Athene, Odysseus and Telemachos: How the Feminine Helps Reconcile Men in the Odyssey

By Daniel Blatt

When Odysseus returns to Ithaca, Athene changes his appearance, disguising him as a beggar so none of his fellow countrymen will recognize him. Indeed, to further his disguise, when for the first time-after twenty years absence-he approaches most of those dear to him, he invents tales of his name and background. He deceives first the loyal swineherd, Eumaeos, later his devoted wife Penelope and finally his own beloved father Laertes.
The only one for whom he does not invent a false name and background is his son Telemachos whom he last saw when his only child was but a babe in arms. The first time he speaks to his son in the epic, but before he reveals his identity, he acts like a sympathetic stranger, telling him how sad he is to learn the plight of this young man's family:

My own heart is torn to pieces when I hear
About the reckless deeds you say the suitors contrive
In your halls, against the will of a man as good as yourself.
Tell me, are you willingly subjected or do the people
Despise you in the district, yielding to the voice of a god? (Od. 16. 92-96)

The father expresses concern about the suitors' reckless deeds and wants to know how his son has handled them. He is eager to find out what's become of his son, how he has faced adversity. His voice here is paternal, assessing the situation, compassionate for his troubled family, but also wondering about his own son's qualities. In this speech, he does not yet reveal his identity, but, unlike his initial encounters with others, he does not invent a false identity either. Athene sees to that.

After Telemachos has dispatched Eumaeos to tell his mother of his return, he is alone with his father (perhaps for the first time in his life). Had Athene not arrived, Odysseus, the man of many wiles, may well have deceived even his son. But before he has time to invent another tale, the goddess "appeared at the hut doorway/Nor did Telemachos see her face to face or perceive her" (16. 159-60). Visible only to Odysseus (and the dogs), Athene stands in the threshold, a place of transition between two worlds, here, the transition point between Odysseus' wanderings and his return home to claim his own.
Odysseus follows her outside where she tells him not to conceal his identity from his son. She taps him with her golden wand, clothes him in a cloak and clean tunic, darkens his skin and fills out his cheeks. She makes him more like himself than he was just moments before.

Odysseus crosses the threshold back into the hut; the once bedraggled stranger appears more magnificent to his own son. That young man wonders if he is a god. But, this time, Odysseus will not tell one of his many tales. For the first time on native soil, face to face with his son, he reveals his true identity:

I am not any god. Why liken me to immortals?
But I am your father for whose sake you are grieving
And suffer many pains, receiving the assaults of men. (16. 187-89)

Telemachos does not believe his father until Odysseus mentions that his transformation is the work of Athene. Then, they embrace, lament and shed many tears, a father and son brought together by a female divinity. A feminine force has effected the reconciliation between these two men.

Athene, a female divinity, is the Olympian who appears most frequently in this epic which begins with the son's search for news of his father and ends with that father's reconciliation with his own father. She assists both son and father on their respective journeys. At the beginning of the book, she beseeches her own father, Zeus, to allow Odysseus to return home. At the very end, she holds off a civil war between two rival Ithacan factions (each battle-ready army composed only of men).

The son's search for reconciliation with his father has been the theme of many tales since Homer. We see it even today in popular films. Such films as Field of Dreams and Frequency use imaginative devices to bring son and father together. In the Godfather, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), once opposed to joining the family "business," does so only because his father's life has been threatened. Just a few months ago, tens of millions of people around the world will flocked to cinemas to see the final installment of a motion picture trilogy depicting the descent into evil of the man who is to father one of the most popular motion picture heroes of the century just concluded.

By seeking reconciliation with his father in Return of the Jedi, that son, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), will help destroy the evil empire his father helped created. A son's love for his own deeply flawed father will help save the galaxy. Importantly, the last thing Luke does before going to his father is to tell his sister of their true identities. Her affection strengthens him as he prepares to meet his destiny. Like Telemachos, Luke too needs the feminine to help him face his own father.

It is the very genius of Homer that he recognizes the power of the feminine even in relationships between men. Without the kindness of Nausicaa and the hospitality of her mother, Queen Arete, Odysseus might not have been welcomed by the Phaeacians. They would likely not have listened to his tales nor would they have taken him home to Ithaca in one of their swift ships.

As the popularity of the aforementioned films shows, the theme of reconciliation between son and father touches people today as it moved them in Homer's day-and throughout the classical era. The presence of Athene in the epic, particularly when she stands in the threshold the first time father and son are alone together, suggests that men need the feminine to bring them closer to one another. Many men today whose relationships with our fathers have not always been easy have found that, as we advance in life, it is often a woman who helps effect a reconciliation.

Posted by john at October 9, 2005 10:56 PM