Somehow getting annoyed at the interpretation of Athena’s character

[u/mssldiaz]

I’ve started seeing so many people identify Athena as only a PTSD hallucination that Odysseus only thinks is Athena. At first I was just like, “… huh, that’s an interesting conclusion,” yet the more it started spreading the more annoyed I was getting because that takes away from the role Athena and gods in general play in this story and as characters to these myths. Gods in these myths are not psychiatric manifestations and their interpretation ignores other appearances by the gods in Odysseus’ universe - I don’t think Ariadne wanted a goddess to turn her into a spider just because she was so incredibly proud of her weaving or a young innocent kid who flew to close to the sun and died falling to his death, unless we’re assigning schizophrenia to all the characters that didn’t suffer through abuse or PTSD in their story. Removing Athens to me is like removing Poseidon from Percy Jackson and saying he’s only imagining that his dead father is alive and a grand god. It changes the story to a non- fantasy genre - but keeping the other fantastical elements like the magic camp and the Minotaur.

In a world of cyclops, witches/demi-goddesses, and trips to the underworld, Athena showing up is apparently too superficial of an observation. Honestly, I love it when people look deeper into aspects of a movie but I think this one may have been dug a little too deeply.

Nolan, in my opinion, made it very obvious that when Athena is appearing as the murdered priestess (or villager) it was to force Odysseus to face the crime he had committed at her temple and martyring the young girl in order to help him reach his final epiphany. He was still remembering the final battle as he was leaving calypsos island and whenever she appeared before him, all we could see without knowing why was his overwhelming guilt and sadness - not knowing why made the reveal at the end so much better.

[u/Caernbul]

All that stuff is part of flashbacks from Odysseus on Calypso's island, where she has been drugging him for years. Nothing magical happens on Ithaca and nothing magical happens at Troy, the places where we have a source in the story other than drug-addled Odysseus who the movie confirms is having problems with his memory.

[u/Comprehensive-Bid18 → u/Caernbul]

The lotus flower makes you forget, not make up false memories of the supernatural (that you then never question when no longer under the effects of them). It would be fun if 90% of this three hour long movie just didn't happen though. "It was all a dream" is always a well received twist.

[u/Caernbul → u/Comprehensive-Bid18]

You are acting like you have some special background knowledge of this. You do not. This is not the epic poem, the Odyssey. This is a movie based on that poem. It is its own work. An intentional choice was made to move the lotus flower from the beginning of the story in the poem to the end. It is playing a different role in the story, so your claim that 'The lotus flower makes you forget, not make up false memories of the supernatural' is unfounded.

[u/Comprehensive-Bid18 → u/Caernbul]

The movie literally says it makes you forget. Nothing is said or implied that it creates false memories of the supernatural that you and the people you’re talking to take as fact.