Character
AthenaMinerva in this translation
Goddess of wisdom, warcraft and practical skill · patron of Odysseus
Goddess of wisdom, warcraft and practical skill, and Odysseus's unwavering patron — she likes him, she tells him, because he is as quick and self-possessed as she is. She argues his case in the councils of the gods, pushes Telemachus into acting like a man, disguises Odysseus as a beggar, and stands at his shoulder in the fight for the hall. Butler's translation calls her Minerva.
She takes mortal disguise more often than any other god here, and the poem enjoys letting us recognise her several lines before the characters do.