The Council of the Gods — Athena pleads for Odysseus

Book 1 of The Odyssey by Homer

Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, oh daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.

So now all who had escaped death in battle or by shipwreck had got safely home except Odysseus, and he, though he was longing to return to his wife and country, was detained by the goddess Calypso, who had got him into a large cave and wanted to marry him. Even when the year came round in which the gods had ordained that he should return home to Ithaca, his troubles were not yet at an end. All the gods had compassion upon him except Poseidon, who raged against him unceasingly until he reached his own land.

Now Poseidon had gone off to visit the Ethiopians, who are at the world's end and lie in two halves, the one looking west and the other east. He had gone there to accept a hecatomb of bulls and rams, and was enjoying himself at his festival. Meanwhile the other gods were assembled in the halls of Olympian Jove, and the father of gods and men spoke first among them. He was thinking of the fate of Aegisthus, whom Orestes had slain, and the memory moved him to speak about the folly of mortals who blame the gods for the evils they bring upon themselves.