Lighthouseborn - Tumblr Posts
🪐 — message recieved from @lighthouseborn ; Hi hello if you don't want to play with the dmtnt lore-mess that's fine you may skip this question w/o offending me but I am curious, if you were to engage with it, how ((if at all)) you think Calypso and Poseidon relate? Are they equivalent to their mythical counterparts (Poseidon a god, Calypso a nymph, etc.) or would you think there's a truth that differs from the legends man created out of it? Are they maybe even technically the same figure evolved over time? Or something else?? Is Calypso even really a name of hers or something misattributed? Is she of all the oceans or specific to the Caribbean? ( for instance, Poseidon used to be considered specific to the Mediterranean! and then per dmtnt they find the weapon in Poseidon's Tomb so maybe there were as many ocean deities as their are oceans ((like how there are pirate lords for each- maybe that's an echo/imitation of the gods themselves?)) and maybe Calypso was the last still standing and that's why binding her gave the lords 'control' of the seas?) tl;dr I would like to see the essay and whatever other thoughts you may have ok ty I hope you have a nice day!
HI HELLO FRIEND thank you for this lovely question & inviting me to write the essay on my beloved ocean goddess !! i adore & appreciate your curiosity & will do my very best to answer all that you asked as best as i can — however i want to preface this with the disclaimer that i haven’t actually seen the potc films after the original trilogy, so... while i know some of the broadest strokes of the plot of dmtnt, the real reason that i discard the canon after the trilogy is out of straight-up ignorance to it. so bear in mind that everything i say will be coming from that very limited perspective.
in my personal portrayal of the goddess known as calypso, i am compliant to what the canon of the trilogy gives us ( which is admittedly limited on lore ) but also heavily influenced by the character of Καλυψώ as she appears in ancient greek myth & literature, with heavy inspiration drawn from homer’s the odyssey, & with some minor insights from the price of freedom novel thrown in there as well. therefore, the short answer to your question is that i do tend to follow along with my understanding of the greek mythos.
therefore, in accordance with greek mythos, not all deities are created equal. while poseidon is one of the twelve gods of olympus, calypso is a nymph — her father being the titan atlas ( a pre-olympian god ) & her mother being pleione, an ocean nymph. now, nymphs, according to greek mythos, are essentially lesser goddesses with traces of human blood who are tied to some specific element of nature. there are all kinds of nymphs, & calypso herself would have been one of the fifty nereids, or sea nymphs, who often accompanied poseidon, the olympian god of the sea.
it’s important to note that even being a lesser goddess meant that you had abilities that the humans could never truly understand, & would therefore be understood best by them as magic. for example, in the odyssey, calypso has a years-long tryst with odysseus ( in which she highkey takes him prisoner ), & is shown to have many powers of enchantment, including control over animals & the weather, & even shapeshifting ! but it’s important to remember that these are powers that all ocean nymphs would have. so for as incredible as her abilities are in relation to humans, poseidon’s divine abilities would easily supersede her own.
i definitely think that there is an element to the gods that mortals will never be able to explain or understand — is it truly magic ? or a scientific explanation involving beings that exist on different planes of existence & experience ? we will never know. but they did at least understand that there is a bit of a hierarchy within the divine beings — namely that the so-called “olympians,” like poseidon, are truly divine beings, whereas nymphs like calypso have both divine & mortal blood in them, & are therefore closer to humans. if the desire is to think on it scientifically instead of religiously, i think it could be conceptualized as having characters like poseidon as extremely powerful beings who originated in another dimension — one where the laws of physics are different than this one — that were able to cross into our dimension. in contrast, nymphs & other lesser divine beings are beings that were born of these beings but in the mortal world, meaning that they cannot travel between dimensions because they are linked to the mortal world. another example would be that while nymphs do not age, they can die if they are removed from their elemental homes, whereas poseidon is a truly immortal being who cannot die ( but who may have the ability to leave our dimension behind ).
while i think it’s a really cool concept that there are ocean deities for the separate seas similar to the pirate lords, the mythos points to there actually being a lot more ocean deities than there were lords, calypso being one of fifty. however, it’s important to remember that all the nymphs were distinct and individual beings. calypso’s sisters all had their own personalities, & my personal headcanon is that calypso was always one of the most headstrong & unpredictable of her nymph sisters. ocean nymphs like her would be capable of travelling throughout any connected seas, & even stepping onto land as long as they stayed near their sea, & calypso would have been one of the most adventurous of her sisters, leaving their group frequently to explore on her own. she also would have been one of the most interested in the mortals, even having trysts with mortal men, & frequently showcase her abilities in front of mortals, earning her reverence as a goddess in various cultures all over the world. this is how i came to the belief that, over centuries of traveling, calypso & other ocean nymphs like her came to be known by several names — ran, yemanya, cato, oshun, & more — with different cultures giving them different names & applying their own belief systems to explain their abilities.
of course, eventually calypso made her way to the caribbean & met davy jones, the fallout of this particular tryst would lead to her being “bound” in a single mortal form. i understand that this might be a controversial take on the pirate lords “binding” calypso, but i really don’t think it had the effect they think it did ? confining her in a mortal body did remove her abilities to control the ocean — which did admittedly make her stop throwing temper tantrums about jones that became hurricanes capable of sinking fleets of ships at a time — but the sea wasn’t really “tamed” when she was bound. there were still storms & things. it’s just that she personally wasn’t causing them. & by that time, most of the still surviving nymphs from ancient greece had learned to avoid humans if they wanted to live, so she was one of the only ones still brave enough to show herself & her powers to mortals, which is why the pirate lords thought she was the only one, & taking that ability away would mean the sea would be calm all the time. but the east india company taking control of the caribbean & squashing piracy in the region was actually not the direct result of calypso no longer having her powers, it was just straight up the result of imperialism babey ! but i digress.
finally, you asked about her true / original name. i do believe that calypso ( or rather, kαλυψώ ) is the name that mortals gave to her, as are the other names she has gone by over the years. i do believe she has a true name, but it is in the written language of the olympians, & it would be literally impossible to translate it into human language. ( i realize this might feel like a cop out — sorry if it does ! ) but it should be noted, she doesn’t really care what name the mortals call her by. she knows exactly who she is, even if the mortals she befriends will never truly know her back.
ok, i know that was LONG. i hope i answered all your questions to your satisfaction ! thanks again for sending, i loved this opportunity to detail my thoughts on calypso’s lore !
🪐 — @lighthouseborn sent a meme :
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ok so, full disclosure before i start : i’ve never actually seen d.mtnt, so i don’t actually know a ton of details about henry’s arc within his canon. but like, why would i need canon when i have your portrayal in my life, right ? the amount of thought & care you put into henry is so obvious, so even though i might need to do a little plotting, i’d totally love to interact with you ( & him ) ! & here are some suggestions on how : ● calypso — i think that after awe, calypso would be pretty done with humans for awhile. however, i have talked with others before about an au in which she wasn’t successfully freed but jones was still defeated, so maybe it would be fun to have her still hanging out as tia dalma during the events of d.mtnt ? or, alternatively, maybe henry finds a way to summon her or something to help with the events of d.mtnt & drags her into it somehow ? idk, we would have to do some plotting to make it work, but like... we should. ● stede — i cannot fully explain it ( something something lighthouse imagery ) but these two are on the same wavelength & they should meet ! i think it would be hilarious for stede to get caught up in some kind of pirate adventures even bigger than himself, so maybe during or after the events of d.mtnt he could get involved somehow, or visit shipwreck cove while henry is there post-movie. alternatively, i know that in his teenage years henry was with the navy, ( right ? ), so maybe in that verse he could be on an english ship that’s after stede ? there is some some plotting required here but. i just think they would vibe. ● izzy — i mean, i’m not sure if they would like each other very much lmao but they were both in the navy, so... this would have to be a younger izzy & a younger henry, which could be interesting. izzy as his superior officer for a brief time maybe ? & then maybe we could even have them meet again later on ? idk, like i said, i’m not positive they would even like each other, but it could be interesting since they do have that shared experience. ● miranda — i’ve been dragging my feet on writing her properly but i think that miranda barlow would really like henry ! & i could honestly see her being a friend of elizabeth’s while henry was growing up ? idk, this is vague but i just think she would like him & it would be cool for them to meet somehow. ● margaery — maybe in a regency au ? i really have no concrete thoughts for this combo, i just get the vibe that they would get along !
the firm sound of his voice surprises her, not quite shaking her out, but shaking her something. for a moment, she's not worrying about her flowers or her mother, but about henry. he sounds the closest to angry she's ever seen him, and she doesn't know how to fix it. she doesn't know how to fix anything. " i- i can't do any of that. i can't ... i can't ... you don't get it. "
she still has so many things to what if and worry about, she hasn't even started. she's afraid to forget all of it. that if she looks away for even one moment the shrivels of hope deep, deep in the soil will know and die, alone and afraid. that her mother might feel it. that her mother might never come back. she's a terrible daughter. a terrible friend, making him sit with her like this. making him hold her. she's afraid that if he lets go, she'll fall apart, and she doesn't know how to hold him back. but in her desperation to keep him there, she tries. allie holds on as much as she can, her fingers stretching to hold onto the underside of his arms.
" find- find them? " in the midst of her tangling, one more vine threads in, knotting in with the others. why would he want that? why would he want her to? " i never wanna' see them again! " she didn't mean to be so whiny, but it jumps out of her, shamefully abrupt and ugly and another too much on top of a world of too much's.
“ lighthouseborn. ”
Alright. No. Henry’s patience for being extra gentle evaporated - it did not seem to be lending anything to Allie, no rope to grab or thought to bolster to. Henry left it where it was and settled his hands on her arms. He did not squeeze or grab, it was only pressure. Holding.
“Come here,” he told her firmly, “Get out of whatever that may be, come on. Look at me- breathe. Do not wander or what if, just breathe in… out. Are you alright? Not in your head, in your body. Does anything hurt? Can you count your fingers, move your toes? Focus on that.” It was a list. A lot to demand all in one go, he knew, but that could very well be the merit of it. Stir something and keep it going. Focus her here and now and not on anything else. “Are you able to stand?” He would lend her support, if she needed it. And if she managed to muster the will to protest, tell him to stop, he’d let her. So long as it was something. Anything to keep her from falling all to pieces, to stop her shrinking, sinking into emptiness. He combed debris out of her tawny hair with gentle fingers.
“Ask me,” Henry said, suddenly sharp in his own way. “Ask me.. and I will find who did this.” Surely they would come to regret it. That, he thought, answering it in such a way, it would not bring her the kind of comfort it would others. Him. But it might make her argue with him.
Or she might ask him.
But he doubted it.