My name is Calypso And I have lived alone I live on an island And I waken to the dawn A long time ago I watched him struggle with the sea I knew that he was drowning And I brought him into me Now today Come morning light He sails away After one last night I let him go. My name is Calypso My garden overflows Thick and wild and hidden Is the sweetness there that grows My hair it blows long As I sing into the wind I tell of nights Where I could taste the salt on his skin Salt of the waves And of tears And though he pulled away I kept him here for years I let him go. My name is Calypso I have let him go In the dawn he sails away To be gone forever more And the waves will take him in again But he'll know their ways now I will stand upon the shore With a clean heart And my song in the wind The sand will sting my feet And the sky will burn It's a lonely time ahead I do not ask him to return I let him go I let him go Suzanne Vega, 1978 I cannot remember how old I was when first I learned the myths of Greece. I cannot remember a time when I did not know them. And although I later learned the myths of other lands and cultures, including my own, for me nothing surpassed that wondrous landscape where I walked with gods and heroes. That bright world where light and shadow are so clearly delineated formed my thinking and my outlook on life — probably to the detriment of my happiness. Yet I do not regret a single moment spent there. As I grew older, I learned the history of Greece, and learned, too, that my beloved myths predated the classical Greek civilization. In time I became aware of the modern country that bears the name of Greece, and when I came to learn the language, chose Modern Greek. When at last I saw Greece for the first time, it was a revelation, not because it was so different from what I had expected, but because it was exactly as I had expected. And the modern world was interwoven with the threads of my shining archaic heartland. You might think with my passion for Greece, that this is my first home in AW. In fact I have other personae, but have always held back from making a home in Greece, because it had to be perfect. I realized that in that case, I would never have a home in Hellas, so here I am. I gave a great deal of thought to my family name. At first I considered Hector, because he was always my favourite (when I grew older I appreciated the irony that my favourite 'Greek' was a Trojan). I should have liked Odysseus, but there is no such family, so finally I settled for wise Nestor, king of sandy Pylos. My forename caused a good deal more soul-searching. I tried Danae, but that belongs to a former AS persona. I was disappointed but my only reason for choosing that name was because of these wonderful words, Lyrics from THE PRINCESS by Tennyson: Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white; Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk; Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font; The fire-fly wakens; waken thou with me. Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost, And like a ghost she glimmers on to me. Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars, And all thy heart lies open unto me. I considered many other names, but decided on Kalypso. It means 'She who hides', and that, after all, is what our avatars do. As for my avatar, she is by that old friend of AW, Lawrence Alma-Tadema. I think she's beautiful, but I shall probably replace her in due course with something a little more Mycenean.