Athena In The Odyssey

ak to the people they are watching over such as the instance in the Odyssey where Athena comes to Ithaca to visit Telemachus and reassure him that his father will be coming home and recommends a journey for the boy and to wait a year to allow him to make it home (pg.296). Though Telemachus may have not known it was Athena this is an example of a seen and heard Goddess which allows for her to reassure the boy. It is also seen with Achilles and Athena in the Iliad when Achilles is about to fight to the death with Agamemnon, on lines 205 and 206 it says “Athena came sent by the white-armed goddess Hera who loved and watched over the two men” (pg 194). In this scene it goes on to display a scene of the gods taking their power of visibility and
ability to be heard to stop a bloody incident from occurring and also shows the love for the human beings they are watching over. In both of these instances the Goddesses were able to directly communicate and visually reassure both men it stopped things that were bound to go absolutely wrong. The audio and visual of the Gods and Goddesses create a more trustful and intimate relationship that the mortals feel they can turn to in times of need.
In comparison to the Hebrew god who in the story of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3 pg.119) could have saved the situation if he had the ability to be seen and in the moment could have stopped her from eating the apple and counseled her on what good and evil is.
Instead the serpent gets to Eve because he is there to speak to her, to convince her that it is actually okay to eat the apple. But, because he only speaks to them humans in a evening breeze after God had watched her fall into the Devil’s trap. Eve so innocent with no knowledge of the world which is the same as Telemachus a boy with no knowledge of his father being alive but instead she fends for herself falling into the dirty trap. God is known as the all knowing, God someone who oversaw the creation of the world, or what believers think created the world. Without the visual aspect they pray to what they hope is there, people will beg for help for forgiveness. But, do they know if it is coming, do they know that on judgement day this God will welcome them with open arms, shut the gate, or live in oblivion. With this God only being heard by certain people most branches of religion live on the fact that this ancient book is a true story of their God but whose to say it is not just another great story with no real bearings.
The representation of the Gods that Homer creates in the Iliad and Odyssey are able to communicate directly with each other and the Gods uses this to help the mortals who live below them, the knowledge they
have is shared with everyone not kept to the themselves to watch how it all plays out. The Hebrew Bible’s God only allows for a one sided communication, it leaves doubt and confusion. A world where people have skepticism, live in fear, and know that evil things are bound to happen even to the best of people because that is what has happened for hundreds if not thousands of years.