Athena

Athena[b] or Athene,[c] often given the epithet Pallas,[d] is an ancient Greek goddess
Athena
associated with wisdom, handicraft, and warfare[1] who was later syncretized with the
Roman goddess Minerva.[4] Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of various Goddess of wisdom, handicraft,
cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens, from which she most likely received her and warfare.[1]
name.[5] The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is dedicated to her. Her major symbols Member of the Twelve Olympians
include owls, olive trees, snakes, and the Gorgoneion. In art, she is generally depicted
wearing a helmet and holding a spear.

From her origin as an Aegean palace goddess, Athena was closely associated with the city.
She was known as Polias and Poliouchos (both derived from polis, meaning "city-state"),
and her temples were usually located atop the fortified acropolis in the central part of the city.
The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis is dedicated to her, along with numerous other
temples and monuments. As the patron of craft and weaving, Athena was known as Ergane.
She was also a warrior goddess, and was believed to lead soldiers into battle as Athena
Promachos. Her main festival in Athens was the Panathenaia, which was celebrated during
the month of Hekatombaion in midsummer and was the most important festival on the
Athenian calendar.

In Greek mythology, Athena was believed to have been born from the forehead of her father
Zeus. In the founding myth of Athens, Athena bested Poseidon in a competition over
patronage of the city by creating the first olive tree. She was known as Athena Parthenos
"Athena the Virgin," but in one archaic Attic myth, the god Hephaestus tried and failed to
rape her, resulting in Gaia giving birth to Erichthonius, an important Athenian founding hero.
Athena was the patron goddess of heroic endeavor; she was believed to have aided the
heroes Perseus, Heracles, Bellerophon, and Jason. Along with Aphrodite and Hera, Athena
was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War.

She plays an active role in the Iliad, in which she assists the Achaeans and, in the Odyssey,
she is the divine counselor to Odysseus. In the later writings of the Roman poet Ovid, Athena
was said to have competed against the mortal Arachne in a weaving competition, afterward Mattei Athena at Louvre. Roman
transforming Arachne into the first spider; Ovid also describes how she transformed Medusa copy from the 1st century BC/AD
into a Gorgon after witnessing her being raped by Poseidon in her temple. Since the after a Greek original of the 4th
Renaissance, Athena has become an international symbol of wisdom, the arts, and classical
century BC, attributed to
learning. Western artists and allegorists have often used Athena as a symbol of freedom and
Cephisodotos or Euphranor.
democracy.
Abode Mount Olympus
Symbol Owls, olive trees,
Contents snakes, Aegis, armour,
helmets, spears,
Etymology Gorgoneion
Origins Personal information
Cult and patronages Parents In the Iliad: Zeus alone
Panhellenic and Athenian cult In Theogony: Zeus
Regional cults and Metis[a]
Epithets and attributes Siblings Aeacus, Angelos,
Mythology Aphrodite, Apollo,
Birth Ares, Artemis,
Pallas Athena Dionysus, Eileithyia,
Lady of Athens Enyo, Eris, Ersa,
Patron of heroes Hebe, Helen of Troy,
Punishment myths Hephaestus, Heracles,
Trojan War Hermes, Minos,
Pandia, Persephone,
Classical art Perseus,
Post-classical culture Rhadamanthus, the
Art and symbolism Graces, the Horae, the
Modern interpretations Litae, the Muses, the
Moirai
Genealogy
Children No natural children,
See also
but Erichthonius of
Notes Athens was her
References adoptive son
Bibliography
Equivalents
External links Roman Minerva
equivalent

Etymology Etruscan Menrva

equivalent
Athena is associated with the city of Athens.[5][7] The name of the city in ancient Greek is Canaanite Anat[3]
Ἀθῆναι (Athȇnai), a plural toponym, designating the place where—according to myth—she equivalent
presided over the Athenai, a sisterhood devoted to her worship.[6] In ancient times, scholars Egyptian Neith
argued whether Athena was named after Athens or Athens after Athena.[5] Now scholars equivalent
generally agree that the goddess takes her name from the city;[5][7] the ending -ene is
common in names of locations, but rare for personal names.[5] Testimonies from different Celtic Sulis
cities in ancient Greece attest that similar city goddesses were worshipped in other cities[6] equivalent
and, like Athena, took their names from the cities where they were
worshipped.[6] For example, in Mycenae there was a goddess called Mykene,
whose sisterhood was known as Mykenai,[6] whereas at Thebes an analogous
deity was called Thebe, and the city was known under the plural form Thebai
(or Thebes, in English, where the 's' is the plural formation).[6] The name
Athenai is likely of Pre-Greek origin because it contains the presumably Pre-
Greek morpheme *-ān-.[8]

In his dialogue Cratylus, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428–347 BC)
gives some rather imaginative etymologies of Athena's name, based on the
theories of the ancient Athenians and his own etymological speculations:

The Acropolis at Athens (1846) by Leo von Klenze.

That is a graver matter, and there, my friend, the modern interpreters Athena's name probably comes from the name of
of Homer may, I think, assist in explaining the view of the ancients. the city of Athens.[5][6]
For most of these in their explanations of the poet, assert that he
meant by Athena "mind" [νοῦς, noũs] and "intelligence" [διάνοια,
diánoia], and the maker of names appears to have had a singular
notion about her; and indeed calls her by a still higher title, "divine
intelligence" [θεοῦ νόησις, theoũ nóēsis], as though he would say:
This is she who has the mind of God [ἁ θεονόα, a theonóa).
Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may mean "she who knows
divine things" [τὰ θεῖα νοοῦσα, ta theia noousa] better than others.
Nor shall we be far wrong in supposing that the author of it wished
to identify this Goddess with moral intelligence [εν έθει νόεσιν, en
éthei nóesin], and therefore gave her the name Etheonoe; which,
however, either he or his successors have altered into what they
thought a nicer form, and called her Athena.

— Plato, Cratylus 407b

Thus, Plato believed that Athena's name was derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα, Atheonóa—which the later Greeks rationalised as from
the deity's (θεός, theós) mind (νοῦς, noũs). The second-century AD orator Aelius Aristides attempted to derive natural symbols from
the etymological roots of Athena's names to be aether, air, earth, and moon.[9]

Origins
Athena was originally the Aegean goddess of the palace, who presided over household crafts and protected the king.[11][12][13][14] A
single Mycenaean Greek inscription 𐀀𐀲𐀙𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊 a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja /Athana potnia/ appears at Knossos in the Linear B tablets from the
Late Minoan II-era "Room of the Chariot Tablets";[15][16][10] these comprise the earliest Linear B archive anywhere.[15] Although
Athana potnia is often translated as "Mistress Athena", it could also mean "the
Potnia of Athana", or the Lady of Athens.[10][17] However, any connection to the
city of Athens in the Knossos inscription is uncertain.[18] A sign series a-ta-no-
dju-wa-ja appears in the still undeciphered corpus of Linear A tablets, written in
the unclassified Minoan language.[19] This could be connected with the Linear B
Mycenaean expressions a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja and di-u-ja or di-wi-ja (Diwia, "of
Zeus" or, possibly, related to a homonymous goddess),[15] resulting in a translation
"Athena of Zeus" or "divine Athena". Similarly, in the Greek mythology and epic
tradition, Athena figures as a daughter of Zeus (Διός θυγάτηρ; cfr. Dyeus).[20]
However, the inscription quoted seems to be very similar to "a-ta-nū-tī wa-ya",
quoted as SY Za 1 by Jan Best.[20] Best translates the initial a-ta-nū-tī, which is
recurrent in line beginnings, as "I have given".[20]

A Mycenean fresco depicts two women extending their hands towards a central
figure, who is covered by an enormous figure-eight shield; this may depict the
warrior-goddess with her palladion, or her palladion in an aniconic
representation.[21][22] In the "Procession Fresco" at Knossos, which was Fragment of a fresco from the Cult Center at
reconstructed by the Mycenaeans, two rows of figures carrying vessels seem to Mycenae dating the late thirteenth century BC
meet in front of a central figure, which is probably the Minoan precursor to depicting a warrior goddess, possibly Athena,
Athena.[23] The early twentieth-century scholar Martin Persson Nilsson argued wearing a boar's tusk helmet and clutching a
that the Minoan snake goddess figurines are early representations of griffin.[10]
Athena.[11][12]

Nilsson and others have claimed that, in early times, Athena was either an owl herself or a bird goddess in general.[24] In the third
book of the Odyssey, she takes the form of a sea-eagle.[24] Proponents of this view argue that she dropped her prophylactic owl-mask
before she lost her wings. "Athena, by the time she appears in art," Jane Ellen Harrison remarks, "has completely shed her animal
form, has reduced the shapes she once wore of snake and bird to attributes, but occasionally in black-figure vase-paintings she still
appears with wings."[25]

It is generally agreed that the cult of Athena preserves some aspects of the Proto-
Indo-European transfunctional goddess.[27][28] The cult of Athena may have also
been influenced by those of Near Eastern warrior goddesses such as the East
Semitic Ishtar and the Ugaritic Anat,[10] both of whom were often portrayed
bearing arms.[12] Classical scholar Charles Penglase notes that Athena resembles
Inanna in her role as a "terrifying warrior goddess"[29] and that both goddesses
were closely linked with creation.[29] Athena's birth from the head of Zeus may be
derived from the earlier Sumerian myth of Inanna's descent into and return from
the Underworld.[30][31]
Ancient Akkadian cylinder seal (dating c. 2334–
2154 BC) depicting Inanna, the goddess of war, Plato notes that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess known as
armored and carrying weapons, resting her foot
Neith,[e] whom he identifies with Athena.[32] Neith was the ancient Egyptian
on the back of a lion[26]
goddess of war and hunting, who was also associated with weaving; her worship
began during the Egyptian Pre-Dynastic period. In Greek mythology, Athena was
reported to have visited mythological sites in North Africa, including Libya's
Triton River and the Phlegraean plain.[f] Based on these similarities, the Sinologist Martin Bernal created the "Black Athena"
hypothesis, which claimed that Neith was brought to Greece from Egypt, along with "an enormous number of features of civilization
and culture in the third and second millennia".[33][34] The "Black Athena" hypothesis stirred up widespread controversy near the end
of the twentieth century,[35][36] but it has now been widely rejected by modern scholars.[37][38]

Cult and patronages

Panhellenic and Athenian cult

In her aspect of Athena Polias, Athena was venerated as the goddess of the city and the protectress of the citadel.[12][39][40] In
Athens, the Plynteria, or "Feast of the Bath", was observed every year at the end of the month of Thargelion.[41] The festival lasted
for five days. During this period, the priestesses of Athena, or plyntrídes, performed a cleansing ritual within the Erechtheion, a
sanctuary devoted to Athena and Poseidon.[42] Here Athena's statue was undressed, her clothes washed, and body purified.[42]
Athena was worshipped at festivals such as Chalceia as Athena Ergane,[43][40] the patroness of various crafts, especially
weaving.[43][40] She was also the patron of metalworkers and was believed to aid in the forging of armor and weapons.[43] During
the late fifth century BC, the role of goddess of philosophy became a major aspect of Athena's cult.[44]
As Athena Promachos, she was believed to lead soldiers into battle.[45][46] Athena
represented the disciplined, strategic side of war, in contrast to her brother Ares, the patron of
violence, bloodlust, and slaughter—"the raw force of war".[47][48] Athena was believed to
only support those fighting for a just cause[47] and was thought to view war primarily as a
means to resolve conflict.[47] The Greeks regarded Athena with much higher esteem than
Ares.[47][48] Athena was especially worshipped in this role during the festivals of the
Panathenaea and Pamboeotia,[49] both of which prominently featured displays of athletic and
Athenian tetradrachm representing
military prowess.[49] As the patroness of heroes and warriors, Athena was believed to favor the goddess Athena
those who used cunning and intelligence rather than brute strength.[50]

In her aspect as a warrior maiden, Athena

was known as Parthenos (Παρθένος
"virgin"),[45][52][53] because, like her
fellow goddesses Artemis and Hestia, she
was believed to remain perpetually a
virgin.[54][55][45][53][56] Athena's most
famous temple, the Parthenon on the
Athenian Acropolis, takes its name from
this title.[56] According to Karl Kerényi, a A new peplos was woven for Athena
scholar of Greek mythology, the name and ceremonially brought to dress
Parthenos is not merely an observation of her cult image (British Museum).
The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, which Athena's virginity, but also a recognition
is dedicated to Athena Parthenos[51] of her role as enforcer of rules of sexual
modesty and ritual mystery.[56] Even beyond recognition, the Athenians allotted
the goddess value based on this pureness of virginity, which they upheld as a
rudiment of female behavior.[56] Kerényi's study and theory of Athena explains her virginal epithet as a result of her relationship to
her father Zeus and a vital, cohesive piece of her character throughout the ages.[56] This role is expressed in a number of stories about
Athena. Marinus of Neapolis reports that when Christians removed the statue of the goddess from the Parthenon, a beautiful woman
appeared in a dream to Proclus, a devotee of Athena, and announced that the "Athenian Lady" wished to dwell with him.[57]

Regional cults

Athena was not only the patron goddess of Athens, but also other cities, including Argos, Sparta,
Gortyn, Lindos, and Larisa.[46] The various cults of Athena were all branches of her panhellenic
cult[46] and often proctored various initiation rites of Grecian youth, such as the passage into
citizenship by young men or the passage of young women into marriage.[46] These cults were
portals of a uniform socialization, even beyond mainland Greece.[46] Athena was frequently
equated with Aphaea, a local goddess of the island of Aegina, originally from Crete and also
associated with Artemis and the nymph Britomartis.[58] In Arcadia, she was assimilated with the
ancient goddess Alea and worshiped as Athena Alea.[59] Sanctuaries dedicated to Athena Alea
were located in the Laconian towns of Mantineia and Tegea. The temple of Athena Alea in Tegea
Reverse side of a Pergamene
was an important religious center of ancient Greece.[g] The geographer Pausanias was informed
silver tetradrachm minted by
that the temenos had been founded by Aleus.[60]
Attalus I, showing Athena
seated on a throne (c. 200 BC)
Athena had a major temple on the Spartan Acropolis,[61][40] where she was venerated as
Poliouchos and Khalkíoikos ("of the Brazen House", often latinized as Chalcioecus).[61][40] This
epithet may refer to the fact that cult statue held there may have been made of bronze,[61] that the
walls of the temple itself may have been made of bronze,[61] or that Athena was the patron of metal-workers.[61] Bells made of
terracotta and bronze were used in Sparta as part of Athena's cult.[61] An Ionic-style temple to Athena Polias was built at Priene in the
fourth century BC.[62] It was designed by Pytheos of Priene,[63] the same architect who designed the Mausoleum at
Halicarnassus.[63] The temple was dedicated by Alexander the Great[64] and an inscription from the temple declaring his dedication is
now held in the British Museum.[62]

Epithets and attributes

Athena was known as Atrytone (Άτρυτώνη "the Unwearying"), Parthenos (Παρθένος "Virgin"), and Promachos (Πρόμαχος "she
who fights in front"). The epithet Polias (Πολιάς "of the city"), refers to Athena's role as protectress of the city.[46] The epithet Ergane
(Εργάνη "the Industrious") pointed her out as the patron of craftsmen and artisans.[46] Burkert notes that the Athenians sometimes
simply called Athena "the Goddess", hē theós (ἡ θεός), certainly an ancient title.[5] After serving as the judge at the trial of Orestes in
which he was acquitted of having murdered his mother Clytemnestra, Athena won the epithet Areia (Αρεία).[46]
Athena was sometimes given the epithet Hippia
(Ἵππια "of the horses", "equestrian"),[40][65]
referring to her invention of the bit, bridle, chariot,
and wagon.[40] The Greek geographer Pausanias
mentions in his Guide to Greece that the temple of
Athena Chalinitis ("the bridler")[65] in Corinth was
located near the tomb of Medea's children.[65]
Other epithets include Ageleia, Itonia and Aethyia,
under which she was worshiped in Megara.[66][67]
The word aíthyia (αἴθυια) signifies a "diver", also
some diving bird species (possibly the shearwater)
and figuratively, a "ship", so the name must
reference Athena teaching the art of shipbuilding or
navigation.[68] In a temple at Phrixa in Elis,
reportedly built by Clymenus, she was known as
Cydonia (Κυδωνία).[69] Pausanias wrote that at
Buporthmus there was a sanctuary of Athena
Promachorma (Προμαχόρμα), meaning protector
Cult statue of Athena with the Bust of the Velletri Pallas type, copy after a votive
of the anchorage.[70][71] face of the Carpegna type statue of Kresilas in Athens (c. 425 BC)
(late 1st century BC to early
The Greek biographer Plutarch (AD 46–120) refers
1st century AD), from the
to an instance during the Parthenon's construction
Piazza dell'Emporio, Rome
of her being called Athena Hygieia (Ὑγίεια, i. e.
personified "Health") after inspiring a physician to
a successful course of treatment.[72]

In Homer's epic works, Athena's most common epithet is Glaukopis (γλαυκῶπις), which
usually is translated as, "bright-eyed" or "with gleaming eyes".[73] The word is a
combination of glaukós (γλαυκός, meaning "gleaming, silvery", and later, "bluish-green" or
"gray")[74] and ṓps (ὤψ, "eye, face").[75] The word glaúx (γλαύξ,[76] "little owl")[77] is
from the same root, presumably according to some, because of the bird's own distinctive
eyes. Athena was clearly associated with the owl from very early on;[78] in archaic images,
she is frequently depicted with an owl perched on her hand.[78] Through its association with
Athena, the owl evolved into the national mascot of the Athenians and eventually became a
symbol of wisdom.[4]

In the Iliad (4.514), the Odyssey (3.378), the Homeric Hymns, and in Hesiod's Theogony,
The owl of Athena, surrounded by an Athena is also given the curious epithet Tritogeneia (Τριτογένεια), whose significance
olive wreath. Reverse of an Athenian remains unclear.[79] It could mean various things, including "Triton-born", perhaps indicating
silver tetradrachm, c. 175 BC that the homonymous sea-deity was her parent according to some early myths.[79] One myth
relates the foster father relationship of this Triton towards the half-orphan Athena, whom he
raised alongside his own daughter Pallas.[80] Kerényi suggests that "Tritogeneia did not mean
that she came into the world on any particular river or lake, but that she was born of the water itself; for the name Triton seems to be
associated with water generally."[81][82] In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Athena is occasionally referred to as "Tritonia".

Another possible meaning may be "triple-born" or "third-born", which may refer to a triad or to her status as the third daughter of
Zeus or the fact she was born from Metis, Zeus, and herself; various legends list her as being the first child after Artemis and Apollo,
though other legends identify her as Zeus' first child.[83] Several scholars have suggested a connection to the Rigvedic god Trita,[84]
who was sometimes grouped in a body of three mythological poets.[84] Michael Janda has connected the myth of Trita to the scene in
the Iliad in which the "three brothers" Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divide the world between them, receiving the "broad sky", the sea,
and the underworld respectively.[85][86] Janda further connects the myth of Athena being born of the head (i. e. the uppermost part) of
Zeus, understanding Trito- (which perhaps originally meant "the third") as another word for "the sky".[85] In Janda's analysis of Indo-
European mythology, this heavenly sphere is also associated with the mythological body of water surrounding the inhabited world
(cfr. Triton's mother, Amphitrite).[85]

Yet another possible meaning is mentioned in Diogenes Laertius' biography of Democritus, that Athena was called "Tritogeneia"
because three things, on which all mortal life depends, come from her.[87]

Mythology

Birth
She was the daughter of Zeus, produced without a mother, so that she emerged full-
grown from his forehead. There was an alternative story that Zeus swallowed Metis,
the goddess of counsel, while she was pregnant with Athena, so that Athena finally
emerged from Zeus. Being the favourite child of Zeus, she had great power. In the
classical Olympian pantheon, Athena was regarded as the favorite daughter of Zeus,
born fully armed from his forehead.[88][89][90][h] The story of her birth comes in
several versions.[91][92][93] The earliest mention is in Book V of the Iliad, when Ares
accuses Zeus of being biased in favor of Athena because "autos egeinao" (literally
"you fathered her", but probably intended as "you gave birth to her").[94][95] She was
essentially urban and civilized, the antithesis in many respects of Artemis, goddess of
the outdoors. Athena was probably a pre-Hellenic goddess and was later taken over by
the Greeks. In the version recounted by Hesiod in his Theogony, Zeus married the
goddess Metis, who is described as the "wisest among gods and mortal men", and
engaged in sexual intercourse with her.[96][97][95][98] After learning that Metis was Athena is "born" from Zeus's forehead as a
pregnant, however, he became afraid that the unborn offspring would try to overthrow result of him having swallowed her mother
him, because Gaia and Ouranos had prophesied that Metis would bear children wiser Metis, as he grasps the clothing of
[96][97][95][98] Eileithyia on the right; black-figured
than their father. In order to prevent this, Zeus tricked Metis into letting
amphora, 550–525 BC, Louvre.
him swallow her, but it was too late because Metis had already
conceived.[96][99][95][98] A later account of the story from the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-
Apollodorus, written in the second century AD, makes Metis Zeus's unwilling sexual
partner, rather than his wife.[100][101] According to this version of the story, Metis transformed into many different shapes in effort to
escape Zeus,[100][101] but Zeus successfully raped her and swallowed her.[100][101]

After swallowing Metis, Zeus took six more wives in succession until he married his seventh and present wife, Hera.[98] Then Zeus
experienced an enormous headache.[102][95][98] He was in such pain that he ordered someone (either Prometheus, Hephaestus,
Hermes, Ares, or Palaemon, depending on the sources examined) to cleave his head open with the labrys, the double-headed Minoan
axe.[103][95][104][101] Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown and armed.[103][95][90][105] The "First Homeric Hymn to Athena"
states in lines 9–16 that the gods were awestruck by Athena's appearance[106] and even Helios, the god of the sun, stopped his chariot
in the sky.[106] Pindar, in his "Seventh Olympian Ode", states that she "cried aloud with a mighty shout" and that "the Sky and
mother Earth shuddered before her."[107][106]

Hesiod states that Hera was so annoyed at Zeus for having given birth to a child on his own that she conceived and bore Hephaestus
by herself,[98] but in Imagines 2. 27 (https://archive.org/stream/imagines00philuoft#page/246/mode/2up) (trans. Fairbanks), the third-
century AD Greek rhetorician Philostratus the Elder writes that Hera "rejoices" at Athena's birth "as though Athena were her daughter
also." The second-century AD Christian apologist Justin Martyr takes issue with those pagans who erect at springs images of Kore,
whom he interprets as Athena: "They said that Athena was the daughter of Zeus not from intercourse, but when the god had in mind
the making of a world through a word (logos) his first thought was Athena."[108] According to a version of the story in a scholium on
the Iliad (found nowhere else), when Zeus swallowed Metis, she was pregnant with Athena by the Cyclops Brontes.[109] The
Etymologicum Magnum[110] instead deems Athena the daughter of the Daktyl Itonos.[111] Fragments attributed by the Christian
Eusebius of Caesarea to the semi-legendary Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon, which Eusebius thought had been written before the
Trojan war, make Athena instead the daughter of Cronus, a king of Byblos who visited "the inhabitable world" and bequeathed Attica
to Athena.[112][113]

Pallas Athena

Athena's epithet Pallas is derived either from πάλλω, meaning "to brandish [as a weapon]", or, more likely, from παλλακίς and related
words, meaning "youth, young woman".[115] On this topic, Walter Burkert says "she is the Pallas of Athens, Pallas Athenaie, just as
Hera of Argos is Here Argeie."[5] In later times, after the original meaning of the name had been forgotten, the Greeks invented myths
to explain its origin, such as those reported by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus and the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus,
which claim that Pallas was originally a separate entity, whom Athena had slain in combat.[116]

In one version of the myth, Pallas was the daughter of the sea-god Triton;[80] she and Athena were childhood friends, but Athena
accidentally killed her during a friendly sparring match.[117] Distraught over what she had done, Athena took the name Pallas for
herself as a sign of her grief.[117] In another version of the story, Pallas was a Gigante;[103] Athena slew him during the
Gigantomachy and flayed off his skin to make her cloak, which she wore as a victory trophy.[103][12][118][119] In an alternative
variation of the same myth, Pallas was instead Athena's father,[103][12] who attempted to assault his own daughter,[120] causing
Athena to kill him and take his skin as a trophy.[121]

The palladion was a statue of Athena that was said to have stood in her temple on the Trojan Acropolis.[122] Athena was said to have
carved the statue herself in the likeness of her dead friend Pallas.[122] The statue had special talisman-like properties[122] and it was
thought that, as long as it was in the city, Troy could never fall.[122] When the Greeks captured Troy, Cassandra, the daughter of
Priam, clung to the palladion for protection,[122] but Ajax the Lesser violently tore her away from it and dragged her over to the other
captives.[122] Athena was infuriated by this violation of her protection.[114] Although
Agamemnon attempted to placate her anger with sacrifices, Athena sent a storm at Cape
Kaphereos to destroy almost the entire Greek fleet and scatter all of the surviving ships
across the Aegean.[123]

Lady of Athens

In Homer's Iliad, Athena, as a war

goddess, inspired and fought
alongside the Greek heroes; her aid
was synonymous with military
prowess. Also in the Iliad, Zeus, the
chief god, specifically assigned the
sphere of war to Ares, the god of
war, and Athena. Athena's moral and
military superiority to Ares derived
Detail of a Roman fresco from Pompeii
in part from the fact that she
showing Ajax the Lesser dragging
represented the intellectual and Cassandra away from the palladion during
The Dispute of Minerva and Neptune by René-
civilized side of war and the virtues the fall of Troy, an event which provoked
Antoine Houasse (c. 1689 or 1706)
of justice and skill, whereas Ares Athena's wrath against the Greek
represented mere blood lust. Her armies[114]
superiority also derived in part from
the vastly greater variety and importance of her functions and from the patriotism of
Homer's predecessors, Ares being of foreign origin. In the Iliad, Athena was the divine form of the heroic, martial ideal: she
personified excellence in close combat, victory, and glory. The qualities that led to victory were found on the aegis, or breastplate, that
Athena wore when she went to war: fear, strife, defense, and assault. Athena appears in Homer's Odyssey as the tutelary deity of
Odysseus, and myths from later sources portray her similarly as helper of Perseus and Heracles (Hercules). As the guardian of the
welfare of kings, Athena became the goddess of good counsel, of prudent restraint and practical insight, as well as of war. In a
founding myth reported by Pseudo-Apollodorus,[110] Athena competed with Poseidon for the patronage of Athens.[124] They agreed
that each would give the Athenians one gift[124] and that Cecrops, the king of Athens, would determine which gift was better.[124]
Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring sprang up;[124] this gave the Athenians access to trade and
water.[125] Athens at its height was a significant sea power, defeating the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis[125]—but the water was
salty and undrinkable.[125] In an alternative version of the myth from Vergil's Georgics,[110] Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the
first horse.[124] Athena offered the first domesticated olive tree.[124][53] Cecrops accepted this gift[124] and declared Athena the patron
goddess of Athens.[124] The olive tree brought wood, oil, and food,[125] and became a symbol of Athenian economic
prosperity.[53][126] Robert Graves was of the opinion that "Poseidon's attempts to take possession of certain cities are political
myths",[125] which reflect the conflict between matriarchal and patriarchal religions.[125]

Pseudo-Apollodorus[110] records an archaic legend, which claims that Hephaestus once attempted to rape Athena, but she pushed him
away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh.[128][51][129] Athena wiped the semen off using a tuft of wool, which she tossed into the
dust,[128][51][129] impregnating Gaia and causing her to give birth to Erichthonius.[128][51][129] Athena adopted Erichthonius as her
son and raised him.[128][129] The Roman mythographer Hyginus[110] records a similar story in which Hephaestus demanded Zeus to
let him marry Athena since he was the one who had smashed open Zeus's skull, allowing Athena to be born.[128] Zeus agreed to this
and Hephaestus and Athena were married,[128] but, when Hephaestus was about to consummate the union, Athena vanished from the
bridal bed, causing him to ejaculate on the floor, thus impregnating Gaia with Erichthonius.[128]

The geographer Pausanias[110] records that Athena placed the infant Erichthonius into a small chest[130] (cista), which she entrusted
to the care of the three daughters of Cecrops: Herse, Pandrosos, and Aglauros of Athens.[130] She warned the three sisters not to open
the chest,[130] but did not explain to them why or what was in it.[130] Aglauros, and possibly one of the other sisters,[130] opened the
chest.[130] Differing reports say that they either found that the child itself was a serpent, that it was guarded by a serpent, that it was
guarded by two serpents, or that it had the legs of a serpent.[131] In Pausanias's story, the two sisters were driven mad by the sight of
the chest's contents and hurled themselves off the Acropolis, dying instantly,[132] but an Attic vase painting shows them being chased
by the serpent off the edge of the cliff instead.[132]

Erichthonius was one of the most important founding heroes of Athens[51] and the legend of the daughters of Cecrops was a cult
myth linked to the rituals of the Arrhephoria festival.[51][133] Pausanias records that, during the Arrhephoria, two young girls known
as the Arrhephoroi, who lived near the temple of Athena Polias, would be given hidden objects by the priestess of Athena,[134] which
they would carry on their heads down a natural underground passage.[134] They would leave the objects they had been given at the
bottom of the passage and take another set of hidden objects,[134] which they would carry on their heads back up to the temple.[134]
The ritual was performed in the dead of night[134] and no one, not even the priestess,
knew what the objects were.[134] The serpent in the story may be the same one
depicted coiled at Athena's feet in Pheidias's famous statue of the Athena Parthenos in
the Parthenon.[127] Many of the surviving sculptures of Athena show this serpent.[127]

Herodotus records that a serpent lived in a crevice on the north side of the summit of
the Athenian Acropolis[127] and that the Athenians left a honey cake for it each month
as an offering.[127] On the eve of the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC,
the serpent did not eat the honey cake[127] and the Athenians interpreted it as a sign
that Athena herself had abandoned them.[127] Another version of the myth of the
Athenian maidens is told in Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17
AD); in this late variant Hermes falls in love with Herse. Herse, Aglaulus, and
Pandrosus go to the temple to offer sacrifices to Athena. Hermes demands help from
Aglaulus to seduce Herse. Aglaulus demands money in exchange. Hermes gives her
the money the sisters have already offered to Athena. As punishment for Aglaulus's
greed, Athena asks the goddess Envy to make Aglaulus jealous of Herse. When
Hermes arrives to seduce Herse, Aglaulus stands in his way instead of helping him as
she had agreed. He turns her to stone.[135]

Patron of heroes

According to Pseudo-Apollodorus's Bibliotheca, Athena advised Argos, the builder of

the Argo, the ship on which the hero Jason and his band of Argonauts sailed, and aided
in the ship's construction.[137][138] Pseudo-Apollodorus also records that Athena The Athena Giustiniani, a Roman copy of a
guided the hero Perseus in his quest to behead Medusa.[139][140][141] She and Hermes, Greek statue of Pallas Athena. The
the god of travelers, appeared to Perseus after he set off on his quest and gifted him guardian serpent of the Athenian Acropolis
with tools he would need to kill the Gorgon.[141][142] Athena gave Perseus a polished sits coiled at her feet.[127]
bronze shield to view Medusa's reflection rather than looking at her directly and
thereby avoid being turned to stone.[141][143] Hermes gave him an adamantine
scythe to cut off Medusa's head.[141][144] When Perseus swung his blade to
behead Medusa, Athena guided it, allowing his scythe to cut it clean off.[141][143]
According to Pindar's Thirteenth Olympian Ode, Athena helped the hero
Bellerophon tame the winged horse Pegasus by giving him a bit.[145][146]

In ancient Greek art, Athena is frequently shown aiding the hero Heracles.[147]
She appears in four of the twelve metopes on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia
depicting Heracles's Twelve Labors,[148][147] including the first, in which she
passively watches him slay the Nemean lion,[147] and the tenth, in which she is
shown actively helping him hold up the sky.[149] She is presented as his "stern
ally",[150] but also the "gentle... acknowledger of his achievements."[150] Artistic
depictions of Heracles's apotheosis show Athena driving him to Mount Olympus
in her chariot and presenting him to Zeus for his deification.[149] In Aeschylus's
tragedy Orestes, Athena intervenes to save Orestes from the wrath of the Erinyes
and presides over his trial for the murder of his mother Clytemnestra.[151] When
half the jury votes to acquit and the other half votes to convict, Athena casts the
Attic red-figure kylix painting from c. 480-470 BC
deciding vote to acquit Orestes[151] and declares that, from then on, whenever a showing Athena observing as the Colchian
jury is tied, the defendant shall always be acquitted.[152] dragon disgorges the hero Jason[136]

In The Odyssey, Odysseus' cunning and shrewd nature quickly wins Athena's
favour.[153][138] For the first part of the poem, however, she largely is confined to aiding him only from afar, mainly by implanting
thoughts in his head during his journey home from Troy. Her guiding actions reinforce her role as the "protectress of heroes," or, as
mythologian Walter Friedrich Otto dubbed her, the "goddess of nearness," due to her mentoring and motherly probing.[154][139][155]
It is not until he washes up on the shore of the island of the Phaeacians, where Nausicaa is washing her clothes that Athena arrives
personally to provide more tangible assistance.[156] She appears in Nausicaa's dreams to ensure that the princess rescues Odysseus
and plays a role in his eventual escort to Ithaca.[157] Athena appears to Odysseus upon his arrival, disguised as a
herdsman;[158][159][153] she initially lies and tells him that Penelope, his wife, has remarried and that he is believed to be dead,[158]
but Odysseus lies back to her, employing skillful prevarications to protect himself.[160][159] Impressed by his resolve and shrewdness,
she reveals herself and tells him what he needs to know in order to win back his kingdom.[161][159][153] She disguises him as an
elderly beggar so that he will not be recognized by the suitors or Penelope,[162][159] and helps him to defeat the suitors.[162][163][159]
Athena also appears to Odysseus's son Telemachus.[164] Her actions lead him to travel around to Odysseus's comrades and ask about
his father.[165] He hears stories about some of Odysseus's journey.[165] Athena's push for Telemachos's journey helps him grow into
the man role, that his father once held.[166] She also plays a role in ending the resultant feud against the suitors' relatives. She instructs
Laertes to throw his spear and to kill Eupeithes, the father of Antinous.

Athena and Heracles on an Athena, detail Silver coin showing Athena with Scylla decorated
Attic red-figure kylix, 480– from a silver helmet and Heracles fighting the Nemean lion
470 BC kantharos with (Heraclea Lucania, 390-340 BC)
Theseus in
Crete (c. 440-
435 BC), part of
the Vassil
Bojkov
collection, Sofia,
Bulgaria

Paestan red-figure bell-

krater (c. 330 BC), showing
Orestes at Delphi flanked
by Athena and Pylades
among the Erinyes and
priestesses of Apollo, with
the Pythia sitting behind
them on her tripod

Punishment myths

The Gorgoneion appears to have originated as an apotropaic symbol intended to ward off evil.[167] In a late myth invented to explain
the origins of the Gorgon,[168] Medusa is described as having been a young priestess who served in the temple of Athena in
Athens.[169] Poseidon lusted after Medusa, and raped her in the temple of Athena,[169] refusing to allow her vow of chastity to stand
in his way.[169] Upon discovering the desecration of her temple, Athena transformed Medusa into a hideous monster with serpents for
hair whose gaze would turn any mortal to stone.[170]

In his Twelfth Pythian Ode, Pindar recounts the story of how Athena invented the aulos, a kind of flute, in imitation of the
lamentations of Medusa's sisters, the Gorgons, after she was beheaded by the hero Perseus.[171] According to Pindar, Athena gave the
aulos to mortals as a gift.[171] Later, the comic playwright Melanippides of Melos (c. 480-430 BC) embellished the story in his
comedy Marsyas,[171] claiming that Athena looked in the mirror while she was playing the aulos and saw how blowing into it puffed
up her cheeks and made her look silly, so she threw the aulos away and cursed it so that whoever picked it up would meet an awful
 death.[171] The aulos was picked up by the satyr Marsyas, who was later killed by
Apollo for his hubris.[171] Later, this version of the story became accepted as
canonical[171] and the Athenian sculptor Myron created a group of bronze
sculptures based on it, which was installed before the western front of the
Parthenon in around 440 BC.[171]

A myth told by the early third-century BC Hellenistic poet Callimachus in his

Hymn 5 begins with Athena bathing in a spring on Mount Helicon at midday with
one of her favorite companions, the nymph Chariclo.[129][172] Chariclo's son
Tiresias happened to be hunting on the same mountain and came to the spring
searching for water.[129][172] He inadvertently saw Athena naked, so she struck
Classical Greek depiction of Medusa from the him blind to ensure he would never again see what man was not intended to
fourth century BC see.[129][173][174] Chariclo intervened on her son's behalf and begged Athena to
have mercy.[129][174][175] Athena replied that she could not restore Tiresias's
eyesight,[129][174][175] so, instead, she gave him the ability to understand the
language of the birds and thus foretell the future.[176][175][129]

The fable of Arachne appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses (8 AD) (vi.5–54 and

129–145),[177][178][179] which is nearly the only extant source for the
legend.[178][179] The story does not appear to have been well known prior to
Ovid's rendition of it[178] and the only earlier reference to it is a brief allusion in
Virgil's Georgics, (29 BC) (iv, 246) that does not mention Arachne by name.[179]
According to Ovid, Arachne (whose name means spider in ancient Greek[180])
was the daughter of a famous dyer in Tyrian purple in Hypaipa of Lydia, and a
weaving student of Athena.[181] She became so conceited of her skill as a weaver
that she began claiming that her skill was greater than that of Athena
herself.[181][182] Athena gave Arachne a chance to redeem herself by assuming
the form of an old woman and warning Arachne not to offend the deities.[177][182]
Arachne scoffed and wished for a weaving contest, so she could prove her
Minerva and Arachne by René-Antoine Houasse
skill.[183][182]
(1706)
Athena wove the scene of her victory over Poseidon in the contest for the
patronage of Athens.[183][184][182] Athena's tapestry also depicted the 12
Olympian gods and defeat of mythological figures who challenged their authority.[185] Arachne's tapestry featured twenty-one
episodes of the deities' infidelity,[183][184][182] including Zeus being unfaithful with Leda, with Europa, and with Danaë.[184] It
represented the unjust and discrediting behavior of the gods towards mortals.[185] Athena admitted that Arachne's work was
flawless,[183][182][184] but was outraged at Arachne's offensive choice of subject, which displayed the failings and transgressions of
the deities.[183][182][184] Finally, losing her temper, Athena destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom, striking it with her
shuttle.[183][182][184] Athena then struck Arachne across the face with her staff four times.[183][182][184] Arachne hanged herself in
despair,[183][182][184] but Athena took pity on her and brought her back from the dead in the form of a spider.[183][182][184]

Trojan War

The myth of the Judgement of Paris is mentioned briefly in the Iliad,[186] but is
described in depth in an epitome of the Cypria, a lost poem of the Epic Cycle,[187]
which records that all the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were
invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles).[186]
Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited.[187] She was annoyed at this, so
she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "for
the fairest"), which she threw among the goddesses.[188] Aphrodite, Hera, and
Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the
apple.[188][129]

Ancient Greek mosaic from Antioch dating to the
second century AD, depicting the Judgement of
Paris
The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor
one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Trojan
prince.[188][129] After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was
situated, the goddesses appeared before Paris for his decision.[188] In the extant
ancient depictions of the Judgement of Paris, Aphrodite is only occasionally
represented nude, and Athena and Hera are always fully clothed.[189] Since the
Renaissance, however, Western paintings have typically portrayed all three
goddesses as completely naked.[189]
All three goddesses were ideally beautiful and Paris could not decide between them, so they resorted to bribes.[188] Hera tried to bribe
Paris with power over all Asia and Europe,[188][129] and Athena offered fame and glory in battle,[188][129] but Aphrodite promised
Paris that, if he were to choose her as the fairest, she would let him marry the most beautiful woman on earth.[190][129] This woman
was Helen, who was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta.[190] Paris selected Aphrodite and awarded her the apple.[190][129]
The other two goddesses were enraged and, as a direct result, sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War.[190][129]

In Books V–VI of the Iliad, Athena aids the hero Diomedes, who, in the absence of Achilles, proves himself to be the most effective
Greek warrior.[191][138] Several artistic representations from the early sixth century BC may show Athena and Diomedes,[191]
including an early sixth-century BC shield band depicting Athena and an unidentified warrior riding on a chariot, a vase painting of a
warrior with his charioteer facing Athena, and an inscribed clay plaque showing Diomedes and Athena riding in a chariot.[191]
Numerous passages in the Iliad also mention Athena having previously served as the patron of Diomedes's father Tydeus.[192][193]
When the Trojan women go to the temple of Athena on the Acropolis to plead her for protection from Diomedes, Athena ignores
them.[114]

Athena also gets into a duel with Ares, the god of the brutal wars, and her male counterpart. Ares blames her for encouraging
Diomedes to tear his beautiful flesh. He curses her and strikes with all his strength. Athena, however, cleverly deflects his blow with
her aegis, a powerful shield which even Zeus's thunderbolt and lightning cannot blast through. Athena picked up a massive boulder
and threw it at Ares, who immediately crumpled to the ground. Aphrodite, who was then a lover of the war god came down from
Olympus to carry Ares away but was struck by Athena's golden spear and fell. Athena taunted the gods who supported Troy, saying
that they will too eventually end up like Ares and Aphrodite, which scared them, therefore proving her power and reputation among
the other gods.

In Book XXII of the Iliad, while Achilles is chasing Hector around the walls of Troy, Athena appears to Hector disguised as his
brother Deiphobus[194] and persuades him to hold his ground so that they can fight Achilles together.[194] Then, Hector throws his
spear at Achilles and misses, expecting Deiphobus to hand him another,[195] but Athena disappears instead, leaving Hector to face
Achilles alone without his spear.[195] In Sophocles's tragedy Ajax, she punishes Odysseus's rival Ajax the Great, driving him insane
and causing him to massacre the Achaeans' cattle, thinking that he is slaughtering the Achaeans themselves.[196] Even after Odysseus
himself expresses pity for Ajax,[197] Athena declares, "To laugh at your enemies - what sweeter laughter can there be than that?"
(lines 78–9).[197] Ajax later commits suicide as a result of his humiliation.[197]

Classical art
Athena appears frequently in classical Greek art, including on coins and in paintings on ceramics.[198][199] She is especially
prominent in works produced in Athens.[198] In classical depictions, Athena is usually portrayed standing upright, wearing a full-
length chiton.[200] She is most often represented dressed in armor like a male soldier[199][200][7] and wearing a Corinthian helmet
raised high atop her forehead.[201][7][199] Her shield bears at its centre the aegis with the head of the gorgon (gorgoneion) in the
center and snakes around the edge.[168] Sometimes she is shown wearing the aegis as a cloak.[199] As Athena Promachos, she is
shown brandishing a spear.[198][7][199] Scenes in which Athena was represented include her birth from the head of Zeus, her battle
with the Gigantes, the birth of Erichthonius, and the Judgement of Paris.[198]

The Mourning Athena or Athena Meditating is a famous relief sculpture dating to around 470-460 BC[201][198] that has been
interpreted to represent Athena Polias.[201] The most famous classical depiction of Athena was the Athena Parthenos, a now-lost
11.5 m (38 ft)[202] gold and ivory statue of her in the Parthenon created by the Athenian sculptor Phidias.[200][198] Copies reveal that
this statue depicted Athena holding her shield in her left hand with Nike, the winged goddess of victory, standing in her right.[198]
Athena Polias is also represented in a Neo-Attic relief now held in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,[201] which depicts her holding
an owl in her hand[i] and wearing her characteristic Corinthian helmet while resting her shield against a nearby herma.[201] The
Roman goddess Minerva adopted most of Athena's Greek iconographical associations,[203] but was also integrated into the Capitoline
Triad.[203]
Attic black-figure exaleiptron
of the birth of Athena from the
head of Zeus (c. 570–560 BC)
by the C Painter[198]
Attic red-figure kylix of Restoration of the The Mourning
Athena Promachos holding polychrome Athena relief (c.
a spear and standing decoration of the 470-460
beside a Doric column (c. Athena statue from BC)[201][198]
500-490 BC) the Aphaea temple
at Aegina, c. 490
BC (from the
exposition "Bunte
Götter" by the
Munich Glyptothek)

Attic red-figure kylix Relief of Athena and Nike slaying the Classical mosaic from a villa
showing Athena slaying the Gigante Alkyoneus (?) from the at Tusculum, 3rd century AD,
Gigante Enceladus (c. 550– Gigantomachy Frieze on the Pergamon now at Museo Pio-
500 BC) Altar (early second century BC) Clementino, Vatican

Athena portrait by Eukleidas on a tetradrachm from Mythological scene with Atena farnese,
Syracuse, Sicily c. 400 BC Athena (left) and Herakles Roman copy
(right), on a stone palette of of a Greek
the Greco-Buddhist art of original from
Gandhara, India Phidias' circle,
c. 430 AD,
Museo
Archeologico,
Naples
Post-classical culture

Art and symbolism

Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Firmicus, denigrated

Athena as representative of all the things that were detestable about paganism;[205]
they condemned her as "immodest and immoral".[206] During the Middle Ages,
however, many attributes of Athena were given to the Virgin Mary,[206] who, in
fourth century portrayals, was often depicted wearing the Gorgoneion.[206] Some
even viewed the Virgin Mary as a warrior maiden, much like Athena
Parthenos;[206] one anecdote tells that the Virgin Mary once appeared upon the
walls of Constantinople when it was under siege by the Avars, clutching a spear
and urging the people to fight.[207] During the Middle Ages, Athena became
widely used as a Christian symbol and allegory, and she appeared on the family
crests of certain noble houses.[208]

During the Renaissance, Athena donned the mantle of patron of the arts and
human endeavor;[209] allegorical paintings involving Athena were a favorite of
the Italian Renaissance painters.[209] In Sandro Botticelli's painting Pallas and the
Centaur, probably painted sometime in the 1480s, Athena is the personification of
chastity, who is shown grasping the forelock of a centaur, who represents
lust.[210][211] Andrea Mantegna's 1502 painting Minerva Expelling the Vices from
the Garden of Virtue uses Athena as the personification of Graeco-Roman
learning chasing the vices of medievalism from the garden of modern
scholarship.[212][211][213] Athena is also used as the personification of wisdom in
Bartholomeus Spranger's 1591 painting The Triumph of Wisdom or Minerva
Victorious over Ignorance.[203] Statue of Pallas Athena in front of the Austrian
Parliament Building. Athena has been used
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Athena was used as a symbol for throughout Western history as a symbol of
female rulers.[214] In his book A Revelation of the True Minerva (1582), Thomas freedom and democracy.[204]
Blennerhassett portrays Queen Elizabeth I of England as a "new Minerva" and
"the greatest goddesse nowe on earth".[215] A series of paintings by Peter Paul
Rubens depict Athena as Marie de' Medici's patron and mentor;[216] the final painting in the series goes even further and shows Marie
de' Medici with Athena's iconography, as the mortal incarnation of the goddess herself.[216] The German sculptor Jean-Pierre-Antoine
Tassaert later portrayed Catherine II of Russia as Athena in a marble bust in 1774.[203] During the French Revolution, statues of
pagan gods were torn down all throughout France, but statues of Athena were not.[216] Instead, Athena was transformed into the
personification of freedom and the republic[216] and a statue of the goddess stood in the center of the Place de la Revolution in
Paris.[216] In the years following the Revolution, artistic representations of Athena proliferated.[217]

A statue of Athena stands directly in front of the Austrian Parliament Building in Vienna,[218] and depictions of Athena have
influenced other symbols of Western freedom, including the Statue of Liberty and Britannia.[218] For over a century, a full-scale
replica of the Parthenon has stood in Nashville, Tennessee.[219] In 1990, the curators added a gilded forty-two-foot (12.5 m) tall
replica of Phidias's Athena Parthenos, built from concrete and fiberglass.[219] The Great Seal of California bears the image of Athena
kneeling next to a brown grizzly bear.[220] Athena has occasionally appeared on modern coins, as she did on the ancient Athenian
drachma. Her head appears on the $50 1915-S Panama-Pacific commemorative coin.[221]
 Pallas and the Minerva Expelling the Vices from Athena Scorning the Minerva Victorious
Centaur (c. 1482) the Garden of Virtue (1502) by Advances of over Ignorance (c.
by Sandro Andrea Mantegna[212][211][213] Hephaestus (c. 1555– 1591) by
Botticelli 1560) by Paris Bordone Bartholomeus
Spranger

Maria de Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars Pallas Athena (c. Minerva Revealing Ithaca to
Medici (1622) (1629) by Peter Paul Rubens 1655) by Rembrandt Ulysses (fifteenth century) by
by Peter Paul Giuseppe Bottani
Rubens,
showing her
as the
incarnation of
Athena[216]
 Minerva and the Triumph of Jupiter The Combat of Mars Minerva Fighting Mars (1771) by
(1706) by René-Antoine Houasse and Minerva (1771) Jacques-Louis David
by Joseph-Benoît
Suvée

Minerva of Athena on the Great Seal

Peace mosaic in of California
the Library of
Congress

Modern interpretations

One of Sigmund Freud's most treasured possessions was a small, bronze sculpture of Athena,
which sat on his desk.[222] Freud once described Athena as "a woman who is
unapproachable and repels all sexual desires - since she displays the terrifying genitals of the
Mother."[223] Feminist views on Athena are sharply divided;[223] some feminists regard her
as a symbol of female empowerment,[223] while others regard her as "the ultimate patriarchal
sell out... who uses her powers to promote and advance men rather than others of her
sex."[223] In contemporary Wicca, Athena is venerated as an aspect of the Goddess[224] and
some Wiccans believe that she may bestow the "Owl Gift" ("the ability to write and
communicate clearly") upon her worshippers.[224] Due to her status as one of the twelve
Olympians, Athena is a major deity in Hellenismos,[225] a Neopagan religion which seeks to
authentically revive and recreate the religion of ancient Greece in the modern world.[226]

Athena is a natural patron of universities: At Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania a statue of

Modern Neopagan Hellenist altar
Athena (a replica of the original bronze one in the arts and archaeology library) resides in the
[227] dedicated to Athena and Apollo
Great Hall. It is traditional at exam time for students to leave offerings to the goddess
with a note asking for good luck,[227] or to repent for accidentally breaking any of the
college's numerous other traditions.[227] Pallas Athena is the tutelary goddess of the international social fraternity Phi Delta Theta.[228]
Her owl is also a symbol of the fraternity.[228]

Genealogy
Athena's family tree

Uranus Gaia
 Uranus'
Oceanus Tethys Cronus Rhea
genitals

Metis Zeus Hera Poseidon Hades Demeter Hestia

ATHENA a [j]

b [k]

Ares Hephaestus

Leto

Apollo Artemis

Maia

Hermes

Semele

Dionysus

Dione

a [l] b [m]

Aphrodite

See also
Athenaeum (disambiguation)
Ambulia, a Spartan epithet used for Athena, Zeus, and Castor and Pollux

Notes
a. In other traditions, Athena's father is sometimes listed as Pallas the Giant, Cyclops Brontes, or Itonos the Daktyl.[2]
b. /əˈθiːnə/; Attic Greek: Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnâ, or Ἀθηναία, Athēnaía; Epic: Ἀθηναίη, Athēnaíē; Doric: Ἀθάνα, Athā́nā
c. /əˈθiːniː/; Ionic: Ἀθήνη, Athḗnē
d. /ˈpæləs/; Παλλάς Pallás
e. "The citizens have a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, and is asserted by them to
be the same whom the Hellenes call Athena; they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some
way related to them." (Timaeus 21e.)
f. Aeschylus, Eumenides, v. 292 f. Cf. the tradition that she was the daughter of Neilos: see, e. g. Clement of
Alexandria Protr. 2.28.2; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.59.
g. "This sanctuary had been respected from early days by all the Peloponnesians, and afforded peculiar safety to its
suppliants" (Pausanias, Description of Greece iii.5.6)
h. Jane Ellen Harrison's famous characterization of this myth-element as, "a desperate theological expedient to rid an
earth-born Kore of her matriarchal conditions" (Harrison 1922:302) has never been refuted nor confirmed.
i. The owl's role as a symbol of wisdom originates in this association with Athena.
j. According to Homer, Iliad 1.570–579 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:
1.570), 14.338 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:14.338), Odyssey
8.312 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:8.312), Hephaestus was
apparently the son of Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.
k. According to Hesiod, Theogony 927–929 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?docHes.+Th.+927),
Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.
 l. According to Hesiod, Theogony 183–200 (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?docHes.+Th.+183), Aphrodite
was born from Uranus' severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
m. According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 3.374 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekL
it:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.374), 20.105 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perse
us-eng1:20.105); Odyssey 8.308 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:8.30
8), 320 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:8.320)) and Dione (Iliad
5.370–71 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:5.370)), see Gantz, pp. 99–
100.

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External links
Perseus Project, Athena (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/athena.html)
Theoi Project, Athena (https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Athena.html)

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