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.
I like this theory a lot! It certainly seems like Athena is being really selfish in how she lets the story play out. Odysseus is like an action figure to her: she wants him to be interesting, but she's not concerned about his physical or mental well-being beyond "stay alive and hell-bent on killing the suitors because that will make the fight scene fun." It's fine for her to leave him stuck in the couch cushions for a few years. She feels no remorse.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she got tired of having to constantly bail him out and figured that a full-out war against all of Ithaca was too much? Maybe she didn't want Poseidon to help all the suitors' families and break her action figures? Her motives at the end do seem more like tiredness and exasperation than "I legitimately want peace on Ithaca," because why on earth would the goddess of battle strategy want people to talk it out instead of trying to kill each other? The second option is much more entertaining for the goddess, and I don't think she's above choosing the fun option over the moral one, but she still chooses pacifism.
You make a very good point--I've not noticed Athena's total absence from the "Wanderings" before, although it's clear that she doesn't play as much of a role. This would make that stretch of Odysseus's journey more of a "classic" hero's journey, in that the ordeals and "tests" are more "real" (he has to pass them himself), and indeed, it might be tricks like his famous "Noman" gag with Polyphemus that first impressed Athena and gave him his rep as the "man of wiles."
ReplyDeleteHe does get supernatural aid in this section--Circe gives him a roadmap for getting past the sirens and Scylla and Charybdis, and Tieresias gives him some useful oracle work. Calypso also "saves" him, although that salvation blurs into imprisonment. But it's notable that his most potent immortal ally is absent for this most decisive stretch of his journey.