Why does Athena help Odysseus so much? I never really thought about this before. I needed to do some thinking and research. I even went into my garage, rummaged through boxes of old books, and finally found a twenty year old copy of Cliff's Notes for The Odyssey. Between what I read in these "notes" and my contemplation of this question the past few days I learned that Athena is a very important part of this story in many ways.
Before, to me, Athena was simply one of the gods from Greek mythology. Now, she is a female god (aka a goddess). Not only is she a female god, she is the goddess of wisdom. This is a very important distinction. Homer remains non-judgmental about characters in the narrative, preferring to allow them to speak for themselves. Readers encounter a fair amount of misogyny spoken by male characters in The Odyssey, but Athena's vital role in this epic firmly establishes the important roles played by females in Ancient Greek civilization.
Now, about Athena's affinity for Odysseus. Odysseus is the wisest of men in The Odyssey. Also, he respects and honors the gods properly throughout his life, something that causes these gods to favor such human beings. One way to think about this is to compare the relationship between these gods and the human characters to how we humans think about characters in stories we read or follow on television. We grow to like certain characters and wish good things for them. In The Odyssey, the gods use their powers to make good things happen to those humans whom the gods individually favor. I find this to be a reasonable explanation for Athena's favoring of Odysseus.
