An honorable trait that’s valued in our society today is the ability to look at a situation from multiple perspectives, which is shown multiple times throughout the Odyssey. Athena and Poseidon didn’t do this. For instance, Athena devoted her role in the story to help get Odysseus home from Troy after twenty years of being away, while Poseidon believed he needed to suffer and ultimately stay away from home longer. “Olympian Zeus,/ have you no care for him in your lofty heart?/ Did he never win your favor with sacrifices/ burned beside the ships on the broad plain of Troy?/ Why, Zeus, why so dead set against Odysseus?” (1.73-7). Athena wanted Odysseus to come home and was willing to help him get home and convinced Zeus to help her due to her positive perspective on Odysseus being away from home. …show more content…
Odysseus blinded Poseidon’s one-eyed son, Polyphemus, and since then, Poseidon spent his time creating roadblocks in Odysseus’s journey home. “Just look at him there, nearing Phaeacia’s shores where he’s faced to escape his noose of pain that’s held him until now. Still my hopes ride high-- I’ll give that man his swamping full of trouble!” (5.317-20). Zeus saw these two sides of the gods’ feelings towards Odysseus and created an equilibrium. He allowed Athena to help Odysseus to get home and Poseidon was allowed to punish Odysseus but he couldn’t kill him. For instance, after Phaeacia sailed Odysseus home, Poseidon’s original plan was to destroy the Phaeacian ship within eye range of Odysseus then block Phacia’s port with mountains, essentially killing them all. However, Zeus changed this plan to destroy the Phaeacian ship near Phaeacia, and not blocking the port. He was able to trick Poseidon into punishing the Phaeacians rather than