Calypso

"They send a person who can never stay. Who can never accept my offer of companionship for more than a little while. They send me a hero I can't help ... just the sort of person I can't help falling in love with."

- Calypso talking to Percy about the Fates in The Battle of the Labyrinth

Calypso (Καλυψώ, also known as Atlantis in Greek Mythology, Ατλαντίδα in Ancient Greek) is a character who appears for a brief time in The Battle of the Labyrinth. She is described as being kind, down to earth, and, to Percy, more beautiful than Aphrodite.

Although she only made one brief appearance in the series, she was a very important part of Percy's choices he made after he met her, since she was the one who reminded him that he doesn't support the gods because they are good (since most of them aren't good); he supports them because they are all part of his family, much like how she supported her father, Atlas, and the Titans even though they were mostly evil.

History
The Greek mythological Calypso is described as a lovely seductress. She is the daughter of Atlas, Titan of the West and Lord of Endurance and Tethys, a Titaness and sea goddess. She is described as being a nymph, and also the goddess of the flowing locks.

The Odyssey
Calypso is generally known and remembered for her role in Homer's Odyssey, in which she imprisons the Greek hero Odysseus in her abode, Ogygia, in order to make him her immortal husband. According to Homer, Calypso kept Odysseus in her island for seven years, until Odysseus wishes to return to his wife, Penelope, the queen of Ithaca. Odysseus' patron goddess Athena then asks Zeus that Odysseus is released, and Zeus sends Hermes to tell Calypso to set Odysseus free. Calypso isn't as nice in the Odyssey than in Percy Jackson. In the Odyssey, Calypso keeps Odysseus almost as a prisoner. She also turns men into birds (previous suitors). She tries to make Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin) forget about his wife and home.

Calypso accepts this command and gives Odysseus the supplies he needs to make a raft home. She then allows him to sail away. In some versions of the Greek folk tales, it is noted that she dies because of her heart suffering in the absence of Odysseus. However, considering she is alive in The Battle of the Labyrinth, she did not die from heartbreak.

She is also sometimes said to be a Nereid.

The Battle of the Labyrinth
Calypso is a beautiful character under a curse. She is lonely and sad because whenever someone washes up on the shore, the island of Ogygia (pronounced O-jee-jee-ah), they eventually leave her. Calypso found Percy on the shores of Ogygia after he caused Mt. Saint Helens to erupt. She nursed him back to health when he hit the shores of Ogygia, unconscious. Percy at first was unsure of her as she and the island were both very beautiful, and in his experience, places like that are usually traps (he had also previously met Circe, and she had said something about, "Medea, Calypso, now they were powerful women."). She did admit that she was the daughter of Atlas, but said she wouldn't hurt him. She healed him and let him roam around the island. One night when they were eating dinner Percy asked her why she always pulled away when they were having a nice time, she teared up when she looked at him and refused to enjoy herself. She was about to tell him when Hephaestus showed up. He told them what was going on back in civilization and left after a short time.

Percy realized that as much as he wanted to stay, he had to go back to Camp Half-Blood eventually. Calypso was saddened by the news and explained to Percy that she was cursed to stay on Ogygia forever by the gods, because she supported her father in the first great war. She is also cursed to have heroes wash up on her island, wounded or hurt for her to heal. However, the people that landed on her island were always people she couldn't help but fall in love with, but they would also never be able to stay with her. She reluctantly offers Percy the chance to stay with her on Ogygia, where he would be immortal. Though Percy hated to refuse, he did because his friends needed his help. Accepting his choice, Calypso makes him a magical raft and sends him off, asking him to take one of her magical plants, moonlace, which has a delicious smell, with him and plant it in Manhattan for her, which he did. It later appears again in the windowsill of his apartment in ''The Last Olympian. ''Percy also said that the moonlace 'bloomed like crazy' under his mothers' care.

" However amazing the stars were,Calypso was twice as brilliant."

-Percy describing Calypso

The Last Olympian
Calypso does not appear in this book but is mentioned. After the Final battle, Percy makes a request to the gods that Calypso, along with any other peaceful Titans who did not fight in the original war be allowed amnesty and be freed pointing out that their treatment by the gods was what caused some of them to switch sides. It can be presumed that Calypso is now free.

Calypso is also mentioned when Prometheus asks Percy to surrender. Prometheus said not all Titans' offspring were bad, such as Calypso. Percy replied to that, saying Calypso was different

Personality
Calypso is lovely, kindhearted and caring (in the myths she wasn't this nice). She is very shy around visitors to her island as anyone that arrives there is someone she would fall in love with, causing her to shy away or hide her true feelings. She is also very kindhearted, telling Percy that even if her father is a Titan, she still loves him and has no anger toward the gods for trapping her on her island. She shows a level of curiosity to Percy, asking him about how the world has changed in the time she has been trapped and feels bad that there is a place where flowers cannot grow (New York City). She is also very down to earth.

Appearance
"She wasn't trying to be beautiful and didn't even care about that. She just was."

- Percy Jackson

Calypso is described with caramel hair, braided over one shoulder which smells of cinnamon, almond-shaped eyes, and according to Percy, is even more beautiful than Aphrodite because she seems more natural. She appears to be 15 or 16. She has a face that appears to be timeless. She wears a white sleeveless Greek dress with a low circular neckline trimmed in gold.

Ogygia and Calypso's Curse
Ogygia is the phantom island where Calypso was imprisoned. She cannot leave the island, but others can. Calypso says that the gods will come to visit her every so often and bring word of the outside world. Every thousand years or so, the gods of Olympus will send Calypso a "companion" (hero) to Ogygia so that Calypso will "tend to him and befriend him." (It can be inferred that they send injured male heroes, like Percy.) All the heroes sent to her attract her, so she falls in love with them. But, as Calypso states (and Percy agrees), the Fates are cruel, and they always send someone who will break her heart, and never stay. However, after the end of the Second Titan War as part of the gods' promise to claim all their kids they were to set Calypso free. She hasn't been mentioned, but we can assume that she is free to do what she wants now, and may fall in love and marry.

Trivia

 * A moon of Saturn is named after Calypso.
 * The Calypso Orchid, a species of Orchid is named after her.
 * Calypso music, a style of Afro-Caribbean music, is named after her.
 * Her name was said to represent the hermetic nature of herself and her island, meaning "concealing the knowledge", "subtle" or "wily."