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CALIPSA. Calypso was the nymph who detained Odysseus for eight years on her island of Ogygia (Odyssey V.14-168). Ovid mentions her charm in Epistolae ex Ponto IV.13-14.

Calipsa appears in company with Medea and Circe, famous sorceresses, HF III.1272. Gower says that Calipsa and Circe are queens of the island of Cilly, Confessio Amantis, VI.1427, and they know how to make the moon go into eclipse, Confessio Amantis VIII.2597-2600. [Cerces]

Calipsa, the ME variant, occurs in final rhyming position, HF III.1272.


John Gower, The Complete Works, ed., G.C. Macaulay III: 206, 456-457; Homer, Odyssey, ed. and trans. A.T. Murray, I: 170-189; Ovid, Tristia and Epistolae ex Ponto, ed. and trans. A.L. Wheeler, 464-465.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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