I think that the conflicting views of Athena and Poseidon about Odysseus show a lot about heirarchy and relationships between the gods. As we all know, Athena feels sorry for Odysseus and is determined to get him home, while Poseidon tries to hurt the man and holds him back. Throughout the books that we have read, at least one of these gods is influencing Odysseus' life at all times. However, it does not appear that Poseidon is mad at Athena for helping Odysseus, nor does Athena ever confront Poseidon about the matter.
Poseidon appears to be the more powerful god of these two. Athena has to wait until he goes to Ethiopia to bring up the subject of freeing Odysseus. One would think that he would hate Athena because she is helping the man that he is trying to hurt. However, he doesn't seem to ever punish Athena, even after she helps Odysseus get out of the storm that he created. This has led me to believe that either some rule/other god such as Zeus/ social norm is holding Poseidon back from getting his revenge on Athena or this matter isn't important enough to him that he would get into a fight with another god over it . From this we can also tell that Athena cannot influence Poseidon's actions, and Zeus probably can't either. Zeus does agree to freeing Odysseus, but does not interfere when Poseidon sends the storm, which is almost like disobeying his decision to let Odysseus go home. So the more powerful gods and goddesses can't or don't try to influence each other's actions.
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