Ancient Localizations

Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.557-591 (online text: Eng., Grk.)

"And next they passed Melite, rejoicing in the soft-blowing breeze, and steep Cerossus, and Nymphaea [an island in the Adriatic] at a distance, where lady Calypso, daughter of Atlas, dwelt."

Strabo 7.3.6 (online text: Eng., Grk.)

"... Callimachus cannot be pardoned at all, because he makes a pretence of being a scholar; for he calls Gaudos the "Isle of Calypso" and Corcyra "Scheria."

Pliny Natural History 3.15 (online text: Eng., Lat.)

"there are besides, Mount Clibanus, the promontory of Lacinium [Capo della Colonne, near Crotone], in front of which lies the island of Dioscoron, ten miles from the main-land, and another called the Isle of Calypso, which Homer is supposed to refer to under the name of Ogygia ..." [so also Ps. Skylax 13; there is no such island]

Plutarch De Facie Quae in Orbe Lunae Apparet 26 (online text: Eng., Grk.)

"...beginning, if there is nothing to hinder, with that of Homer, 'an isle Ogygia lies in Ocean's arms' [Od. 7.244], distant about five days' sail westward from Britain ... "

Places

*H. C. R. Vella argues that the Homeric Ogygia became conflated with the Cretan island Ogylia, which was later called Gaudos; then Maltan Gaulos became conflated with the Cretan Gaudos; Gaudos gave rise to the name "Gozo." Modern Gozo near Malta is now the favorite localization of Calypso's home, and this is generally harmonious with the western placement of Ogygia in the Odyssey. Callimachus linked Calypso with Gaudos (=Maltan Gozo?; Callimachus fr. 470 Pfeiffer; cf. Strabo above). Besides Pliny, Pseudo-Skylax 13.5 also speaks of "Calypso's Island" near Capo della Colonne near Crotone, though there is no such island; the inspiration apparently is the Odyssey's indications that Ogygia is west of Scheria. A further complication is that both Mljet in the Adriatic and Malta were called "Melita" in antiquity.