Let's get one thing straight: Athena is a "plot god," as I would call her. I hope I'm not the only one who has realized that when there seems to be no way for either Odysseus or Telemachus to continue onward, Homer just uses Athena to just explain why the plot moves forward. There are many occurrences such as giving Telemachus more confidence to stand up to the suitors (Book 1, 369), but later seemed to lose that confidence over time showing that it wasn't a permanent effect. Telemachus was then impersonated by Athena herself to recruit ship hands for his journey to discover information about Odysseus. We get no impression that Telemachus was about to go out to town and do the same. Instead he just shows up and there is a crew and ship waiting for him. It's like Homer didn't want to try and think of some trouble that Telemachus might encounter when attempting to recruit shipmates. Let's face it, he sent Athena because in his mind he was saying, "Who can deny a god?" Everyone can defy any god, granted there are consequences, but denying a god is no oddball and the plot hole here is just unanswered.
As for Odysseus, Athena just loves the man. There is probably no other man that Athena would decide to help with more than Odysseus; it's like he is Athena's science project on how she can make the most immortal, mortal man. Anyway, when Odysseus prepares to enter the Phaeacian castle of King Alcinous he must first get there undetected. How you ask? Why by going straight through the middle of the town while Athena the plot god shrouds him in a mist making him invisible to everyone...okay. This is laziness on Homer's part, in my opinion. He could have easily made Odysseus encounter maybe two people and use his apparent cunning and wits to convince the townspeople that he was not a foreigner.
That's my take on it. Athena is the plot armor of the Odyssey.
(P.S. I commented on Olivia R. and Natalie's post.)
No comments:
Post a Comment