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Why does Athena help Odysseus throughout the Odyssey?

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Sixteenth-century engraving by Hieronymus Wierix depicting Homer, shown as an older man with a beard and laurel wreath, wearing a draped garment. — Odyssey: A Reader’s Guide to Homer’s Epic Engraving of Homer by Hieronymus Wierix, 16th century; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

In Homer’s Odyssey, Athena—the goddess of wisdom and military strategy—acts as a divine patron to Odysseus primarily because she admires his sharp wit and resourcefulness.1

Her support is instrumental to his survival and eventual return home. She advocates for him before Zeus to secure his release from the nymph Calypso, assists him after his shipwreck by guiding him to the Phaeacian shore, and provides tactical aid upon his return to Ithaca. By disguising him as a beggar, she allows him to navigate his home safely and ultimately helps him defeat the suitors who have occupied his palace, enabling him to reclaim his throne and family. Throughout the epic, her intervention serves as a counterbalance to the wrath of Poseidon, who seeks to obstruct Odysseus's journey as retribution for the blinding of his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus.21