Thanks for the comment mmj, Calypso sounds about right.
"Athena" (this is the Robert Fagles translation of The Odyssey) "began, recalling Odysseus to their thoughts,"
[At first I thought, how wonderful to be remembered by Athena, to have such an advocate – but then you can never be quite sure of the consequences.]
" . . . the goddess deeply moved by the man’s long ordeal, held captive still in the nymph Calypso’s house."
After reminding Zeus of his role as kindly father, she continues:
"Now he’s left to pine on an island, racked with grief in the nymph Calypso’s house–she holds him there by force."
What is this power that she has? How is it, in life, that we are held against our wills? Is it in the nature of a conspiracy–a catalogue of conditions that leave us powerless–a net thrown by a creature that is not of our nature–a nymph?
Odysseus apparently trying to get home, but always ready for a distracting adventure, invites me to reflect on my own outward and inward journeyings: a breath-like rhythm, out in the morning, home in the evening . . . or not: "Sorry, darling, I’ll be a bit late this evening . . . "
Istanbul is a step on the outward journey, ever the outward journey. Yet puzzlingly it’s also the journey home.
ak