Athena

Chapter 6 concerns Athena as a guide. It is a companion chapter which also focuses on the principle of female guidance. It examines how Athena provides guidance which she often performs through supernatural acts. Her ability to cloak her identity and transform herself into another person or bird to disguise her role in guidance intersects with the concept of δόλος in the epic, where deception by both Odysseus and Penelope aids the success of the main νόστος. This chapter examines the words δείκνυμι, ἡγέομαι and their cognates within the context of Athena's episodes of guidance. As a part of the method, other concepts associated with mental, physical and supernatural assistance provided by Athena are also identified and analysed. Athena is the only divine female figure in the epic to guide other female figures – Penelope and Nausikaa. As the prime deity in the epic, and a female Olympian deity, Athena's many-natured guidance highlights the importance of female guidance and the significance of it as a principle.