Athena is one of the most noteable characters in
The Odyssey. What role does Athena play?
Athena is known to be the Goddess of many
things including wisdom, reason, purity, warfare,
intelligent activity, literature and arts.
Athena was also known to be the favourite child
of her father, Zeus and one of the 12 powerful
Olympian gods. She was also known as ‘Pallas
Athena’. The meaning behind the adaption to
Athena’s name is that she once had a childhood
friend named ‘Pallas’ who she accidently killed,
in memory of her she added ‘Pallas’ to her
name.
Athena was the daughter of Zeus and Zeus’ first
wife was Metis. As Metis was about to give birth
to Athena Zeus feared that his child would be
more successful and take his high kingly rank. At
the thought of this Zeus immediately swallowed
his wife. Whilst Metis was inside of Zeus she
started to prepare armor for Athena.
Athena was well known for inventing the bridle,
the pot, the rake, the flute, the ship, the chariot
and the plow. Athena’s tree is the Olive and her
bird is the Owl. Athena is known to be a virgin
goddess which made her independent and
known as a career woman, not someone who
was in love or interested in romance.
Athena was always represented fully dressed in
clothing and usually amour including a spear
and her gold helmet. She was known to have
bright eyes and wear a Spartan tunic with a
cloak over the top. Athena’s strengths was being
able to change the appearance of people. With
her great knowledge, Athena was also very
skilled at protecting people. As being a Goddess
of arts she also inspired a number of statues and
paintings.
Athena and Poseidon, who was her uncle, both
wanted to be named after a city in Greece. To
decide on who would be named they challenged
each other. They both provided a source to the
people of the city and they choose which source
was more useful for them. Poseidon presented a
salt water spring and Athena’s source was an Olive
tree, which was chosen as the best as it provided
food, wood and oil. Athens became the city of
Greece, named after Athena.
• Athena is a well known character in mythology
and in the story, The Odyssey. The Odyssey is a
graphic novel about the protagonist Odysseus
and his follower’s journey back home to their
kingdoms and islands after the Trojan War.
Athena also played a role in the Trojan War as
she helped the Greeks fight and came up with
the idea of the wooden horse.
Athena appears and is mentioned many times
throughout The Odyssey. Athena is shown on
the first few pages of novel, pleading to her
father Zeus that Odysseus should be helped to
reach his way home. This could show Athena’s
sense of wisdom and her relationship with
Odysseus.
Even though Athena was a God and Odysseus
was a mortal, Athena would do anything to help
Odysseus, whether it was to help him stay out of
trouble or to help him travel safely back to his
wife, Penelope and his son, Telemachus.
Athena’s role within the Odyssey was to help
Odysseus and she also helped his son
Telemachus whenever they were in trouble or
she would speak for them at councils. In the
book Athena approaches Telemachus disguised
as a Mentor who was an old friend of Odysseus.
In the role of being Mentor she advises and
guides Telemachus.
Although Athena helped Telemachus the main
person she looked up to was Odysseus as she
had a strong affection for him. Athena was
interested in Odysseus because of his traits and
talents he demonstrated. Throughout the novel
Athena is excellent at disguising as other
characters and is always outlined in blue.
Athena is a mythology character with a very
interesting life who played a major role in The
Odyssey and had a strong relationship with
Odysseus.