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I'm really enjoying rereading The Odyssey too. I must have read it originally when i was studying Greek history back in the 1970s. (Which just shows how ancient I am!)
i was surprised at how small a part Penelope seemed to play, as part of what i remembered about the story was her subtle dealing with the importunate suitors with the weaving and then pulling it undone each night. But as you say, Hamlet, women were pretty unimportant in the scheme of things in Ancient Greece, at least in the eyes of the men, so I shouldn't have been so surprised. Odd, isn't it, when a goddess like Athena was so important.
Actually, Athena seems to be a bit more adult than some of the other gods. Poseidon behaves like a petulant teenager, flouncing around because the right sacrifices weren't made. The Greeks' gods are very human, aren't they!
I suppose part of Helen's cheerfulness about going off with Paris, and Menelaus' acceptance of it, was that it was really the gods, and Aphrodite in particular, who were to blame for the whole thing. It's always good to be able to blame someone else, isn't it.
And finally, it's nearly as full of quotes as "Hamlet" - "It's a wise child who knows his own father", "grin and bear it" (at least in my translation), "the wine-dark sea", "rosy-fingered Dawn".
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