Athena's Role In The Odyssey

Homer’s The Odyssey describes the difficulties of Odysseus’s return to his homeland. As in most Ancient Greek works, the gods are an important part of the plot. In The Odyssey, there are many supernatural forces that affect Odysseus as he returns to Ithaca, but major gods like Athena tend to play a more indirect role in his journey while minor gods like Circe and Kalypso tend to have a more direct role in the poem. The major goddess Athena does not cause important events through her own actions but, instead, guides the other characters toward the decisions they make. Disguising herself as the mortal friend of Odysseus, Mentes, she tells Telemachos to “go out to ask about [his] father who is so long absent” and if he finds out Odysseus is alive then he should “hold out for another year” (1.281, 288-289). Rather than reveal herself to be a god and order Telemachos to find information about his father, she gives him the option to make his own choices, guiding his decisions but not forcing him to make one decision. Athena appears to Odysseus as well, as a young servant girl, informing him about the land of Phaiakia and instructing him to “not give any of these people your eye, neither ask them questions” (7.31). Athena does not appear as anyone of authority to guide Odysseus, but as a young girl of …show more content…
After Odysseus’s men and ships are lost, Odysseus lands on Kalypso’s island. Kalypso is the reason that Odysseus survives the shipwreck. Without her island, Odysseus would have been stranded in the middle of the ocean. However, Kalypso “detains him by constraint, and he cannot make his way to his country” (5.13-14). Odysseus must stay at Kalypso’s island for seven years until he is rescued by Hermes. Kalypso’s role in the poem is the rescuer of Odysseus, without her Odysseus would not have made it to Ithaca. Unfortunately, her detainment of Odysseus also makes his journey to Ithaca seven years