Calypso

You cannot be really meaning to help me home when you bid me do such a dreadful thing as put to sea on a raft. Not even a well-found ship with a fair wind could venture on such a distant voyage.

For seven long years Odysseus has been kept on Ogygia, the island of Calypso. Now, in my view there are three possible locations for this island in relative close proximity: In Maltese tradition Ogygia is the island of Gozo, part of its archipelago, and on nearby Sicily there's an area called Ogninia as well as the old city of Syracuse, called Ortigia.

After an intervention of the Gods, Hermes is sent to Calypso to deliver the message to set Odysseus free and send him on his way to Scheria (Corfu). It's quite a considerable stretch from either Malta or Sicily to Corfu, but as there are no ships available on Ogygia, Calypso suggests he builds a raft.

Odysseus appears unheroically bothered by the notion of crossing the sea on a raft, is it just that it's a risky voyage even with a well-found ship, meaning with a proper keel, and madness on one without? Or might there be something else that's got Odysseus worried? The Gods perhaps, Poseidon who keeps pestering him?

Actually, it's both, and on top of all there's the weather!

Gozo

Corfu

Odyssey Book 5 line 160-164 Samuel Butler

Ortigia

Ogninia