#ogygia

so she spoke, and much tormented, divine Odysseus shivered

(Translation by me)

My boy...😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭like the first reaction was that he literally shivered/shuddered (ῥίγησεν). That reaction gets me every moment! Not gonna lie! It was an immediate, almost completely instinctual reaction of his body, upon hearing the news! And Homer managed to convey literally every single emotion the poor man could feel in a blink of an eye with just one verb!

Disbelief that after almost ten years of imprisonment to Calypso's isle and after years of abuse he cannot believe that she suddenly decided to let him go about his way

Relief that after so long he is finally able to go about his way.

Happiness that maybe, just maybe he has a chance, that the curse Polyphemus placed upon him was that he would finally return home to his loved ones instead of the dreadful scenario of him never seeing his home again

Fear that Calypso has a trap set for him or of the unknown that waits for him

Like...so many different emotions hiding within that simple non-verbal reaction! His shudder! I do not think that people talk about that enough! Not to mention that it is combined with the epithet πολύτλας "man of many torments" or "much tormented". All his torments...everything he has been through is simply summarized by that simple instinctual reaction! 😭😭😭which also seems to be in contrast when Calypso herself shudders upon hearing the news that the gods decided to let go of Odysseus, which is a reaction of a wide range of emotions too including frustration, sadness and fury but yeah!

I can FEEL his shiver! I can almost HEAR the way his breath probably quivered as he did! I can SEE the look on his face; that mixed feeling that I enlist above! Daresay the eyes that are STILL crying! And all that with just one single word of a verb describing a non-verbal and automatic reaction! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

They are mentioned in different groups:

The wood that Calypso burns in her cave, and which she must obtain from somewhere, which is why I assume it is native to her region (v. 60)

Forest vegetation described as such (vv. 64-74)

Wood that she tells Odysseus to use for his raft and also to attach the logs to one another (v. 239 and v.256)

Material for Calypso’s tools (v. 236)

v. 60 → κέδρου with two possible interpretations: from κέδρον (juniper-berry) or from κέδρος, which translates as cedar, and is the one emphasised by the website itself. In this case, I believe it would be the Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) because Ogygia is west of Ithaca (which means it cannot be a Lebanese cedar or Cedrus libani).

Strobilus is so cute

v. 60 → θύου with several different meanings, but as a plant, θύον here is interpreted as Callitris quadrivalvis:

v. 64 → κλήθρη from κλήθρα, here intrepeted as Alnus glutinosa:

v. 64 → αἴγειρός as Populus nigra:

v. 64 → κυπάρισσος as Cupressus sempervirens:

v. 69 → ἡμερὶς as "the cultivated vine" Vitis vinifera:

v. 72 → ἴου among the many meanings derived from ἴον, interpreted as Viola odorata:

v. 72 → σελίνου from σέλινον as Apium graveolens:

v. 236 ->  ἐλάινον from ἐλάινος as "of olive-wood" which i myself assume that to Olea oleaster (is the wild variety of Olea europaea):

v. 239 → ἐλάτη as Abies cephalonica

v. 256 οἰσυΐνῃσι οἰσύινος of osier, of wicker-work (as we say in Spanish cestería) here my friend @ulises-aithon has suggested Salix purpurea:

Introduction The island of Ogygia found in Homer's Odyssey is one of the few areas in the poem where species are named in rapid succession, this anomaly in density and precision may help in understanding the knowledge that ancient civilizations had on phytogeography.

Bibliography - Perseus Digital Library. Ed. Gregory R. Crane. Tufts University. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu (accessed April 17, 2012). - Homer. The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Homer, Odyssey, Book 5, line 50 - Homero. La Odisea traducida por José Manuel Pabón, Gredos. 2019 - Caudullo, G., Welk, E., San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., 2017. Chorological maps for the main European woody species. Recuperated from Wikimedia April 27th, 2026. - Google maps, 2026 - FireAlpaca (64bit)

Posting time (bound to change regarding external forces): - Methodology 30/IV/2026 - Species 1/V/2026 - Results and discussion 2/IV/2026

imagine a particularly small, stubborn leaf or petal gets stuck a while before he leaves- so stuck that it doesn’t come out through the entire last two sagas. Poseidon almost drowning him probably made the tangles worse. So stuck that it’s not until Penelope is cutting and grooming his hair that she finds a piece of completely foreign flora knotted deep in her husband’s hair.

“My love, what’s this?”