At the beginning of Book Five, Athena petitions Zeus to intervene in Odysseus's dire situation and reminds him that Odysseus is being held prisoner by the nymph Calypso while the unscrupulous suitors threaten Telemachus's life. After listening to Athena, Zeus instructs Hermes to inform Calypso that she must allow Odysseus to leave her island and travel home. Zeus also declares that Odysseus will receive no guidance from the gods on his journey, but will eventually make it back to his homeland of Ithaca.

Hermes follows Zeus's instructions and travels to Calypso's island, where she is singing at her loom inside her magnificent cave while Odysseus laments by the shore. Hermes proceeds to relay Zeus's message regarding Odysseus's fate. Calypso responds by saying that the gods are far too harsh and jealous of her for sleeping with Odysseus. Although Calypso is upset, she recognizes that she cannot override Zeus's decision and obediently follows his instructions.

Calypso informs Odysseus that she will allow him to leave the island and gives him ample provisions for his journey. However, Odysseus is wary of Calypso and worries that she is setting him up for failure. Calypso assures Odysseus that she has no alternative plans before offering him immortality to stay with her on the island. Despite Calypso's enticing offer, Odysseus decides to leave her island and endure the treacherous journey home.

In Book V, Calypso tells Ulysses that he will suffer greatly on his trip back to his country. She says he can rather "keep house along with [her], and let [her] make [him] an immortal." Ulysses refuses. He admits that Calypso is more beautiful than his wife, but says that he can't stop thinking about his home and wants nothing more than to return to Penelope.

At the beginning of Book V, the Gods meet in council and Jove the Lord of Thunder decrees that Calypso must set Ulysses free. He sends Mercury to give her the message. Though she is furious and tells Mercury that the Gods are only jealous of her, she has no choice.

She finds Ulysses, who as always is looking longingly towards his home from the shore, and begins to help him prepare. Ulysses fears she will make his journey difficult, but Calypso promises she will do what she can to see him home safely. She gives him an axe and shows him the best tree to cut down and build a raft from. The next day, she gives Ulysses a supply of wine and bread and he sets out towards home.

King Neptune sees Ulysses sailing across the sea and is angry that the Gods have again changed their mind. He states, "He shall have plenty of hardship yet before he has done with it," meaning that he intends to make this leg of Ulysses's journey harder than any before.

Prior to now, Calypso has really kept Odysseus as her prisoner. It's a beautiful prison, certainly, but it's a prison nonetheless. However, when Calypso describes what Odysseus could have if he remains with her, she offers him the chance to be the "guardian of [her] home." This seems to imply that, if he chooses to remain there on her island, he will no longer be a prisoner as he has been, but that she will actually treat him more as an equal.

Such a promise is quite an opportunity for an immortal goddess to offer to a mere mortal man. In ancient Greece, men were certainly considered to be superior to women, but all mortals were considered to be far inferior to the gods; in fact, mortals who aspired to be godlike usually died terrible deaths in Greek myths. However, Calypso offers Odysseus the chance to act as her equal: he would guard her home and become immortal. This is no small offering.

The answer to this question can be found in Book V of this epic classic. After being given Jove's message from Mercury, Calypso unfortunately has to relinquish Odysseus and send him onward to his home of Ithaca and to continue his adventures. However, it is clear that she does this begrudgingly, as her response to Mercury testifies. She does go to Odysseus (called Ulysses in this translation) and tell hm that he is free to go. However, when she sees how eager he is to actually leave, she says the following words:

Good luck go with you, but if you could only know how much suffering is in store for you before you get back to your own country, you would stay where you are, keep house along with me, and let me make you immortal, no matter how anxious you may be to see this wife of yours, of whom you are thinking all the time day after day; yet I flatter myself that at am no whit less tall or well-looking than she is, for it is not to be expected that a mortal woman should compare in beauty with an immortal.

Calypso therefore promises Odysseus the gift of immortality if he would only give up his wife and be content with Calypso and her fairer form. She also promises that his life would be a lot less eventful if he chooses this course and does not try to reach Ithaca.