Le désespoir de Calypso. Dans le vain espoir d'oublier L'ingrat pour qui son cœur sanglote, Cette nymphe avait dans sa grotte Fait tendre un très joli papier. (Fénélon. Variante du L. XI.)

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1842

Daumier's print shows Calypso, left behind by Ulysses. Again Daumier produces a caricature of Greek beauty as understood during the 18th century… Calypso's dress and rolled down socks surely were not attracting a warrior and lover like Ulysses for long. During this time, 1840's, a quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations.