Odysseus Encounter With Athene In Homer's Odyssey

The passage in question speaks of Odysseus’ encounter with Athene upon his arrival in Ithaka. The goddess has cast a spell on him, disguising his real appearance, and a spell on the land making him unable to recognize his home. She appears in order to tell him that he is in fact home, and that it is her who has cast the spells with the intention of protecting him from the suitors, who are planning to kill him. She also discusses one of Odysseus’ defining qualities: resourcefulness. Throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus is referred to several times as “resourceful”, “cunning” and “a man of many ways” (pp.137, line 1; pp.27, line 1). This resourcefulness is important in the context of how he made it home, and in the relationship he shares with the

This confrontation shows how his concealment is another example of his typical resourcefulness, which he uses as a defence in this situation because he is unsure whether this unknown person is trustworthy or not. Odysseus’ heightened sense of awareness of possible enemies is a result of his constant confrontation with danger on his journey home. Being one step ahead of everyone else helped him to survive. For example, when he and his men are faced with having to escape the cave of the cyclops, Odysseus’ idea to blind the cyclops saves them from death; however, this action also caused a delay in his homecoming, because Poseidon—the father of the cyclops—punishes him by causing storms, thus elongating his homecoming. This is one instance in which Odysseus’ resourcefulness has ambiguous consequences, which raises the question that perhaps his saving grace could also be a negative trait in certain situations. Cunning can be self-harmful if the trickery is against someone more powerful. This is the case when Odysseus, a mortal, offends Poseidon, a god, with his cunning and