Athena

Athena, Vienna

In the Odyssee Homer frequently writes about Athena, who appears in various shapes and sizes, as a young boy or girl, or an old man. Athena even changes appearances and brandishes a magic wand. This causes all kinds of bother for someone like me, because how do you rationally explain the next part of this story?

With this in mind, let's take a closer look at the interaction between Odysseus and 'Athena'.

On his journey across Ithaca, which we'll soon be tracing, Odysseus is often accompanied by Athena, for whose interventions I need a decidedly less divine interpretation. Whenever Homer speaks of the acts of Poseidon, for example, the god of the sea and earthquakes, it usually simply means it's something to do with weather conditions. But Poseidon never shows up in the flesh, so to speak, where Athena puts in regular appearances.

I believe this can be explained by interpreting Athena, the goddess of wisdom, as the manifestation of cleverness, Athena 'materialises' whenever humans are having 'god-like' brainwaves. In my opinion this is how Homer should be read, as Athena representing the wise words and thoughts uttered by mere mortals.