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In ancient Greek the gods, unlike the modern ones, almost never
embody or represent perfection. We often see them losing their
tempers, sleeping with or killing mortals, acting irrationally and
intervening in peoples life in a very whimsical manner. Also they were
neither omniscient nor omnipotent but rather they all seem to have an
extraordinary ability or areas of specialty of one sort or the other. Now
this ungodly representation can be partially explained by the lack of
organization in thinking among the people of that time (mainly the lack
of a written language) or that the stories were more of justifications
and explanations of the natural world rather than a political tool
therefore not needing the maintenance of strict consistency. Or maybe
the problem lies in our contemporary eyes: our tendency to piece apart
and inspect entities in the name of analysis. For when they are all
fitted in together, they result a perfectly imperfect system that is very
much like ours. And after all isnt that the point of story telling? But
whether consistent or not, we can agree that each story had a hero
and every hero has an objective. And Homers the odyssey is an
artistic and thematic celebration of reason and craftiness maybe even
crockery through an ill-fated journey of a hero whose objective is to
return home. Through Odysseus, Homer argues, rather beautifully, that
reason is superior to feelings and pride and resourcefulness and

intelligence can go a long way (pun intended). And I will use the
relationship of Odysseus with the goddess Athena and his relationship
with his wife to argue, not so beautifully, why that is the case.

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The first evidence is found in the beginning of the poem:
Tell me muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven far journeys
Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of,
Even so he could not save his companions . . . They were destroyed by
their own wild recklessness . . . (The odyssey 1 1-7) Here we can note
that Odysseus is called the man of many ways in an approving manner
also unlike many of the heroes in Greek literature, he is praised for
being resourceful than being brave and that recklessness is rather
condemned. The poem continues by asking Athena to tell the story,
from which point she plays a significant role in. but the fact is that
Athena, the goddess of wisdom, takes The Odysseys center stage in
godly intervention tells us this is not a story of Kleos,
Fast forward and Words from Athena in book 13 put this in remarkable
perspective when she addresses Odysseus after he attempts to hide
himself from her: It would be a sharp one, and a stealthy one, who
would ever get past you in any contriving; even if it were a god against
you. You wretch, so devious, never weary of tricks, then you would not

even in your own country give over your ways of deceiving and your
thievish tales. They are near to you in your very nature. (The Odyssey
13 291-295) Here, though she uses words like wretch, devious and
thievish, she says them as if in awe, as a verbal endowment of
respect. The presence of these traits in a mortal man is incredible to a
god, and she emphasizes it, successively voicing words full of
negativity in a tone that seems delighted despite itself.

3
Another reoccurring theme in this book is keeping ones identity a
secret. And among the secretive and cunning main actors in this tale is
the goddess Athena herself. Athena is the master of concealment. But
her motives for keeping her identity, secret are most times as subtle as
her presence in most events are. While she does resort to direct action,
more often than not, she is seen preferring the indirect approach, even
when it seems that she doesnt have to. Take this instance,
Therefore to the lord Odysseus she made everything look otherwise,
than it was, the penetrating roads, the harbors where all could
anchor, the rocks going straight up, and the trees tall growing(The
odyssey 13 194-196). Here she is seen hiding herself and the
knowledge of homecoming from Odysseus, despite deciding to reveal
them to him a short while later. But the more we look into these
instances and affected personas the less random they become. we

start to notice that they are very deliberate in the truest sense of the
word. The objective of these false identities is not just to hide their real
ones, but usually to also to obtain some service or information.
Instances of this can be seen in book 14 when Odysseus uses
shortcomings in his false identity to acquire a place to stay, and in
book 17 where Odysseus playacts a beggar to extract information on
the suitors personalities. This adds a new depth to the main
characters in The Odyssey than compered to other stories of Greek
heroes. Theyre more calculative are delighting more in planning and in
performance than in action, therefore making a point that in the
odyssey

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Another interesting character is Odysseuss wife Penelope. Here we
find a woman whose husband has been gone for 20 years, missing the
last 10. She is a faithful wife and a devoted mother, the perfect hostess
who seems to spend most of her time crying about her missing
husband.
All too much with enduring heart she does wait for him
there in your own palace, and always with wretched
nights and the days also waste her away with weeping(The Odyssey
16 37-39) also one maybe tempted to think that she was weak and
powerless for not telling off the suitors right away. But deeper

examination shows that perhaps Penelope is the craftiest/smartest

character in the book. And she had reasons for doing everything she
did throughout the book. For instance we can note that Penelope
neither had a natural nor social type of power. And her son Telemachus
was a little boy incapable of protecting her or taking over his fathers
chair. So they way she handled the situation, namely the trick of the
unraveling loom was the first of her clever tactics for survival. Also if
we examine her reaction to her husbands return, we can find more
evidence of her intelligence. Why would a woman who have waited 20
years for her husband suddenly wants to choose her husband using a
bow and arrow test she knew only her husband was able to preform?
Unless of course she knew, despite his clever disguise, that he had
returned. Also even after he reveled his identity Penelope used a secret
knowledge between them to verify his identity and only then So
welcome was her husband to her as she looked upon him
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and she could not let him go from the embrace of her white arms(The
Odyssey 24 239-240) Now if a women who cried over her husband for
20 years is capable of pulling of such feats of trickery and craftiness
restraining her immediate emotional response (which could have
endangered Odysseus ) , We could say that this is definitely the theme
the author wanted to prevail, namely reason concurs all.