Odysseus in The Hero and the Goddess and Calypso and CirceReflections on Odysseus' experience in relation to The Hero and the Goddess by Jean Houston: L 'Odyssey as Mystery and Initiation and Calypso and Circe by Alicia LeVan On the lush and thriving island of Ogygia, Odysseus spends seven years of his ten-year journey home with the beautiful seductive nymph Calypso, who virtually possesses him and forces him to live an existence sensual but vegetative. For ten years, surrounded by men, he lived the heroic masculine ideal of the warrior, then spent several years further testing himself against otherworldly obstacles. In the process he loses all his companions and is left with nothing but what little remains of himself. Here, on Calypso's island, he lives in paradise: "Inside the cave, thick, lush woods grew, alders and black poplars, with a pungent smell." also cypresses, and birds perched there, folding their long wings, owls and hawks and open-billed sea crows, black skimmers that make their living from the waves. Around the mouth of the cave flowed a vine laden with bunches of grapes, overflowing with ripe grapes. Four springs in a row, bubbling clear and cold, running side by side, taking channels left and right. Soft lawns stretching around were starry with violets, lush with parsley beds. Because, even an immortal god who arrived in that place would look at it with wonder, his heart ecstatic with pleasure. Homer, The Odyssey, V:71-82, translation by Fagles Odysseus is. now embraced by Mother Earth, in all her verdant fertility, and also lives in the depths of caves that only resemble the mother's womb. For seven years, Calypso protects him from Poseidon's wrath. As a devoted and all-consuming mother, AND a seductive and overwhelming lover, she is what men most desire and most fear. Alicia LeVan wrote: Perhaps the 'need' she has for unity with the feminine, coupled with her desire for home, (an embodiment of the feminine principle representing relationship, community, cooperation and non-aggression) represents the principle's need for integration feminine within his psyche after years of functioning in war, with the constant testosterone of destroying, killing, raping and surviving on the most inhuman, conflict-torn, blood-soaked and barren plains of Troy. After ten years of activity as a killer and destroyer, he must cure his numbness and desensitivity by connecting with his feelings..