Zendaya as Athena in the trailer for Nolan’s 2026 Odyssey film (fair use)

(7) ATHENIAD

As I said, now we’re moving to the narrative or thematic odysseys I tease out from within the Odyssey as a whole – except now moving away from Odysseus as protagonist, although he remains fundamental.

Hence, I present the Atheniad, as Athena plays the decisive moving role in Odysseus’ return and homecoming, effectively as his divine patron – and where he is essentially her champion, embodying the intellectual prowess that was one of her divine aspects.

Yes, he’s on his own in his fantastic voyage from Troy to the cattle of Helios he narrates in Books 9-12, but for all his survival by his own wits, he simply would not have been able to return home without her.

Her decisive moving role in the Odyssey is from the very outset in Book 1, where she successfully petitions Zeus to compel Calypso to release Odysseus from his captivity, albeit captivity with benefits, through to the conclusion in Book 24, where she intervenes to broker peace from blood feud by the families of the slain suitors.

She not only guides and protects Odysseus, but also his son Telemachus through Books 1-3 of the Telemachy, even taking human guise to help Telemachus as Mentes and Mentor, the latter lending his name as the source for our use of the term mentor.

She critically intervenes in the end of Odysseus’ wanderings in Books 5-8 to secure his release from Calypso, appear in a dream to Princess Nausicaa, and guide him among the Phaeacians for their aiding him to return to Ithaca.

And she doesn’t stop when Odysseus is back in Ithaca, appearing in almost every book of his homecoming in Books 13-24 to lend him and Telemachus critical assistance to defeat the suitors, again taking human guise when needed.

Anne Hathaway as Penelope in the trailer for the Nolan 2026 Odyssey film (fair use)

(8) PENELOPIAD

Yes, it’s the title of a novella by Margaret Atwood adapting the events of the Odyssey from Penelope’s perspective, but I’m claiming it as its own genuine part within the Odyssey – Penelope’s odyssey as it were.

Penelope might be absent from Odysseus’ fantastic wanderings within the Odyssey, for obvious reasons that the whole point of his wanderings was to return home to her, but she is very much present in the prelude with Telemachus (the Telemachy, in Books 1-2 and 4) and for his homecoming in Books 16-24 – indeed, giving Odysseus one final test, literally for their matrimonial bed.

Ultimately, all of Odysseus’ efforts in the Odyssey, even with Athena’s divine intervention, would have been for naught without Penelope’s steadfast fidelity to him and her cunning at keeping the suitors at bay.

Sadly, it might be noted that Odysseus didn’t reciprocate Penelope’s fidelity – cough Circe and Calypso cough” – although he cried about it a lot for the seven years he spent on Calypso’s island.

There was a variant legend that Penelope did sleep with all her suitors, giving birth to the god Pan, but not in my Odyssey – not my Odyssey, not my Penelope!