The Odyssey

Name

Subject

Athena : The Goddess as Depicted by Homer

The respect of the ancient Greeks to goddess Athena is unquestionable She is depicted at the top of the Acropolis as a reminder that the ancient Greeks believed in equal opportunity between men and women . No less , their capital city of Athens was named after her . Known as the wisdom , war , and craft , she is also known for her good leadership as her special city is the birthplace of democracy . Moreover , this female deity - deemed to be wise , not only rejected absolutely

the restrictions that gender placed on her individuality , her persona has not betrayed her sex in the power struggles among gods and men

In the writings of Homer , he redress the balance , treats with a certain flippancy when personifying goddesses : Athena , marvelously faithful to her elect , full of intelligence , biased also and imperious , implacable and utterly devoid of sensibility Hera , the jealous wife , acrimonious and cross-grained , but fascinating on occasion and even desirable when she cares to take the trouble and Aphrodite , an epitome of every physical charm , but cowardly , malicious , licentious and stupid into the bargain

In Homer 's Odyssey , the epic begins on Olympus and ends with the intervention of Athena , which makes peace between Odysseus and the kinsmen of the slaughtered Suitors . Action on earth is accompanied by action , decision , and conflict in heaven , and gods and goddesses intervene in the human world . While Odysseus is brought home and defended by the goddess Athena without her help he could not leave Calypso in the beginning , nor slay the Suitors in the end . Thus , Homer portrays Athena as Odysseus ' special patron . The bond between them arises from the similarities of their natures as the Goddess herself puts it in Book 13 : We both know tricks , since you are by far the best among all men in counsel and tales , but I among all the Gods have renown for wit (metis ) and tricks (1 .44

The Odyssey goes out of its way to identify the story like Athena was the narrator of the story and , in doing so , signals both its concern with issues of gender and its finally conservative position on those issues . Athena has a distinctive role in the Greek mythological tradition as a figure who resolves conflicts between male and female powers . The resolutions she effects involve both the acknowledgment of female strength and the establishment of hierarchies in which the female is subordinated to the male

The plot that Athena metaphorically weaves in concert with Odysseus supersedes Penelope 's plot with the shroud , which , by the time the Odyssey 's narrative begins , has outlived its usefulness and has been exposed . As the goddess in charge of weaving , Athena is able to perform both the literal handicraft and the more metaphorical devising of plots much more successfully than any mortal . The Odyssey highlights her success as a plotter through the structure of its narrative . With its famously nonlinear plot , the poem establishes a distinction...