The Odyssey Athena Quotes

With that the bright-eyed goddess winged away
in an eagle’s form and flight.
Amazement fell on all the Achaeans there.
The old king, astonished by what he’d seen,
grasped Telemachus’ hand and cried out to the prince,
"Dear boy – never fear you’ll be a coward or defenseless,
not if at your young age the gods will guard you so.
Of all who dwell on Olympus, this was none but she,
Zeus’s daughter, the glorious one, his third born,
who prized your gallant father among the Argives."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 3, lines 415-424. Athena, disguised as Mentor, reveals herself when she turns into an eagle and flies away. Amazed at what he has seen, King Nestor tells Telemachus that this was none other than Athena who will protect him just as she prized his father Odysseus. So the young son of Odysseus gets the official stamp of approval from the gods.

But Zeus’s daughter Athena countered him at once.
The rest of the winds she stopped right in their tracks,
commanding them all to hush now, go to sleep.
All but the boisterous North – she whipped him up
and the goddess beat the breakers flat before Odysseus,
dear to Zeus, so he could reach the Phaeacians,
mingle with men who love their long oars
and escape his death at last.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 421-428. Athena’s status as daughter of Zeus allows her to oppose Poseidon and get away with it. After Poseidon launches a huge wave and wrecks Odysseus’ raft, she calms down the winds and sea to help Odysseus survive. This is an example of Athena’s feminine power and strength coming to the rescue once again for Odysseus.

"Nausicaa,
how could your mother bear a careless girl like you?
Look at your fine clothes, lying here neglected –
with your marriage not far off,
…let’s go wash these clothes at the break of day –
I’ll help you, lend a hand, and the work will fly!
You won’t stay unwed long."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 27-30, 35-37. Athena makes a surprise visit in young Phaeacian princess Nausicaa’s dream disguised as one of her friends. She tells her to wash her clothes in the washing pools, so that she will find Odysseus who has washed up onto the island shore there. This is an example of Athena interfering in human affairs to help Odysseus.

clear-eyed Pallas thought of what came next,
to make Odysseus wake and see this young beauty
and she would lead him to the Phaeacians’ town.
The ball –
the princess suddenly tossed it to a maid
but it missed the girl, it splashed in a deep swirling pool
and they all shouted out –
and that woke great Odysseus.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 124-129. Odysseus is wakened from his sleep when Nausicaa throws a ball to her handmaids and it splashes in a pool near him. This was done at Athena’s prompting, for she wants Nausicaa to lead Odysseus to the Phaeacians’ town. Here we have another example of gods controlling the fate of humans.

Only Alcinous’ daughter held fast, for Athena planted
courage within her heart, dissolved the trembling in her limbs,
and she firmly stood her ground and faced Odysseus, torn now –
Should he fling his arms around her knees, the young beauty,
plead for help, or stand back, plead with a winning word,
beg her to lead him to the town and lend him clothing?

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 148-158. Athena inspires Nausicaa with the courage to face the brine-caked and naked Odysseus. This is despite her maids fleeing at the terrifying sight of him.

Zeus’s daughter Athena made him taller to all eyes,
his build more massive now, and down from his brow
she ran his curls like thick hyacinth clusters
full of blooms. As a master craftsman washes
gold over beaten silver – a man the god of fire
and Queen Athena trained in every fine technique –
and finishes off his latest effort, handsome work,
so she lavished splendor over his head and shoulders now.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 256-260. Athena gives the shipwrecked Odysseus a complete makeover to make him more desirable to Princess Nausicaa after he finds him washed onto the shore. The goddess transforms his appearance, so that he becomes taller and more beautiful and has a "massive" build. A Homeric simile likens what she does to a master smith pouring gold over silver to make something beautiful even more splendid.

Pallas Athena, harboring kindness for the hero,
drifted a heavy mist around him, shielding him
from any swaggering islander who’d cross his path
provoke him with taunts and search out who he was.
Instead, as he was about to enter the welcome city,
the bright-eyed goddess herself came up to greet him there,
for all the world like a young girl, holding a pitcher,
standing face-to-face with the visitor.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 16-23. While Odysseus is on his way to the palace of Alcinous, Athena disguises him with a magical mist to keep him safe from the Phaeacians. As he is about to enter the city, the goddess appears before him in the form of a girl carrying a pitcher, to help him further.

"Little girl, now wouldn’t you be my guide
to the palace of the one they call Alcinous?
The king who rules the people of these parts.
I am a stranger, you see, weighed down with troubles,
come this way from a distant, far-off shore.
So I know no one here, none at all
in your city and the farmlands round about."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 24-29. Odysseus asks a young girl to be his guide to the palace of King Alcinous. The girl is Athena in disguise, Odysseus’ divine assistant on his journey home to Ithaca.

"I’ll show you the very palace that you’re after –
the king lives right beside my noble father.
Come, quietly too, and I will lead the way.
Now not a glance at anyone, not a question.
The men here never suffer strangers gladly,
have no love for hosting a man from foreign lands."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 32-37. Athena, in the disguise of a young girl, offers to show Odysseus to Alcinous’ palace. She warns him not to expect any great welcome, for the inhospitable Phaeacians are somewhat xenophobic and suspicious of strangers.

the assembly seats were filled with people thronging,
gazing in wonder at the seasoned man of war…
Over Odysseus’ head and shoulders now
Athena lavished a marvelous splendor, yes,
making him taller, more massive to all eyes,
so Phaeacians might regard the man with kindness,
awe and respect as well, and he might win through
the many trials they’d pose to test the hero’s strength.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 18-25. Athena alters Odysseus’ physical appearance by making him taller and more massive, so that the Phaeacians will be more kind and respectful to him. This passage also foreshadows the "trials" of strength that Odysseus will be put through by the Phaeacians.

"Sing of the wooden horse
Epeus built with Athena’s help, the cunning trap that
good Odysseus brought one day to the heights of Troy,
filled with fighting men who laid the city waste.
Sing that for me – true to life as it deserves –
and I will tell the world at once how freely
the Muse gave you the gods’ own gift of song."
Stirred now by the Muse, the bard launched out
in a fine blaze of song.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 552-560. The disguised Odysseus requests the bard Demodocus to entertain him with his own exploits in the Trojan War. He asks him to sing of the "cunning trap" of the wooden horse built by Epeus with Athena’s help and used by Odysseus to deceive the Trojans and take their city.

"Any man – any god who met you – would have to be
some champion lying cheat to get past you
for all-round craft and guile! You terrible man,
foxy, ingenious, never tired of twists and tricks –
so, not even here, on native soil, would you give up
those wily tales that warm the cockles of your heart!

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 13, lines 329-334. Athena praises Odysseus for his metis: the Greek quality that combines wisdom and cunning. Any man would have to be an expert cheat to get anything past Odysseus, she tells him. Instead of being angry at him for lying about being someone else from Crete, Athena admires Odysseus’ skills in the art of deception.

And now I am here once more, to weave a scheme with you
and to hide the treasure-trove Phaeacia’s nobles
lavished on you then – I willed it, planned it so
when you set out for home – and to tell you all
the trials you must suffer in your palace…
Endure them all. You must. You have no choice.
And to no one – no man, no woman, not a soul –
Reveal that you are the wanderer home at last.
No, in silence you must bear a world of pain,
Subject yourself to the cruel abuse of men.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 13, lines 344, 347-353. Athena tells Odysseus that she has come to weave a scheme to help him deal with his wife’s suitors. She warns of the trials that Odysseus must suffer when he goes to his palace. She cautions him not to reveal himself as King of Ithaca, but to suffer in silence.

"But I do know this: you were kind to me in the war years,
so long as we men of Achaea soldiered on at Troy.
But once we’d sacked King Priam’s craggy city,
boarded ship, and a god dispersed the fleet,
from then on, daughter of Zeus, I never saw you,
never glimpsed you striding along my decks
to ward off some disaster."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 13, lines 357-363. Odysseus complains that he has not seen Athena since the Trojan war, and believes that she abandoned him. Here we have dramatic irony, because the reader knows that during his journey back from Troy Athena helped him a number of times. She petitioned Zeus to free him from Calypso’s island and allow him home. She helped save him when the raft he escaped the island in is wrecked by Poseidon. She ensured that he was received more favorably by the Phaeanians by making him bigger and stronger.

"I never had doubts myself, no, I knew down deep
that you would return at last, with all your shipmates lost.
I could not bring myself to fight my Father’s brother,
Poseidon, quaking with anger at you, still enraged
because you blinded the Cyclops, his dear son."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 13, lines 386-390. Athena explains to Odysseus why she did not help him sooner during his travels after Troy. She was fearful of inciting her father’s brother Poseidon, when he flew into a rage after Odysseus blinded his son Polyphemus.
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