While Odysseus enjoyed love with the goddess on Calypso's island, his son Telemachus was slowly growing up.
Athena had given him an extraordinary bearing. Whenever people saw him approach, they knew he would one day take his father's place. Yet he was still a boy, incapable of driving away the "suitors" feasting and drinking in his home. To buy time, Penelope had to devise a plan. Weaving was a task ancient Greek women had to undertake; not even Helen, Calypso, and Circe were exceptions. Penelope claimed she was weaving a shroud for Odysseus. She wove by day and unraveled it by night, concealing the truth for three years. But a maid revealed the secret, and Penelope was caught in the act of unpicking the gleaming cloth.
Many of the ladies attending the ball this time wore that kind of shimmering fabric. It seemed to be Bertin's new inspiration for design; she no longer used silk in such great quantities as before. Diamond dust was not cheap either, though no one had collected the powder left over from cutting diamonds in the past. There was another way: weave gold thread into the cloth, so there would be no need to worry about the glittering powder falling off.
The Odyssey said: the cloth Penelope eventually completed was like the work of a goddess. That radiant fabric became a symbol of her stratagem and wisdom.
Meanwhile, the goddess Calypso wore a loose white robe that looked graceful and soft, with an exquisitely crafted golden sash around her waist. When she heard that Odysseus was leaving her to return to his wife, the goddess asked him, "I do not believe my face or figure is inferior to that wife of yours. You should know that how can mortal women compete with an ageless goddess