Gods in The Odyssey (2026)

Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey was a box office success, making $600 million in less than two weeks on a $250 million budget. The cast consisted of Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Himesh Patel, John Leguizamo, Lupita Nyong'o, Jon Bernthal and many other talented actors. The epic followed Odysseus, portrayed by Matt Damon, on his journey back home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, portrayed by Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland respectively. Throughout his journey, Odysseus is visited by Zendaya's Athena. There has been a lot of confusion among those who have seen the adaptation about whether or not it actually was Athena that we saw visiting Odysseus. While the Greeks are attacking citizens of Troy, Odysseus watches as a priestess is decapitated, though we the audience are spared from seeing the full violent nature. The priestess is Zendaya and therefore looks exactly like Athena each time she visits Odysseus. This suggests that Athena took the form of the priestess as a way to remind Odysseus of the innocent lives lost in Troy and as a symbol of his guilt. Furthermore, in the credits, Zendaya's character is listed as Athena and not the priestess specifically. No other gods are seen in The Odyssey, though a few are mentioned by name. Zeus and Posiden are not seen physically but rather through the storm that Odysseus and his crew endured. A general belief is that each suffering of Odysseus' crew was a result of them offending the gods, such as allowing the Trojans to believe the horse was an offering to Athena only for it to be a trick to gain access to Troy, cutting off the head of the Athena statue once in Troy, and blinding the cyclops Polyphemus who was Poseidon's son. The gods are rarely seen throughout the epic retelling, but their presence is felt all the same.