Athena is one of the most noteable characters in The Odyssey. What role does Athena play? Athena is known to be the Goddess of many things including wisdom, reason, purity, warfare, intelligent activity, literature and arts.

Athena was also known to be the favourite child of her father, Zeus and one of the 12 powerful Olympian gods. She was also known as ‘Pallas Athena’. The meaning behind the adaption to Athena’s name is that she once had a childhood friend named ‘Pallas’ who she accidently killed, in memory of her she added ‘Pallas’ to her name.

Athena was the daughter of Zeus and Zeus’ first wife was Metis. As Metis was about to give birth to Athena Zeus feared that his child would be more successful and take his high kingly rank. At the thought of this Zeus immediately swallowed his wife. Whilst Metis was inside of Zeus she started to prepare armor for Athena.

Athena was well known for inventing the bridle, the pot, the rake, the flute, the ship, the chariot and the plow. Athena’s tree is the Olive and her bird is the Owl. Athena is known to be a virgin goddess which made her independent and known as a career woman, not someone who was in love or interested in romance.

Athena was always represented fully dressed in clothing and usually amour including a spear and her gold helmet. She was known to have bright eyes and wear a Spartan tunic with a cloak over the top. Athena’s strengths was being able to change the appearance of people. With her great knowledge, Athena was also very skilled at protecting people. As being a Goddess of arts she also inspired a number of statues and paintings.

Athena and Poseidon, who was her uncle, both wanted to be named after a city in Greece. To decide on who would be named they challenged each other. They both provided a source to the people of the city and they choose which source was more useful for them. Poseidon presented a salt water spring and Athena’s source was an Olive tree, which was chosen as the best as it provided food, wood and oil. Athens became the city of Greece, named after Athena.

Athena is a well known character in mythology and in the story, The Odyssey. The Odyssey is a graphic novel about the protagonist Odysseus and his follower’s journey back home to their kingdoms and islands after the Trojan War. Athena also played a role in the Trojan War as she helped the Greeks fight and came up with the idea of the wooden horse.

Athena appears and is mentioned many times throughout The Odyssey. Athena is shown on the first few pages of novel, pleading to her father Zeus that Odysseus should be helped to reach his way home. This could show Athena’s sense of wisdom and her relationship with Odysseus.

Even though Athena was a God and Odysseus was a mortal, Athena would do anything to help Odysseus, whether it was to help him stay out of trouble or to help him travel safely back to his wife, Penelope and his son, Telemachus.

Athena’s role within the Odyssey was to help Odysseus and she also helped his son Telemachus whenever they were in trouble or she would speak for them at councils. In the book Athena approaches Telemachus disguised as a Mentor who was an old friend of Odysseus. In the role of being Mentor she advises and guides Telemachus.

Although Athena helped Telemachus the main person she looked up to was Odysseus as she had a strong affection for him. Athena was interested in Odysseus because of his traits and talents he demonstrated. Throughout the novel Athena is excellent at disguising as other characters and is always outlined in blue.

Athena is a mythology character with a very interesting life who played a major role in The Odyssey and had a strong relationship with Odysseus.