Παλλὰς Ἀθηναίη
Walter Burkert describes Athena this way: “More than any other Greek deity, Athena is always near her protégés—‘Goddess of Nearness’ is how Walter F. Otto described her [Otto 1929/1956]. Wherever difficulties disappear and the impossible becomes possible, Athena is at hand, but her presence does not detract from the achievement of the other” (Burkert 1985:141). Athena is present for Odysseus throughout the Odyssey, and indeed she guides his entire nostos from the opening scene among the gods in Olympia to the conclusion of the strife on Ithaka in the final lines of Odyssey 24. They rival one another in cunning intelligence (mētis) and, as Burkert notes, Odysseus and Athena’s special relationship is exemplified by the way they reveal themselves to one another in Odyssey 13. Each knows the other by the false identity/lying tale that each offers to the other. Odysseus’ story is that he killed a man in Crete (by ambush—λοχησάμενος, 13.268) and fled, ending up in Ithaka. But Athena knows exactly who he is:
ὣς φάτο, μείδησεν δὲ θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη,
χειρί τέ μιν κατέρεξε· δέμας δ’ ἤϊκτο γυναικὶ
καλῇ τε μεγάλῃ τε καὶ ἀγλαὰ ἔργα ἰδυίῃ·
290 καί μιν φωνήσασ’ ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα·
κερδαλέος κ’ εἴη καὶ ἐπίκλοπος, ὅς σε παρέλθοι
ἐν πάντεσσι δόλοισι, καὶ εἰ θεὸς ἀντιάσειε.
σχέτλιε, ποικιλομῆτα, δόλων ἄατ’, οὐκ ἄρ’ ἔμελλες,
οὐδ’ ἐν σῇ περ ἐὼν γαίῃ, λήξειν ἀπατάων
295 μύθων τε κλοπίων, οἵ τοι πεδόθεν φίλοι εἰσίν.
ἀλλ’ ἄγε μηκέτι ταῦτα λεγώμεθα, εἰδότες ἄμφω
κέρδε’, ἐπεὶ σὺ μέν ἐσσι βροτῶν ὄχ’ ἄριστος ἁπάντων
βουλῇ καὶ μύθοισιν, ἐγὼ δ’ ἐν πᾶσι θεοῖσι
μήτι τε κλέομαι καὶ κέρδεσιν· οὐδὲ σύ γ’ ἔγνως
300 Παλλάδ’ Ἀθηναίην, κούρην Διός, ἥ τέ τοι αἰεὶ
ἐν πάντεσσι πόνοισι παρίσταμαι ἠδὲ φυλάσσω,
καὶ δέ σε Φαιήκεσσι φίλον πάντεσσιν ἔθηκα.
νῦν αὖ δεῦρ’ ἱκόμην, ἵνα τοι σὺν μῆτιν ὑφήνω
χρήματά τε κρύψω, ὅσα τοι Φαίηκες ἀγαυοὶ
305 ὤπασαν οἴκαδ’ ἰόντι ἐμῇ βουλῇ τε νόῳ τε …
Odyssey 13.287–305
So he spoke, and the goddess owl-radiant Athena smiled,
and took him by the hand. In form she resembled a woman
who was beautiful and tall and skilled in splendid handiwork.
290 She spoke out and addressed to him winged words:
“He would have to be a wily thief, the man who could get past you
in every sort of deception, even if you had a god for an antagonist.
You are intractable, crafty in intricate ways, insatiate of deception, nor were you about,
even now that you are in your own country, to leave off from deceiving
295 and the beguiling words that are constantly dear to you.
But let’s no longer talk about these things, since we both know how to be
wily. You are the best of all mortals
in planning [boulē] and words, while I among all the gods
have glory for my craft [mētis] and wiles. Yet you did not know that
300 I am Pallas Athena, the daughter of Zeus, who always
stands by you in all your labors and watches over you,
who made you dear to all the Phaeacians.
Now again I have come here, in order to weave mētis with you
and hide all the goods that the noble Phaeacians
305 gave to you when you went homewards by my planning [boulē] and my thinking … ”
Athena is the god that most resembles Odysseus; she embodies the boulē, mētis, kerdea, doloi, and noos that Odysseus is legendary for in the epic tradition (skills that are the hallmark of ambush warfare). So here too in Iliad 10 Athena is near to Odysseus, and he prays that she stand by him as she has done in the past (παρίστατσαι, 10.279). Note the same formula used in 10.279 and Odyssey 13.301: Athena there asserts that she does indeed stand by him in his many labors.
On Odysseus’ relationship with Athena in the Iliad, see also Haft 1990:42, who, in discussing the many parallels between Iliad 2 and 10, notes that Athena makes an epiphany to Odysseus in that book. On Diomedes’ relationship with Athena, see below on 10.285.