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Calypso's Cave, Gozo
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Homer's Odyssey narrates how Ulysses, after the wars of Troy, set sail for Ithaca were he had left his wife and only son. After several adventurous days at sea, his boat was wrecked in a terrible storm near the isle of Ogygia and Ulysses drifted on flotsam to the sandy shore of a large bay.
It so happened that the goddess-nymph Calypso, who inhabited a cave in the hillside overlooking the bay, witnessed the event on the beach. She rescued Ulysses, took him to her cave and nursed him.
He then wished to sail home, but the nymph delayed his departure for seven long years. She promised him eternal youth if he consented marrying her, but he refused, preferring to return to his wife and home in Greece.
At long last, Zeus ordered Calypso to release the unhappy man.
Thereupon Ulysses sailed from Ogygia on a raft, and after some more adventures at sea arrived at Ithaca where he found his wife Penelope at home weaving an unending web while she waited and waited for his return.
According to tradition, the mythological Ogygia was the island of Gozo and the nymph's grotto was the cave on the hill that overlooks the magnificent Ramla Bay.
The view of the red sand bay, of the sea and of the Gozo landscape is one of beauty and grandeur. Hundreds throng to the place for a look at the legendary abode of the brave hero and the lonely nymph.
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