Calypso is a painter of Ancient Greece, dated to around the 3rd century BC, whose existence as a real person is debated by scholars. Her name appears in Pliny the Elder's Natural History, in a list of six female artists of antiquity alongside Irene, Timarete, Aristarete, Iaia of Cyzicus and Olympias.
Pliny mentions her in a passage on painting, linked to a work depicting an old man. The problem is textual: some readers take "Calypso senem" as a painter named Calypso who painted an old man, while others propose a corruption of "Calypsonem", an accusative case that would name a painting of the nymph Calypso from the Odyssey, perhaps by Irene. Moreover, unlike the other women in the list, she is not given a father or a place of origin, which adds to the doubts.
Her legacy is largely an example of how tradition passed on the names of women painters. During the Renaissance, Boccaccio included her in De mulieribus claris, showing that her name kept circulating even though her real existence cannot be confirmed.