“Two Tricksters” (Book 13) in “The Odyssey” by Homer (post 7): Athena and Odysseus are each physically transformed, as seen in multiple personality.

Odysseus finally comes ashore in Ithaca, but since he has been away for twenty years, and has been disappointed so many times before, he is not sure where he is.

Athena, in the guise of a young man, a shepherd, assures Odysseus that he is in Ithaca. Odysseus, however, pretends to be a foreigner. 

Amused that they have both assumed false identities, Athena transforms herself into the body of a woman, acknowledges that she is Athena, and says to Odysseus, “You clever rascal! So duplicitous, so talented at lying! You love fiction and tricks…” (1, p. 326).

The two tricksters agree that he should spy on his enemies (the suitors of his wife) and assess his friends’ and family’s loyalty and devotion by assuming a disguise and being incognito. For this purpose, Athena physically transforms Odysseus into an ugly old man.

What is the significance of Athena’s and Odysseus’s physical transformations? Many other characters in the history of literature assume successful disguises without actual physical transformations. Is it adequate to say this is just the way that Greek gods did things?

The double or twin, a common literary metaphor for multiple personality, has some basis in reality, because some alternate personalities do see themselves as physically identical, but many alternate personalities differ from each other in body image. Many see themselves as being of different ages, sexes, hair colors, heights, weights, etc.

In short, reversible physical transformations are a very multiple personality kind of thing.

1. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Emily Wilson. New York, WW Norton, 2018.