Athene

The daughter of Zeus, Athene is the goddess of wisdom and patroness of warfare. This combination makes it come as no surprise that she likes a hero with some brains in him – namely Odysseus. That’s why she helps him do everything from winning favors to devising plans to not dying to looking sexy. Athene also parallels Odysseus in her fondness for disguises, ranging from an elderly Ithakan to a beggar to the resident prince. To really drive the point home, the very last line of the poem tells how the dispute between Odysseus and the families of the dead suitors was settled by Athene, “who had likened herself in appearance and voice to Mentor.”

Why does Athene like playing dress-up so much? Even though we at Shmoop shudder at claiming to know the will of the gods, we have a few ideas. Number one: because it’s fun and because she can. Number two: it’s a way of testing mortals, to see if they treat her well when she’s disguised as one of them. Number three: it lets her keep a low profile. That way, when you bust out by shining your divine aegis through the air, people know you mean business.

And does she ever mean business. Just look at how often Athene is able to get her own way, even in her interactions with the other gods. When she asks that Zeus command Circe to let Odysseus go, he delays but eventually does comply with his daughter’s request. Heck, if you’re looking for a female-power heroine, Athene might even beat out Penelope. (Though the contest is a little unfair, Athene being a goddess and all.) But the moment where we really see Athene bust out the big guns is in the last third of the epic. Here is where she really becomes the incarnation of divine justice, spurring Odysseus on to kill the suitors – all the suitors. We were all a little surprised to see that Amphinomos met the same unfortunate end as the rest of the crew, and even more surprised to see that Athene, who until now seemed perfectly reasonable, was the one clamoring for his death. What gives?

The goddess is clearly out for blood, but we should try not to read this as evidence that Athene is violence-crazed and unfair. She just has an austere sense of justice, which back in the day was the way justice worked. Just look at Telemachos’s post-slaughter insistence on hanging the maids, so as to give them the least honorable death possible. The characters believe this is the way justice is served: with a lengthy sword.

One more thing. While, Athene’s interest in helping Odysseus does have a lot to do with their similar personas, it’s also possible that Athene’s not-so-positive relationship with Poseidon might play a role. Even though Athene and Poseidon were allied against the Trojans during the Trojan War, they also have a history of conflict with each other. One traditional story traced this to a debate over who got to be the patron of Athens. (Clearly, you can see who won that argument.) This tradition isn’t explicitly referenced in the Odyssey itself, but it might have formed part of the background info that early Greek audiences would have taken for granted.