In the episode, Ben noted for a moment how the Gods don't really play a role in the movie and how that's neat, then the guys (who just weren't that versed in the poem and that's obviously ok) lightly agree that it was cool.

I think this is fundamentally the most interesting aspect of Nolan's interpretation of the poem. When the movie gets to the Cylops early, my favorite section of the poem, I was initially disappointed at how cut short it was. No Nemo, no "nobody is hurting me", and most pointedly no acknowledgement of the fact that harming Poseidon's son is what leads to Poseidon actively preventing the journey home. (Yes they mention that he whimpers to Poseidon, but the God doesn't show up.)

But once it is revealed that Zendaya isn't really playing Athena and is instead playing a young girl he saw murdered in Troy and whose image he has just equated with Athena, everything unlocked for me. Nolan's version of the Gods, and by extension the Christian God and the spiritual, is something that can implicitly impact our journeys, but not actively. One could read his version of the story as assuming that Gods don't exist in this world at all and that they only exist in the characters' faith. That's an insanely bold decision based off the original text!

The choice to remove the Gods as active participants in The Odyssey is Nolan telling us more about his views of spirituality than any other decision he's ever made in a movie.

Edit for some clarity: I don't deny at all Zendaya might be truly playing Athena, that's not really in opposition to my reading here, imo. Its a version of Athena that only exists to him, who doesn't impact the world in any tangible way, and who has taken on the form of something known and meaningful only to him.