Athena sticks out as the main motivator in The Odyssey. She is the Mickey to Odysseus’s Rocky. In Rachel Platten’s 2015 hit “Fight Song”, there are quite a few lyrics that speak true to Athena’s character. The song doesn’t just cover what Athena feels on the inside; it also covers what she witnesses in the story on the outside. The opening lyrics in the song are “like a small boat on the ocean, sending big waves into motion”(Platten) When one is reading the Odyssey, who has a small boat and is dealing with the big waves? That’s right, Odysseus! While Athena is fighting her own battles, she notices a man struggling and decides to help him with his battles, too. That speaks volumes about Athena’s strength. Athena doesn’t just help Odysseus to help Odysseus. She also intends to show the other gods that she’s a powerhouse fighter who would rather spend time doing deeds for herself and others, rather than sitting back in the jacuzzi of greed that lots of the Greek gods like to do. (Looking at you, Dionysus.) One must listen to Fight Song when Platten sings “I will scream them loud tonight! Can you hear my voice this time?” This lyric has multiple meanings to the story. In one way, it’s Athena talking to Odysseus and asking him if he can hear her guiding voice. In another way, it could be seen as a statement of female empowerment to the other Greek gods. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Ares, and the other male gods love to bathe in their popularity and “supreme importance”. With this lyric, Athena is showing the other gods that she’s helping Odysseus and thus showing that she’s putting her god powers to good use. She’s doing what the gods should be doing. She’s setting an example. In this sense, however, the lyric doesn’t do Athena complete justice. From what Athena’s done with her determination, she shouldn’t have to ASK to hear anyone’s voice. They should be listening to a strong character like herself. Speaking of determination, another lyric in the song is “Still believe, yeah, I still believe” So many characters in The Odyssey lose hope. Some of Odysseus’ men stay with the lotus-eaters. Penelope has doubts about whether her husband will come back and suffers from the likely possibility of having to choose one of the greedy suitors. Telemachus has waning confidence throughout the story. Who’s the character who never loses hope? That’s right, Athena! She not only motivates herself but Odysseus and Telemachus as well! She still believes even when it seems that the belief should be lost.

Fight Song captures a unique personal perspective of Athena that the book doesn’t touch on as strongly. There’s the lyric “Losing friends and I’m chasing sleep, Everybody’s worried about me” Seeing how Poseidon was cursing Odysseus and the other gods weren’t taking so kindly to him, it’s a big step out of Athena’s comfort zone to be helping him. She was going to great lengths to help him. She was disguising herself and doing all sorts of spy shenanigans so the other gods would be off her tail.

If there was a narrative with a more Athena-centered perspective, the story would be a lot more interesting. I feel that people would root for Athena more because she’s got all the resilience. Odysseus is cool, but he’s got a lot of issues that make him a bit unlikeable. Get a Cyclops to curse you just because you want him to know you got the drop on him? He got the drop on all your men from that! An Athena-centered story would be more complex. If one could see her meetings with the other gods, that would be guaranteed fireworks.