There are a lot of posts on what happens during Odysseus' wandering state, and I'm guessing there are (or will be) a lot of posts on how Athena works in the story, but what about where Athena doesn't work in The Odyssey? This might sound weird, but the entire wandering section of the novel does not feature Athena in the slightest. She never appears anywhere in that story, though it is obvious she is watching by her remarks toward him at the beginning of the epic. Odysseus seems to be entirely alone in his struggle to find his way home, up until the beginning of the story.
There are several reasons for this. First, we are told that after the Greeks finished fighting in Troy, they angered Athena by accident, which caused much of the heartache that many of the kings Telemachus talks to experience. It makes sense that Odysseus also was affected by this, losing his way and getting sent into exile without anyone but Calypso could be seen as consequences of this thing toward her.
Another reason, a logical one, is that the reason Athena doesn't seem to help him is that this is a different view than we've seen the entire rest of the epic. The entire epic is from the viewpoint of the gods looking down upon to world, making things happen as they see, and we get the same view. However, if this is the case, Athena didn't do much to help him. She didn't keep Odysseus from calling his name or staying in the cave of the cyclops, she didn't warn him of all his men being eaten by the giants in Lastrygonia, she didn't help guide him past Scylla. These might be explained by Athena wanting to watch a good story, but she doesn't seem to hesitate from getting Odysseus out of other situations. Furthermore, Odysseus stays on Ogygia for years, ad she doesn't do anything. Finally, Athena laments that Odysseus was stuck with Calypso. If she's been helping him all this time, why does she need permission now?
My explanation is that Athena was enjoying watching Odysseus, but then made a mistake. Athena was not helping Odysseus through this first part because it was interesting as it was. Athena didn't see a reason to interfere, the story was good enough. However, she watched also as Odysseus, instead of continuing his story, "selfishly" gets himself stuck and stops being interesting. She waits for a little bit (the gods are immortal, years isn't that much time), and as it started to seem that not much was going to happen, she got the go-ahead to step in and make things happen. However, in the process of doing this, she got herself roped into the story. To keep Odysseus from wandering again, she needed to keep on helping him, but that made the story less interesting. Over time, however, she tries to pull away, first by scheming with Odysseus rather than for Odysseus, then letting him get in to attack the suitors, only interfering to keep him alive, and then actually ending the whole upcoming war.
That last part is confusing as well, why would the goddess of battle strategy not want to see a war? I think that is a result of the story no longer being interesting to her. She, by playing an active role, has ruined it for herself, kind of like putting cheats on in a game whenever you get to a really hard part. You start cheating more and more, and now the game isn't fun. Similarly, Athena had "cheated" and now the story was just getting annoying. This way, she could end the adventure and see if another, more interesting one would show up.
Thinking of Athena in this way makes them seem very childish. I've already seen this posted, but the idea that the gods are like toddlers shows up here as well. Here is a kid watching some kind of game, but then after a while starts to get bored, and so a twist is added. The child then starts to complain that it isn't fun, so the game gets put away, and another is taken out. This is the entire life of the gods: millions of games trying to keep up with the attention span of a child.
