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 From then on, daughter of Zeus, I never saw you, never glimpsed you striding along my decks to ward off some disaster.

"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.

Homer Quotes