SYMBOLAE PHILOLOGORUM POSNANIENSIUM GRAECAE ET LATINAE XXVII/2 • 2017 pp. 5–16. ISSN 0302-7384 dOI: 10.14746/sppgl.2017.XXVII.2.1 COMMENTATIONES kRYSTYNA BARTOL Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu wAS CALYPSO ABLE TO MAkE OdYSSEUS IMMORTAL? abstraCt. Bartol krystyna, was Calypso Able to Make Odysseus Immortal? (Czy kalipso mogła uczynić Odyseusza nieśmiertelnym?) The article, focusing primarily on the Odyssey 5. 135–6, offers a set of remarks designed to foreground the qualities that make the Calypso episode not only interesting as an example of how the epic poet exploits traditional themes and phrases, but exciting as a story of a man’s desire. keywords: Greek epic poetry; the Odyssey; Calypso; Odysseus; immortality. ... You give the choice To hold forever what forever passes, To hide from what will pass, forever. Archibald MacLeish, Calypso’s Island, vv. 28–30 (Collected Poems 1917–1952, Boston 1952, p. 147) The natural order of things is that death is common to all men. Homeric poetry knows this important share of men. 1 It is enough to recall some passages from both poems which echo the universal fate of death, the rule that should not be upset. In the Iliad (16. 440–3) Hera disbelievingly asks zeus if he really wants to free Sarpedon from death, a mortal man, and warns him not to set a precedent. Also in the Iliad (22. 178–81) Athena is indignant at zeus’ intention 1 As Claude Brügger (2016, 204) points out in the recent volume of the Basler Kommentar: “die Sterblichkeit ist eine Grundlage menschlichen daseins, selbst wenn ein Held wie Sarpedon, Askalaphos oder Achilleus eine Gottheit als Elternteil hat (…): er wird früher oder später sterben müssen”. See also Redfield’s (1994, 101) words referring to Homeric heroes’ status: “The hero may appear godlike, but he is only mortal. (…) Man dies in any case, but he can choose to die well. (…) All men are born to die, but the warrior alone must confront this fact in his social life, since he fulfills his obligations only by meeting those who intend his death”.