He then goes to be reunited with his elderly father even as the families of the suitors move toward revenge. Athena helps Odysseus a final time by preventing a civil war on Ithaca. Athena often helped the heroes of Greek mythology, but she is especially present in the story of Odysseus. Throughout his story, the heroic king is marked by his wit and intelligence. He often uses cunning to escape the many dangers he faces.
This characterization makes Odysseus particularly aligned with Athena. The goddess of wisdom was believed to prioritize strategy in war rather than just brute force. Athena herself tells Odysseus that he is like her because she knows many tricks as well. While Athena is the goddess of knowledge, she uses a lack of knowledge to help Odysseus.
The disguises and deceptions she employs to keep both her own identity and that of the hero secret are her most frequent form of assistance. Much of her aid is not given to Odysseus himself, but to his son Telemachus.
While his father performed heroic feats, the prince was personally advised by the goddess. By guiding Telemachus without revealing her identity, Athena helps the young prince to grow into a future ruler. In this way, the goddess does more than reunite the father and son. She serves as a surrogate to Telemachus, giving him the lessons in leadership he would have been taught by Odysseus. By guiding Telemachus, Athena helped to make up for the actions of the gods. The final book of the Odyssey describes the reunion of Odysseus and his son with his own father, the former King Laertes.
Laertes comments that he is pleased to see his son and grandson as near equals in valor. Athena serves as a patroness to Odysseus during the Odyssey. Athena personally petitions her father, Zeus, to allow Odysseus to return home after ten years at sea. In Ithaca, Athena is even more closely involved. She takes on the role of Mentor, an old woman, to guide Telemachus and help him grow into a confident leader. When the father and son are reunited, she gives them the wisdom and strength to outsmart and overpower the men who have taken over their palace.
Finally, Athena ensures that no further violence will spring from the deaths of the suitors. When their families seek vengeance, Athena forbids escalation of the conflict.
Athena does more for Odysseus than help him regain the throne for himself. Poseidon is out to get Odysseus mainly because Odysseus mistreated his son, the Cyclops. Many of the gods' alliances with mortals stem from the Trojan War. In this war, Aphrodite favored the Trojans because Paris picked her out as the fairest of all the goddesses. This is the fatal choice that started the war, since Aphrodite bribed Paris by giving him license to kidnap Helen, the incident that triggered the Greek assault on Troy.
Athena and Hera favored the Greeks because they were angry with Paris for not picking them. Athena just seems to have a special affiliation with Odysseus, which could have to do with their matching attributes of cunning. Apollo and Artemis are twins, and both are associated with the bow.
The island of Syrie is some sort of fantasy land where the inhabitants never have to deal with hunger or sickness, and, accordingly, their deaths are relatively mild compared to men of other lands, as there are far worse ways to die than by the "gentle" arrows of Apollo and Artemis note that Apollo is a god of healing. Contrast the goodness of life at Syrie with the wickedness of Eumaeus' mother selling her own son off to slavery in exchange for safe passage with the Phoenician traders!
The virtuous Syrieans experience gentle deaths, while the vile mother of Eumaeus suffers a rotten death and is thrown into the sea. Keep in mind that Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, and he's never met his son nor has his son ever met him. In addition, he is dressed as a beggar until Athena intercedes, and Odysseus probably would want to make a better impression upon his son than the one he would have in those clothes.
Book 22 When Odysseus takes revenge on the suitors, why is he so merciless in his treatment of the servants, particularly the women? This is another aspect of the story that is hard for modern readers to accept. Rather than try to explain it away by claiming that the servants somehow deserved their treatment, we are probably better off saying that the Greeks had starker notions of justice that we do today. All those involved in an evil situation, however remote their involvement, bear some taint.
SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why does Telemachus go to Pylos and Sparta? How does Odysseus escape Polyphemus? Why does Odysseus kill the suitors? How does Penelope test Odysseus? What is happening at the beginning of The Odyssey? Why does Athena help Odysseus so much? Why does Nestor invite Telemachus to the feast before knowing his identity? Why does Calypso allow Odysseus to leave her island?
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