I was thinking about the movie The Odyssey - but specifically about the character Athena. Then my mind went down a very long and securitize rabbit hole. And this post is the result.
IN THE MYTHS
In Greek myths, Athena was often referred to as gray-eyed Athena. In Homer’s story, she appears in disguise to several people, including Ulysses’s son Telemachus. When she appeared to him, she pretended to be an old man or someone who encourages him to find out information about his father. His name was Mentor, and he literally was a mentor to the son. Maybe that’s where the word comes from.
EXPRESS OF GUILT?
Although the actress Zendaya played Athena in the new movie, she only appeared to Odysseus. By the end of the movie, it could be interpreted that she was just his imagination. We saw in flashback the night Troy was destroyed. In Athena’s temple, Greek soldiers killed a priestess played by Zendaya while Odysseus watched in horror.
So since he was the only one who was on screen with Zendaya, as Athena, it would be easy to interpret that she was a manifestation of his guilt.
TOM HOLLAND CAME ACTOSS AS DUMB
Meanwhile, Tom Holland, at least four times, told some that they had gray eyes like Athena. And of course, the people in the original story who were in fact, Athena, were in disguise. But unless you knew that, you had no idea why Holland kept saying that to people.
Since director Nolan was trying to be vague about whether Zendaya was actually Athena, he decided to have Tom Holland referenced the gray eyes. I guess like an in-joke or an Easter egg for people aware of the original story.
If Athena was just Odysseus’s guilt, that’s an interesting idea. But having Tom Holland constantly telling people that they had gray eyes like Athena just made his character look even more dumb. (That’s the truth, someone needs to say it out loud.).
WIDE EYED?
Somewhere I read that gray-eyed Athena was just one translation. Another is “wide-eyed Athena”. The website where I found this was making the point that Athena’s symbol is an owl. Of course, owls are wide-eyed.
SPACE 1999?
I was watching an episode of “Space 1999”. Both Barber Bain and Martin Landau have blue eyes. Then I remembered another historical fact. In ancient texts like Homer’s stories, he never uses the word “blue”. Whenever he refers to the sea, he describes it as “dark wine sea”. If we hear wine today, we think of red or burgundy.
BLUE - THE LAST COLOR NAMED?
I’ve also read that in many societies, the word to describe “blue” is one of the last colors to get a name. Various other sources explain that before a culture created a word for blue, they usually used the term that could be anything from green to black.
THE HEBREW WORD FOR BLUE? 
One source said that the Hebrews referred to “blue” in the Bible. (Google says the Hebrews wrote the Old Testament between 1200Bc And 100ad). Does any one know the Hebrew word for “blue”?
OLD GERMANIC?
Another source said that the word blue as we use it in English, evolved from old Germanic. Per Wiki, that would date the word as much as 2000 years ago.
BLUE OR GREY?
So as I was watching the Space 1999 episode, I thought Barbara Bain and Martin Landau’s blue eyes. I could imagine a person from an ancient culture would their eyes gray. Often blue eyes vary in shade anyway.
Anyway, as you may have guessed I’m having trouble falling asleep again.
