Odysseus and his gallant son charged straight at the front lines,
slashing away with swords, with two-edged spears and now
they would have killed them all, cut them off from home
if Athena, daughter of storming Zeus, had not cried out
in a piercing voice that stopped all fighters cold,
"Hold back, you men of Ithaca, back from brutal war!
Break off – shed no more blood – make peace at once!"
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 24, lines 579-585. As Odysseus and his son Telemachus attack the families of the suitors who want to avenge their deaths, Athena intervenes to stop the slaughter. She asks the two sides to hold back and make peace. The strong goddess, who embodies female power in a patriarchal ancient Greece, manages to stop a second war.