re.

2. Hermes is sent by the supreme deity to Calypso, with the decree.

3. Calypso imparts the decree to Ulysses, who soon sets about doing his
part.

In this brief outline we see the descent of the divine influence from
Zeus the Highest, through Hermes messenger of the Gods, to Calypso, a
local subordinate deity, down to the mortal Ulysses who is to get the
benefit thereof. Thus the poet makes his world-order ready for the deed
of the man, who is now to act with all the energy of his being, and not
lie back expecting the Gods to do everything for him. Such is the
situation between the divine and human sides, of which we shall
elaborate the former a little more fully.

1. The council of the Gods in which the matter is now discussed, seems
somewhat like a repetition of the one at the beginning of the First
Book, which indeed starts the whole poem. At present we may suppose
that the poet wishes to recall that first council and its decree to the
mind of the reader, inasmuch as the latter is now to begin the second
grand division of the poem, the Odyssey proper, or Return of Ulysses.

Pallas takes up the complaint and arraigns Providence on an ethical
ground: the good king is forgotten and the good man suffers. To the
face of the Supreme Ruler she draws the conclusion: "Let not any
sceptered king henceforth be kind to his people and recognize justice,
but always let him be harsh and work unrighteousness." Then she cites
the unhappy lot of Ulysses. But Zeus throws the charge back upon
Pallas, for she already had laid the divine plan that Ulysses was to
take vengeance on wrong-doing suitors, and Telemachus she could save
"by her skill," if so she chose. Here Pallas again hints as she did in
the First Book, the two lines on which the poem moves (Telemachus and
Ulysses), and she also notes the two present obstacles (Calypso and the
sea) in the way of the Return of Ulysses.

The divine activity begins work at once: Zeus sends Hermes to Calypso
with the Olympian decree. Ulysses, however, is to reach home "without
any escort of the Gods or of mortal men;" that is, he must exercise his
own free-will tremendously, there is to be no special intervention of
the Gods without the corresponding human effort. Note this passage as
indicating the consciousness of the poet respecting divine help; it is
not to take the place of free agency, but to complement the same. The
Hero will have to sail on a raft, "suffering evils;" but he wil