Athena (Minerva)

Athena was the virgin goddess of arts, craft and war. Also known as Athene, she was also identified as the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was daughter of Zeus and his first wife Metis (wisdom), who was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.

After Zeus had overthrown his father Cronus and became supreme ruler of heaven, Gaea warned her grandson that if Metis had a second child, it would be a son. Zeus was told that this son would one day overthrow him, as he had done to his own father (Cronus). Not wanting to suffer the same fate as his father, he swallowed Metis while she was still pregnant.

Months later, Zeus suffered from a great headache. Either Prometheus or Hephaestus used an axe to split open Zeus' head. Athena leaped out of Zeus' head, wearing full armour and uttering a war cry. The gods were astonished and profoundly alarmed at this prodigy. It was only when she removed her helm that Athena revealed herself to be less formidable in aspect. Athena became Zeus' favourite child.

Triton, son of Poseidon, raised Athena as she was growing up. Athena was sometimes known by her epithet, Tritogeneia - "thrice born", either because of Triton or because she grew up at Lake Tritonis, in Libya.

Triton had a daughter named Pallas who became a playmate for Athena. The young goddess was playing with her friend when Athena accidentally killed her. In memory of her childhood playmate, she put her friend's name before her own. Thereafter, she was called Pallas Athene (Παλλάς Ἀθήνη). She also created a wooden image of her friend, which was called the Palladium (Παλλάδιομ). However, her father (Zeus) threw the statue out of heaven and it landed in the tent of Ilus, the son of King Tros of Dardania.

There is some confusion over the origin and meaning of the name Pallas. Pallas is a name that can be applied to either a male or female character. In the case of Athena, when it was used as a name for a girl, the name Pallas probably means "girl" or "maiden". However, some modern scholars dispute this meaning, because Pallas could also mean "brandisher".

As to the name of Athena, the meaning is lost. Athena could be a pre-Hellenic name, either of Minoan or Mycenaean origin. Athena might be the equivalent of the Minoan or Mycenaean mother goddess Atana Potnia (A-TA-NA PO-TI-NI-JA). See Mother Goddesses.

There is a theory that Athena might be a pre-Hellenic goddess (ie, before the arrival of the Dorians, Ionians and Aeolians), existing originally as a Minoan or Mycenaean goddess of crafts, homes, hearth and communities. When the Hellenic people migrated to Greece, they brought with them Pallas, the virgin war goddess. The two goddesses fused into a single goddess known as Pallas Athene, which we know of today, retaining the attributes and functions of both goddesses. However, this is merely modern speculation rather than an established fact.

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As a virgin goddess, she was known by her epithet, Parthenos. The Greeks saw her as a goddess of severe beauty with the bluest eyes, or sometimes with gray flashing eyes which earned her the epithet Glaukopis (Γλαυκύπις), meaning "Flashing Eye" or "Bright Eye".

In art she was normally depicted as wearing the terror-inducing aegis, symbolising the dark storm clouds, and was armed with an irresistible spear (shaft of lightning). In the poem the Shield of Heracles, ascribed to Hesiod:

She was armed like as if she would array a battle, with a spear in her hand, and a golden helmet, and the aegis about her shoulders. And was going towards the awful strife.

Since her mother (Metis) was the goddess of wisdom, Athena inherited her mother's intellectual abilities, and one of her epithets was Polymetis (Πολυμήτις). She personified the clear upper air as well as mental clearness and acuteness, embodying the spirit of truth and divine wisdom.

But Athena was also the goddess of war. She participated with skill and wisdom in wars to defend the state, but she did not fight like Ares with uncontrolled ferocity, or for the sheer love of strife and mindless slaughter. She did not participate in war for the love of killing, but rather her activities in war were intended to restore order and thus she was ultimately the goddess of peace. Athena represented the more noble aspects of war such as courage and self-control, whereas Ares symbolised the more brutal aspects of war.

As the goddess of war, she also became the patron goddess of many of the heroes, acting more like an ideal elder sister in providing guidance. She aided Bellerophon in taming the winged horse Pegasus by providing the bridle. According to some sources Athena, not Poseidon, taught mankind the art of horsemanship, though Poseidon was a god of horses.

In the war of the Seven against Thebes, Athena would have saved her favourite warrior Tydeus and would have made him immortal, had Tydeus not been duped into swallowing his killer's brains. The sight of cannibalism revolted her so much that she left Tydeus to die from his mortal wound.

Athena also helped several of her mortal half-brothers such as Perseus and Heracles. She provided Perseus with information on how to kill the Gorgon Medusa. Athena accompanied and advised Heracles in various adventures. It was Athena who brought Heracles to aid the gods in a war against the giants (Gigantes), known as Gigantomachia. In this war she killed a giant named Pallas by crushing him under a huge boulder. She used Pallas' skin as her garment, the aegis. It was said that this was the reason why she used that name in front of her own name instead of the daughter of Pallas. She was popular among heroes because she was the goddess of victory, and one of her epithets was Athena Nike.

Athena was one of the goddesses who wanted the golden apple during the Judgement of Paris. She promised Paris to make him a great hero, winning all his wars. Her enmity was incurred against the Trojans when Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite. She sided with the Greeks, often aiding her favourites, particularly Achilles, Diomedes and Odysseus. With Athena's encouragement, Diomedes not only wounded Aeneas but also the two gods, Aphrodite and Ares.

When Ares confronted her, she easily bested him. As Ares charged her with his sword brandishing, Athena calmly hurled a large rock at Ares, knocking the war god unconscious. She also struck Aphrodite in the breasts with her two fists, when the love goddess ran to her lover's side. Perhaps it was revenge for losing the golden apple to Aphrodite in the Judgement of Paris.

This was not the only confrontation she had with Ares. According to the Epic Cycle Telegony, Odysseus was involved in a war between the Thesprotians and the Brygi. Odysseus was on the Thesprotian side because he had married Callidice, the Queen of the Thesprotians. Ares routed Odysseus' army of Thesprotis, and Athena engaged with Ares in combat. No detail was given except that Apollo separated the quarreling deities.

Athena was responsible for causing Hector to fight Achilles without divine aid: Achilles killed Hector in single combat. Athena inflicted madness on Ajax when he lost the armour of Achilles to Odysseus.

It was a sacred statuette of Athena, or that of her childhood friend Pallas, called the Palladium, which made Troy invulnerable to attack during the Trojan War.

Originally the Palladium was kept in Olympus, but when the Pleiad Electra sought protection against Zeus who was determined to rape her, Zeus angrily threw it out of heaven, landing near the tent of Ilus. If this legend is true, then the Palladium took a long time to fall from heaven to earth (4 generations to be precise) because Dardanus, son of Electra, was Ilus' great grandfather.

Upon the advice of the Trojan seer Helenus, Odysseus and Diomedes stole the Palladium from its altar. (According to Vergil in the Aeneid, the Palladium that Diomedes and Odysseus had stolen was a fake, and Aeneas took the real Palladium with him to Italy.) It was Athena who inspired Odysseus to design the Wooden Horse (Trojan Horse) that would bring about the fall of Troy.

However, her enmity was turned towards most of the Greek leaders when they failed to punish Ajax the Lesser for raping Cassandra in her temple. Athena asked Poseidon to destroy most of the Greek fleet in a violent storm.

However, she continued to aid Odysseus, and was the main patron of his family during the hero's absence. She appeared in various guises, offering advice to Penelope and Telemachus. She even accompanied Telemachus in his journey to Pylos and Sparta in the guise of Mentor, Odysseus' old friend. She inspired Odysseus and Telemachus in the battle against Penelope's suitors, and forced the dead suitors' families to make peace with Odysseus. See the Odyssey.

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Athena was probably also the goddess of justice. When the Erinyes (Furies) persecuted Orestes and afflicted him with madness, Athena acted as judge in Orestes' trial in Athens. When the Athenian jury were tied in their verdict on Orestes' innocence or guilt, she cast her verdict in favour of Orestes. She thereby acquitted Orestes of murdering his mother.

Cecrops was king of Attica (at the time, the region was known as Cecropia) when she and her uncle Poseidon sought to claim Athens by becoming a patron deity of the city. The citizens awarded the city to Athena because she caused an olive tree to spring out of the rock on the Acropolis. The city was then named after her. See Cecrops in the House of Athens.

It was during this time that Hephaestus tried to ravish the virgin war-goddess. Athena easily repulsed his amorous advance upon her. The semen from Hephaestus fell on the ground of the Acropolis, impregnating the Earth (Gaea), so Erichthonius was conceived. Some people suggested that Athena was really the mother of Erichthonius without losing her virginity; the semen sprayed on her thigh, which she wiped off her leg and threw it on the ground; this could have easily given it life is one possibility that could be considered. Erichthonius was an infant with a tail and legs of a serpent. Athena hid the child in a chest. She gave the chest to Herse and Agraulus, daughters of Cecrops, warning them not to open the chest. However, the two sisters could not resist the temptation and opened the box. Either Athena inflicted madness upon the girls for disobedience, or the deformity of Erichthonius drove them insane. Whichever was the case, the two sisters leaped off the Acropolis to their death. See Erichthonius in the House of Athens.

As goddess of craft, she invented the flute, but discarded it when Hera and Aphrodite laughed at her whenever she blew it. She cursed anyone who picked up the musical instrument that she had discarded. A satyr named Marsyas picked up the flute and dared to challenge Apollo in a musical contest, but he lost and was flayed alive by the god.

She helped Argus to build the Argo for Jason and his crew. Surprisingly, her role in the Quest was relatively small.

Her epithets were Mechanitis (patroness of undertakings), Nike (Νίκη, victory), Pallas (girl?), Parthenia, Parthenos (Παρθένος, virgin goddess), Polymetis (Πολυμήτις, resourceful), Promachus (Πρόμχος, protectress), Soteira (savior), and Tritogeneia (Τριτογένεια, Triton-born or thrice born).

Her places of worship were not only in Athens, but also in Argos, Sparta and Troy as well. The olive tree was sacred to her, and her sacred animals were horses, sea eagles, cocks and serpents. Her favourite bird was the owl.