Pallas Athena is a goddess who makes a plea to Zeus "that wise Odysseus shall return home at last, let us dispatch the guide and giant-killer Hermes down to Ogygia Island, down to announce at once to the nymph with lovely braids our fixed decree: Odysseus journeys home- the exile must return"(Book 1:99). Athena watches out for Odysses. She tells Zeus, "Father, son of Cronus, our high and mighty king, surely he goes down to a death he earned in full! Let them all die so, all who do such things. But my heart breaks for Odysseus, that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long_ far from his loved ones still, he suffers torments off on a wave-washed island rising at the center of the sea"(Book 1:54). Before Telemachus left to go find his father, Athena disguised herself as Mentes, lord of the Taphian. She assured him that Odysseus is still alive Athena tells Telemachus, "He won't be gone long from the native land he loves, not even if iron shackles bind your father down. He's plotting a way to journey home at last; he's never at a loss"(Book 1:233).
Athena travels to Sparta, where she finds Telemachus and Pisistratus, Nestor's son, asleep in Menelaus" palace. She appeared to Telemachus in a dream and tells him that he must hurry home to Ithaca before the suitors succeed in winning his mother's hand. She also warns him of the ambush that they have set and explains how to avoid it. Throughout, Odysseus" expedition back home to Ithaca, Athena helps him by appearing as someone such as Mentor or her pure form. .
Calypso is the goddess that takes Odysseus captive and "he has no way to voyage home to his own native land, no trim ships in reach, no crew to ply the oars and send him scudding over the sea's broad back"(Book 5:13). After keeping Odysseus there for 7 years, Hermes was sent by Zeus to order Calypso from imprisoning him. She helps him build a raft to set sail in. It took four days to build it and "on the fifth day, the lovely goddess launched him from her island, once she had bathed and decked him out in fragrant clothes.
