Which gods helped Odysseus the most?

Which gods helped Odysseus the most? Our answer below is sourced directly from the text of The Odyssey, and includes key passages from the text to support it.

The gods that help Odysseus are primarily Athena, Zeus, and Hermes. Athena helps Odysseus by providing him with wisdom and guidance throughout his journey. Zeus helps Odysseus by sending Hermes to Calypso to tell her to release Odysseus so he can return home. Hermes helps Odysseus by delivering Zeus' message to Calypso and helping him find his way home.

Here’s the key passage from Book I: (Keep in mind that Jove is Zeus and Minerva is Athena)

And Jove said, “My child, what are you talking about? How can I forget Ulysses than whom there is no more capable man on earth, nor more liberal in his offerings to the immortal gods that live in heaven? Bear in mind, however, that Neptune is still furious with Ulysses for having blinded an eye of Polyphemus king of the Cyclopes. Polyphemus is son to Neptune by the nymph Thoosa, daughter to the sea-king Phorcys; therefore though he will not kill Ulysses outright, he torments him by preventing him from getting home. Still, let us lay our heads together and see how we can help him to return; Neptune will then be pacified, for if we are all of a mind he can hardly stand out against us.”

And Minerva said, “Father, son of Saturn, King of kings, if, then, the gods now mean that Ulysses should get home, we should first send Mercury to the Ogygian island to tell Calypso that we have made up our minds and that he is to return. In the meantime I will go to Ithaca, to put heart into Ulysses’ son Telemachus; I will embolden him to call the Achaeans in assembly, and speak out to the suitors of his mother Penelope, who persist in eating up any number of his sheep and oxen; I will also conduct him to Sparta and to Pylos, to see if he can hear anything about the return of his dear father—for this will make people speak well of him.”