=Το "Νησί της Καλυψώς" σύμφωνα με ιστορικούς χάρτες βρίσκεται ΒΔ της Κέρκυρας (φωτογραφίες) &#124; www.diapontia.gr|date=21 April 2020 }}</ref>

[[Victor Bérard]] identified [[Perejil Island|Perejil]] as the location of the mythical island of Ogygia.<ref name=lip>{{harvp|Lipiński|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SLSzNfdcqfoC&pg=PA422 425]}}.</ref>

==Geographical account by Strabo==

Approximately seven centuries after [[Homer]], the Alexandrian geographer [[Strabo]] criticized [[Polybius]] on the [[geography of the Odyssey]]. Strabo proposed that Scheria and Ogygia were located in the middle of the [[Atlantic Ocean]].
{{quote|At another instance he Polybius suppresses statements. For Homer says also, 'Now after the ship had left the river-stream of Oceanus',<ref>Odyssey, XII, 1</ref> and, 'In the island of Ogygia, where is the navel of the sea',<ref>Odyssey, I, 50</ref> where the daughter of Atlas lives; and again, regarding the Phaiakians, 'Far apart we live in the wash of the waves, the farthermost of men, and no other mortals are conversant with us.'<ref name="book 6">Odyssey, VI, 204</ref> All these clearly suggest that he composed them to take place in the Atlantic Ocean."<ref>The original text of this passage by Strabo is: {{lang|grc|ταῦτα γὰρ πάντα φανερῶς ἐν τῷ Ἀτλαντικῷ πελάγει πλαττόμενα δηλοῦται.}}</ref>}}

==Geographical account by Plutarch==

[[Plutarch]] also gives an account of the location of Ogygia:

{{quote|First I will tell you the author of the piece, if there is no objection, who begins after Homer’s fashion with, an isle Ogygian lies far out at sea, distant five days’ sail from Britain, going westwards, and three others equally distant from it, and from each other, are more opposite to the summer visits of the sun; in one of which the barbarians fable that Cronus is imprisoned by Zeus, whilst his son lies by his side, as though keeping guard over those islands and the sea, which they call ‘the Sea of Cronus. The great continent by which the great sea is surrounded on all sides, they say, lies less distant from the others, but about five thousand stadia from Ogygia, for one sailing in a rowing-galley; for the sea is difficult of passage and muddy through the great number of currents, and these currents issue out of the great land, and shoals are formed by them, and the sea becomes clogged and full of earth, by which it has the appearance of being solid.<ref>Plutarch, ''[[Loeb Classical Library#Plutarch|Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon]]'', chap. 26.</ref>}}

The passage of Plutarch has created some controversy. W. Hamilton indicated the similarities of Plutarch's account on "the great continent" and [[Plato]]'s location of [[Atlantis]] in ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'' 24E – 25A.<ref>W. Hamilton, "The Myth in Plutarch's ''De Facie'' (940F – 945D)" ''Classical Quarterly'' 28.1 (January 1934:24-30).</ref> [[Johannes Kepler|Kepler]]<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/The_Face_in_the_Moon*/Introduction.html#ref47 Introductory notes] at the [[Loeb Classical Library]] on pages 21, 22 and 23.</ref> in his ''Kepleri Astronomi Opera Omnia'' estimated that “the great continent” was [[Americas|America]] and attempted to locate Ogygia and the surrounding islands. [[Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh]] used ''Ogygia'' as a synonym for [[Ireland]] in the title of his Irish history, ''Ogygia: Seu Rerum Hibernicarum Chronologia'' ("Ogygia: Or a Chronological Account of Irish Events"), 1685. [[Wilhelm von Christ]] was convinced that the continent was America and states that in the 1st-century sailors traveling through [[Iceland]], [[Greenland]], and the [[Qikiqtaaluk Region|Baffin Region]] (Qikiqtaaluk) reached the [[North America]]n coast.

==Primeval ''Ogygia''==
''Ogygia'' is associated with the [[Ancient Greek flood myths#Ogyges|Ogygian deluge]] and with the mythological figure [[Ogyges]], in the sense that the word ''Ogygian'' means "[[wikt:primeval|primeval]]", "[[Wiktionary:primal|primal]]", and "at earliest dawn",<ref>Entry [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?layout.reflang=greek;layout.refembed=2;layout.refwordcount=1;layout.refdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0159;layout.reflookup=%2A%29wgugi%2Fas;layout.refcit=book%3D9%3Achapter%3D8%3Asection%3D5;doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%23116049;layout.refabo=Perseus%3Aabo%3Atlg%2C0525%2C001 Ωγύγιος] at [[Liddell & Scott]]</ref> which would suggest that Homer's Ogygia was a primeval island. However, Ogyges as a primeval, aboriginal ruler was usually sited in [[Boeotia]],<ref>Entry "Ogygus" in N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard, ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', Second Edition, Oxford University Press: 1970.</ref> where he founded [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] there, naming it Ogygia at the time.<ref>Entry "Ogyges" in [[E. H. Blakeney]], ed., ''Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary'', Everyman's Library, London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1937.</ref>
In another account of Ogyges, he brought his people to the area first known as [[Mount Athos|Acte]]. That land was subsequently called Ogygia in his honor but ultimately known as [[Attica]].

Ogygia is used by [[Roderick O'Flaherty]]  as an allegory for Ireland in his book  published in 1685 as Ogygia: seu Rerum Hibernicarum Chronologia & etc., in 1793 translated into English by Rev. James Hely, as "Ogygia, or a Chronological account of Irish Events (collected from Very Ancient Documents faithfully compared with each other & supported by the Genealogical & Chronological Aid of the Sacred and Profane Writings of the Globe”.

==Namesake==
[[Ogygia Island]] in [[Antarctica]] is named after the mythical island.

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

== References ==
* {{cite book|last=Lipiński|first=Edward|title=Itineraria Phoenicia|publisher=Peeters Publisher|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SLSzNfdcqfoC|isbn=9042913444}}.

==External links==
{{NIE Poster|Ogygia}}
*[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/The_Face_in_the_Moon*/D.html Plutarch - Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon]

{{Odyssey|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Mythological islands]]
[[Category:Geography of the Odyssey]]
[[Category:Places in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Calypso (mythology)]]