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  That's what Hermes said, but his fine words
            did not persuade Aegisthus in his heart.
            So he has paid for everything in full.”

Athena, goddess with the gleaming eyes, answered Zeus:

            “Son of Cronos and father to us all,
            you who rule on high, yes indeed, Aegisthus                                     60
            now lies dead, something he well deserved.
            May any other man who does what he did
            also be destroyed! But my heart is torn
            for skillful Odysseus, ill-fated man,
            who has had to suffer such misfortune
            for so many years, a long way from friends.
            He's on an island, surrounded by the sea,
            the one that forms the ocean's navel stone.
            In the forests of that island lives a goddess,
            daughter of tough-minded Atlas, who knows                                     70
            the ocean depths and by himself holds up
            those gigantic pillars which separate
            earth and heaven. That's the one whose daughter
            prevents the sad, unlucky man from leaving.
            With soft seductive speech she keeps tempting him,
            urging him to forget his Ithaca.
            But Odysseus yearns to see even the smoke
            rising from his native land and longs
            for death. And yet, Olympian Zeus, your heart
            does not respond to him. Did not Odysseus                                         80
            offer you delightful sacrifices
            on Troy's far-reaching plain beside the ships?
            Why then, Zeus, are you so angry with him?”

Cloud-gatherer Zeus then answered her and said:

                                                                                    “My child,
                   what a speech has passed the barrier of your teeth!

¹. . . navel stone: the Greek word omphalos (navel stone) Homer uses here to describe Calypso's island of Ogygia. More commonly in later works the word designates "the world's navel stone" at Delphi.