Through out the Odyssey, the Gods play an important role in the affairs of humans. In fact, it is their decisions that make up the fate of the humans.

The first instance of this is when Athena decided to help Telemachus find his father out of pity. She essentially started this quest for him. She even assembled his crew and kept his mother from intervening. Athena essentially guided Telemachus into starting this journey.

Athena then intervenes by calling for a meeting of the Gods. They decided to make Calypso release Odysseus and she did. Poseidon was angered and halted Odysseus’s journey out of spite for not being included in the decision. The Gods having a meeting over the fate of a human shows their power over the events of a human’s life. In the end, they have complete say over what happens to their people. The humans are at the mercy of the Gods. Athena then continues to intervene in order to give Telemachus and Odysseus a favorable leverage in their quest to reunite.

Calypso mentioned something interesting in book 5. She lamented on how the male gods always intervened in the affairs of mortals, especially women. This leaves them at the mercy of the will of the Gods. She wanted to keep Odysseus and didn’t think it was fair to have to give him up when the male gods do the same to mortal women regularly. This shows the power of the gods. They regularly make decisions on the lives of mortals and the mortals have no say into their fate, especially the male gods. They can do whatever they want to the mortals and regularly do so.

The Gods in the Odyssey have control over the lives of their subjects. They are able to manipulate things in order to gain their desired outcome. The Gods have total power and feel free to run the lives of the humans. An example of this is Athena’s disguises. Athena uses these constant disguises in order to convince people to do her bidding. She is a master manipulator and uses this to her advantage. Most of the successes in the journey comes from Athena using disguises in order to help gain victory. If not for her, the journey would not have been as easy or even successful. She used her power to create an outcome that she wanted. She did not have to help but she wanted an outcome and did what she could to make it happen.

The gods were the all powerful dictators of ancient greek society. They were able to choose the fate of people at their will.