Calypso's Emotions

The Hellenistic and Roman literary echoes of the Calypso episode in the ‘Odyssey’ are not particularly numerous, and all of them are deeply influenced by changing cultural demands on the ‘appropriateness’ of one’s emotionality. As we move forward from Homer, unrestrained emotions are increasingly considered typical of women; men are usually expected to act rationally and not under the influence of passions and personal feelings. This cultural change informs the (sometimes satirical) way Propertius, Ovid and Apuleius, among others, treat the Calypso theme.