From time to time, Christopher Nolan likes to add some ambiguous plot points in the movies he directs. Was Cobb still dreaming at the end of Inception? Did Bruce Wayne really die in The Dark Knight Rises? Who really are "they" in Interstellar? Years later, these unanswered mysteries still haunt us, and the list just got even longer thanks to the release of The Odyssey.
The gods are important figures in Homer's Odyssey, playing an active role in the story and constantly intervening in Odysseus' journey. However, these deities play a passive role in Christopher Nolan's adaptation, as only Athena (Zendaya) appears on screen with the sole purpose of making Odysseus (Matt Damon) remember his past life and the despicable acts he committed in Troy. Athena's participation is pretty straightforward at first, but just when audiences thought they understood everything the movie has to offer, the third act throws a curveball our way.
Odysseus reveals that, in the invasion of Troy, his men beheaded a priestess from the temple of Athena who just so happens to look like the goddess herself. So why do two separate beings look alike? Could they be one and the same? While Christopher Nolan purposely left this question unanswered, it's time to go over three theories for what could be going on with Athena in The Odyssey.
Athena took the form of the priestess whom the Greeks beheaded to haunt Odysseus
Perhaps the most accepted theory is that Athena herself doesn't look like Zendaya's character. In fact, she may not even have a human form at all, especially if we consider that she's a goddess. However, she could've purposefully taken the shape of the priestess who lost her life during the invasion of Troy for two reasons.
First and foremost, one of Athena's main goals is to guide Odysseus in his journey home. But in order for him to go back to Ithaca, he must first remember his past. This task is a bit tricky since Calypso (Charlize Theron) has been feeding Odysseus lotus flowers to make his memories extremely foggy. So, what better way for Athena to bring him back to reality than by making him remember one of his biggest regrets (and everything that came after)?
Another reason why Athena could've taken the shape of the priestess was to haunt Odysseus. After all, he needs to accept his mistakes, regret his past actions, and redeem himself to be able to find his way back home. Constantly making him see visions of the young woman who died because of him could've been a very clever way to make him suffer while also pushing him to be better. As such, the priestess and Athena could've been two separate beings, with the latter simply taking the former's shape. However, that's not the only possible answer.
Athena never intervened, and Odysseus only sees a visual representation of his biggest regret
Some Christopher Nolan movies involve the idea of the main character being haunted by "ghosts." In Inception, Cobb purposefully keeps the memory of his wife in his dreams because the true love of his life committed suicide in the real world. As such, Cobb is constantly haunted by the image of a person who isn't with him anymore. Similarly, Bruce Wayne sees the memory of Ra's al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises; Cooper sees videos of the children whose lives have nearly gone away in Interstellar; and The Protagonist quite literally spends time with his already-deceased partner, Neil, in Tenet (time-travel is complicated). So what if the pattern were to repeat in The Odyssey?
Maybe Athena never intervened in this version of the Greek epic, and Odysseus was just seeing a visual representation of his biggest regret—a constant reminder of all the things he did wrong but failed to change in the moment. Perhaps he believed Athena was involved in some way because he wanted to find a divine purpose in the middle of all his wrongdoings. After all, wouldn't it be nice to believe a goddess is giving you a chance at redemption, even if that wasn't the case?
In the third act of the movie, Odysseus seemingly holds Athena's hand only for the following shot to reveal that no one was next to Ithaca's king. Granted, one way of interpreting this sequence is that Athena accomplished her mission of helping Odysseus get home and feel regret for his past actions, and since her purpose was fulfilled, she just vanished. But another way of interpreting this sequence is that Odysseus was reaching out to the ghost of someone who was never really there to begin with. Athena could never have been real, and all audiences see is a flawed man constantly reliving his past mistakes (like the protagonists in other Christopher Nolan movies).
Then again, sometimes the simpler answers are the right ones.
Athena was a goddess disguised as a human
Throughout the entirety of The Odyssey, we're reminded of Zeus' Law: "treat strangers as we'd be treated because they may be gods in disguise." With that in mind, it is safe to say that the priestess who was beheaded in Troy was truly Athena in disguise.
There's a bit of iconography to support this idea. In the exact moment that the Greeks take the priestess' head off, the camera cuts to a shot of Athena's statue being beheaded as well. This implies that the two are one and the same, and that beheading the priestess also meant beheading a goddess. This would also explain why the two characters look physically identical.
The gods may have tried to put Odysseus to the test, and he failed to show mercy. From that point onwards, Athena could've decided to follow Odysseus on his way home and make him reflect on his actions so he could eventually honor the dead he left behind on his journey home. Furthermore, this theory would also prove to be the most "accurate" to the goddesses' role in the source material, so there's a lot of weight behind it.
But as is the case with other Christopher Nolan movies, it is up to the audience to pick which answer they think is the most fulfilling. Let's face it: If Nolan still refuses to answer whether Cobb was asleep at the end of Inception, then I guess we'll never find out the true answer to this new mystery either. But at the very least, there is plenty of room for interesting theories to be made.
The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
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