Question

What is Athena trying to accomplish by saying the following?

Answer 1

Answer:

The best answer to the question: What is Athena trying to accomplish by saying the following? "Father Zeus - you other happys gods who never die-..." would be: 2. She is manipulating Zeus with irony. If a "just" king, like Odysseus, is punished by the gods, why would any king be just?

Explanation:

"The Odyssey" is the second work that was written by Homer, in Ancient Greece. The story tells of the adventures that Odysseus must face as he tries to reach his most desired goal, which is to go back home to his family in Ithaca. In this particular excerpt, present in book V, Odysseus has been trapped for a while on Calypso´s island but goddess Athena is trying to convince Zeus and the other gods to help her get Odysseus out and sent home. In order to accomplish this Athena uses words that are almost sarcastic, like "you other happy gods who never die" and particularly "never let any sceptered king to be kind and gentle now, not with all his heart, or set his mind on justice - no, let him be cruel and always practice outrage." All these sentences, show that Athena is almost trying to convince the other gods, especially Zeus, by accusing them of wanting exactly that, instead of a good man, thus giving mortals the wrong impression. In the end, what she is trying to do, is manipulate the gods, and she is successful with Zeus decides to send Hermes to demand from Calypso that she release Odysseus.