Goddess of the Week: Calypso

Goddesses can be so demanding: Honor me.  Worship me.  Sacrifice a dozen virgins for me.  Kill a monster for me.  Blah, blah, blah.  Sometimes you -- meaning, in this case, Altadena Hiker -- just want a goddess who does all the work for you, who just lets you laze around eating peeled grapes and watching your banana tree grow.  If this be the case, then the goddess you need is Calypso, the Greek sea goddess who put the cal in "Calgon take me away." 

When the Greek hero Odysseus washed up on her uncharted island -- alone, bedraggled, barely alive -- Calypso nursed him back to health.  Her invisible servants gave him food and wine.  They set him up in an enormous downy bed and answered his every need.  Calypso dressed Odysseus like a king.  She gave him dominion over her island.  She took him on romantic sunset walks and gave him her secret recipe for Mojitos -- the very one Hera had been begging Calypso for for a thousand years.  There was nothing that Odysseus asked for that Calypso did not provide.

Well, there was one thing.  Odysseus wanted to go home.  To his wife.  Penelope.  Who Calypso finally got so sick of hearing about that she magicked up a ship and let Odysseus leave on his merry way.  But she truly loved Odysseus, and even a goddess suffers when she lets herself become the other woman.  Poor Calypso.  She gave away the milk, even though Odysseus already had a cow, which just goes to show: even goddesses don't always get what they want.

Channel this goddess: When feeling depleted, unappreciated, and overcommitted.  When you pamper yourself, you will find your inner Calypso.  Get a massage -- or how about a manicure or a mojito?  And when you are ready to return to the rat race, Calypso will bow out gracefully.  She's got a lot of class.