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This article is about the Greek goddess. For other uses, see Athena (disambiguation).
"Athene", "Athina", and "Pallas Athena" redirect here. For other uses, see Athene
(disambiguation), Athina (disambiguation), and Pallas Athena (disambiguation).

Athena

Goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and war

Mattei Athena at Louvre. Roman copy from the 1st century BC/AD after a Greek original of the 4th century

BC, attributed to Cephisodotos or Euphranor.

Abode Mount Olympus

Symbol Owls, olive trees, snakes, Aegis, armour, helmets, spears, Gorgoneion

Personal information
 Children No natural children, but Erichthonius of Athens was her adoptive son

Parents In the Iliad: Zeus alone

In Theogony: Zeus and Metis[a]

Siblings Aeacus, Angelos, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Dionysus, Eileithyia, Enyo, Eris, Ersa, Hebe,

Helen of

Troy, Hephaestus, Heracles, Hermes, Minos, Pandia, Persephone, Perseus, Rhadamanthus,

the Graces, the Horae, the Litae, the Muses, the Moirai

Equivalents

Roman Minerva

equivalen

Egyptian Neith

equivalen

Celtic Sulis

equivalen

This article contains special characters. Without

proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or
other symbols.

Athena[b] or Athene,[c] often given the epithet Pallas,[d] is an ancient Greek

goddess associated with wisdom, handicraft, and warfare[2] who was
later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva.[3] Athena was regarded as the patron
and protectress of various cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens, from
which she most likely received her name.[4] She is usually shown in art wearing a helmet
and holding a spear. Her major symbols include owls, olive trees, snakes, and
the Gorgoneion.
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 head 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 also 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, afterwards transforming Arachne into the
first spider; Ovid also describes how she transformed Medusa into a Gorgon after
witnessing her being raped by Poseidon in her temple. Since the Renaissance, Athena
has become an international symbol of wisdom, the arts, and classical learning. Western
artists and allegorists have often used Athena as a symbol of freedom and democracy.

Contents

 1Etymology
 2Origins
 3Cult and patronages
o 3.1Panhellenic and Athenian cult
o 3.2Regional cults
 4Epithets and attributes
 5Mythology
o 5.1Birth
o 5.2Pallas Athena
o 5.3Lady of Athens
o 5.4Patron of heroes
o 5.5Punishment myths
o 5.6Trojan War
 6Classical art
 7Post-classical culture
o 7.1Art and symbolism
o 7.2Modern interpretations
 8Genealogy
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References
o 11.1Bibliography
 12External links

Etymology[edit]
The Acropolis at Athens (1846) by Leo von Klenze. Athena's name probably comes from the name
of the city of Athens.[4][5]

Athena is associated with the city of Athens.[4][6] The name of the city in ancient Greek
is Ἀθῆναι (Athenai), a plural toponym, designating the place where—according to myth—
she presided over the Athenai, a sisterhood devoted to her worship.[5] In ancient times,
scholars argued whether Athena was named after Athens or Athens after Athena.[4] Now
scholars generally agree that the goddess takes her name from the city;[4][6] the ending -
ene is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names.[4] Testimonies from
different cities in ancient Greece attest that similar city goddesses were worshipped in
other cities[5] and, like Athena, took their names from the cities where they were
worshipped.[5] For example, in Mycenae there was a goddess called Mykene, whose
sisterhood was known as Mykenai,[5] 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).[5] The name Athenai is likely of Pre-Greek origin
because it contains the presumably Pre-Greek morpheme *-ān-.[7]
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:
That is a graver matter, and there, my friend, the modern interpreters of Homer may, I
think, assist in explaining the view of the ancients. 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.[8]

Origins[edit]
Fragment of a fresco from the Cult Center at Mycenae dating the late thirteenth century BC
depicting a warrior goddess, possibly Athena, wearing a boar's tusk helmet and clutching a griffin[9]

Athena was originally the Aegean goddess of the palace, who presided over household
crafts and protected the king.[10][11][12][13] A single Mycenaean
Greek inscription 𐀀𐀀𐀀𐀀𐀀𐀀𐀀 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";[14][15][9] these comprise the earliest Linear B archive anywhere.[15] Although Athana
potnia is often translated Mistress Athena,[16] it could also mean "the Potnia of Athana",
or the Lady of Athens.[16][9] However, any connection to the city of Athens in the Knossos
inscription is uncertain.[17] 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.[18] 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).[19] However, the inscription quoted seems to be very similar to "a-ta-
nū-tī wa-ya", quoted as SY Za 1 by Jan Best.[19] Best translates the initial a-ta-nū-tī, which
is recurrent in line beginnings, as "I have given".[19]
A Mycenean fresco depicts two women extending their hands towards a central figure,
who is covered by an enormous figure-eight shield;[20][21] this may depict the warrior-
goddess with her palladion, or her palladion in an aniconic representation.[20][21] In the
"Procession Fresco" at Knossos, which was reconstructed by the Mycenaeans,[22] two
rows of figures carrying vessels seem to meet in front of a central figure,[22] which is
probably the Minoan precursor to Athena.[22] The early twentieth-century scholar Martin
Persson Nilsson argued that the Minoan snake goddess figurines are early
representations of Athena.[10][11]
Nilsson and others have claimed that, in early times, Athena was either an owl herself or
a bird goddess in general.[23] In the third book of the Odyssey, she takes the form of
a sea-eagle.[23] 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."[24]
Ancient Akkadian cylinder seal (dating c. 2334–2154 BC) depicting Inanna, the goddess of war,
armored and carrying weapons, resting her foot on the back of a lion[25]

It is generally agreed that the cult of Athena preserves some aspects of the Proto-Indo-
European transfunctional goddess.[26][27] 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,[11][9] both of whom were often portrayed bearing
arms.[11] Classical scholar Charles Penglase notes that Athena closely resembles Inanna
in her role as a "terrifying warrior goddess"[28] and that both goddesses were closely
linked with creation.[28] 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.[29][30]
Plato notes that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess known
as Neith,[e] whom he identifies with Athena.[31] Neith was the ancient Egyptian 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".[32][33] The "Black Athena" hypothesis stirred up widespread controversy near the
end of the twentieth century,[34][35] but it has now been widely rejected by modern
scholars.[36][37]

Cult and patronages[edit]

Panhellenic and Athenian cult[edit]

Athenian tetradrachm representing the goddess Athena

A new peplos was woven for Athena and ceremonially brought to dress her cult image (British
Museum).

In her aspect of Athena Polias, Athena was venerated as the goddess of the city and the
protectress of the citadel.[11][38][39] In Athens, the Plynteria, or "Feast of the Bath", was
observed every year at the end of the month of Thargelion.[40] 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.[41] Here
Athena's statue was undressed, her clothes washed, and body purified.[41] Athena was
worshipped at festivals such as Chalceia as Athena Ergane,[42][39] the patroness of various
crafts, especially weaving.[42][39] She was also the patron of metalworkers and was
believed to aid in the forging of armor and weapons.[42] During the late fifth century BC,
the role of goddess of philosophy became a major aspect of Athena's cult.[43]
As Athena Promachos, she was believed to lead soldiers into battle.[44][45] 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".[46][47] Athena was
believed to only support those fighting for a just cause[46] and was thought to view war
primarily as a means to resolve conflict.[46] The Greeks regarded Athena with much higher
esteem than Ares.[46][47] Athena was especially worshipped in this role during the festivals
of the Panathenaea and Pamboeotia,[48] both of which prominently featured displays of
athletic and military prowess.[48] As the patroness of heroes and warriors, Athena was
believed to favor those who used cunning and intelligence rather than brute strength.[49]

The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, which is dedicated to Athena Parthenos[50]

In her aspect as a warrior maiden, Athena was known

as Parthenos (Παρθένος "virgin"),[44][51][52] because, like her fellow
goddesses Artemis and Hestia, she was believed to remain perpetually a
virgin.[53][54][44][52][55] Athena's most famous temple, the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis,
takes its name from this title.[55] According to Karl Kerényi, a scholar of Greek mythology,
the name Parthenos is not merely an observation of Athena's virginity, but also a
recognition of her role as enforcer of rules of sexual modesty and ritual mystery.[55] Even
beyond recognition, the Athenians allotted the goddess value based on this pureness of
virginity, which they upheld as a rudiment of female behavior.[55] 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.[55] 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.[56]
Regional cults[edit]

Reverse side of a Pergamene silver tetradrachm minted by Attalus I, showing Athena seated on a
throne (c. 200 BC)

Athena was not only the patron goddess of Athens, but also other cities,
including Argos, Sparta, Gortyn, Lindos, and Larisa.[45] The various cults of Athena were
all branches of her panhellenic cult[45] 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.[45] These cults were portals of a uniform socialization, even
beyond mainland Greece.[45] 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.[57] In Arcadia, she was assimilated with the
ancient goddess Alea and worshiped as Athena Alea.[58] Sanctuaries dedicated to Athena
Alea were located in the Laconian towns of Mantineia and Tegea. The temple of Athena
Alea in Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece.[g] The
geographer Pausanias was informed that the temenos had been founded by Aleus.[59]
Athena had a major temple on the Spartan Acropolis,[60][39] where she was venerated as
Poliouchos and Khalkíoikos ("of the Brazen House",
often latinized as Chalcioecus).[60][39] This epithet may refer to the fact that cult statue held
there may have been made of bronze,[60] that the walls of the temple itself may have been
made of bronze,[60] or that Athena was the patron of metal-workers.[60] Bells made of
terracotta and bronze were used in Sparta as part of Athena's cult.[60] An Ionic-
style temple to Athena Polias was built at Priene in the fourth century BC.[61] It was
designed by Pytheos of Priene,[62] the same architect who designed the Mausoleum at
Halicarnassus.[62] The temple was dedicated by Alexander the Great[63] and an inscription
from the temple declaring his dedication is now held in the British Museum.[61]

Epithets and attributes[edit]

See also: Category:Epithets of Athena
Cult statue of Athena with the face of the Carpegna type (late 1st century BC to early 1st century
AD), from the Piazza dell'Emporio, Rome

Bust of the Velletri Pallas type, copy after a votive statue of Kresilas in Athens (c. 425 BC)

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.[45] The epithet Ergane (Εργάνη "the Industrious") pointed her out
as the patron of craftsmen and artisans.[45] Burkert notes that the Athenians sometimes
simply called Athena "the Goddess", hē theós (ἡ θεός), certainly an ancient title.[4] 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).[45]
Athena was sometimes given the epithet Hippia (Ἵππια "of the horses",
"equestrian"),[39][64] referring to her invention of the bit, bridle, chariot, and wagon.[39] The
Greek geographer Pausanias mentions in his Guide to Greece that the temple of
Athena Chalinitis ("the bridler")[64] in Corinth was located near the tomb of Medea's
children.[64] Other epithets include Ageleia, Itonia and Aethyia, under which she was
worshiped in Megara.[65][66] 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.[67] In a temple at Phrixa
in Elis, reportedly built by Clymenus, she was known as Cydonia (Κυδωνία).[68]
The Greek biographer Plutarch (46–120 AD) refers to an instance during the Parthenon's
construction of her being called Athena Hygieia (Ὑγίεια, i. e. personified "Health") after
inspiring a physician to a successful course of treatment.[69]

The owl of Athena, surrounded by an olive wreath. Reverse of an Athenian silver

tetradrachm, c. 175 BC

In Homer's epic works, Athena's most common epithet is Glaukopis (γλαυκῶπις), which
usually is translated as, "bright-eyed" or "with gleaming eyes".[70] The word is a
combination of glaukós (γλαυκός, meaning "gleaming, silvery", and later, "bluish-green"
or "gray")[71] and ṓps (ὤψ, "eye, face").[72] The word glaúx (γλαύξ,[73] "little owl")[74] 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;[75] in archaic images, she
is frequently depicted with an owl perched on her hand.[75] Through its association with
Athena, the owl evolved into the national mascot of the Athenians and eventually became
a symbol of wisdom.[3]
In the Iliad (4.514), the Odyssey (3.378), the Homeric Hymns, and in Hesiod's Theogony,
Athena is also given the curious epithet Tritogeneia (Τριτογένεια), whose significance
remains unclear.[76] It could mean various things, including "Triton-born", perhaps
indicating that the homonymous sea-deity was her parent according to some early
myths.[76] One myth relates the foster father relationship of this Triton towards the half-
orphan Athena, whom he raised alongside his own daughter Pallas.[77] 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."[78][79] 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.[80] Several scholars have suggested
a connection to the Rigvedic god Trita,[81] who was sometimes grouped in a body of three
mythological poets.[81] 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.[82][83] 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".[82] 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).[82]
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.[84]

Mythology[edit]
Birth[edit]

Athena is "born" from Zeus's forehead as a result of him having swallowed her mother Metis, as he
grasps the clothing of Eileithyia on the right; black-figured amphora, 550–525 BC, Louvre.

In the classical Olympian pantheon, Athena was regarded as the favorite daughter of
Zeus, born fully armed from his forehead.[85][86][87][h] The story of her birth comes in several
versions.[88][89][90] 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").[91][92] 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.[93][94][92][95] After learning
that Metis was pregnant, however, he became afraid that the unborn offspring would try
to overthrow him, because Gaia and Ouranos had prophesied that Metis would bear
children wiser than their father.[93][94][92][95] In order to prevent this, Zeus tricked Metis into
letting him swallow her, but it was too late because Metis had already
conceived.[93][96][92][95] 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.[97][98] According to this version of the story, Metis transformed
into many different shapes in effort to escape Zeus,[97][98] but Zeus successfully raped her
and swallowed her.[97][98]
After swallowing Metis, Zeus took six more wives in succession until he married his
seventh and present wife, Hera.[95] Then Zeus experienced an enormous
headache.[99][92][95] 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.[100][92][101][98] Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown and
armed.[100][92][87][102] The "First Homeric Hymn to Athena" states in lines 9–16 that the gods
were awestruck by Athena's appearance[103] and even Helios, the god of the sun, stopped
his chariot in the sky.[103] 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."[104][103]
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,[95] but in Imagines 2. 27 (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."[105] 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.[106] The Etymologicum
Magnum[107] instead deems Athena the daughter of the Daktyl Itonos.[108] 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.[109][110]
Pallas Athena[edit]

Detail of a Roman fresco from Pompeii showing Ajax the Lesser dragging Cassandra away from
the palladion during the fall of Troy, an event which provoked Athena's wrath against the Greek
armies[111]

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".[112] On this topic, Walter Burkert says "she is the Pallas of Athens, Pallas
Athenaie, just as Hera of Argos is Here Argeie."[4] 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.[113]
In one version of the myth, Pallas was the daughter of the sea-god Triton;[77] she and
Athena were childhood friends, but Athena accidentally killed her during a
friendly sparring match.[114] Distraught over what she had done, Athena took the name
Pallas for herself as a sign of her grief.[114] In another version of the story, Pallas was
a Gigante;[100] Athena slew him during the Gigantomachy and flayed off his skin to make
her cloak, which she wore as a victory trophy.[100][11][115][116] In an alternative variation of the
same myth, Pallas was instead Athena's father,[100][11] who attempted to assault his own
daughter,[117] causing Athena to kill him and take his skin as a trophy.[118]
The palladion was a statue of Athena that was said to have stood in her temple on the
Trojan Acropolis.[119] Athena was said to have carved the statue herself in the likeness of
her dead friend Pallas.[119] The statue had special talisman-like properties[119] and it was
thought that, as long as it was in the city, Troy could never fall.[119] When the Greeks
captured Troy, Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, clung to the palladion for
protection,[119] but Ajax the Lesser violently tore her away from it and dragged her over to
the other captives.[119] Athena was infuriated by this violation of her protection.[111] 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.[120]
Lady of Athens[edit]

The Dispute of Minerva and Neptune by René-Antoine Houasse (c. 1689 or 1706)

In a founding myth reported by Pseudo-Apollodorus,[107] Athena competed

with Poseidon for the patronage of Athens.[121] They agreed that each would give the
Athenians one gift[121] and that Cecrops, the king of Athens, would determine which gift
was better.[121] Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring sprang
up;[121] this gave the Athenians access to trade and water.[122] Athens at its height was a
significant sea power, defeating the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis[122]—but the
water was salty and undrinkable.[122] In an alternative version of the myth
from Vergil's Georgics,[107] Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse.[121] Athena
offered the first domesticated olive tree.[121][52] Cecrops accepted this gift[121] and declared
Athena the patron goddess of Athens.[121] The olive tree brought wood, oil, and
food,[122] and became a symbol of Athenian economic prosperity.[52][123] Robert Graves was
of the opinion that "Poseidon's attempts to take possession of certain cities are political
myths",[122] which reflect the conflict between matriarchal and patriarchal religions.[122]
The Athena Giustiniani, a Roman copy of a Greek statue of Pallas Athena. The guardian serpent
of the Athenian Acropolis sits coiled at her feet.[124]

Pseudo-Apollodorus[107] 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.[125][50][126] Athena wiped the semen off using a tuft of wool, which she tossed into the
dust,[125][50][126] impregnating Gaia and causing her to give birth
to Erichthonius.[125][50][126] Athena adopted Erichthonius as her son and raised
him.[125][126] The Roman mythographer Hyginus[107] 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.[125] Zeus agreed to this and
Hephaestus and Athena were married,[125] 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.[125]
The geographer Pausanias[107] records that Athena placed the infant Erichthonius into a
small chest[127] (cista), which she entrusted to the care of the three daughters
of Cecrops: Herse, Pandrosos, and Aglauros of Athens.[127] She warned the three sisters
not to open the chest,[127] but did not explain to them why or what was in it.[127] Aglauros,
and possibly one of the other sisters,[127] opened the chest.[127] 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.[128] 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,[129] but an Attic vase painting shows them
being chased by the serpent off the edge of the cliff instead.[129]
Erichthonius was one of the most important founding heroes of Athens[50] and the legend
of the daughters of Cecrops was a cult myth linked to the rituals of
the Arrhephoria festival.[50][130] 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,[131] which they would carry on their heads
down a natural underground passage.[131] They would leave the objects they had been
given at the bottom of the passage and take another set of hidden objects,[131] which they
would carry on their heads back up to the temple.[131] The ritual was performed in the
dead of night[131] and no one, not even the priestess, knew what the objects were.[131] 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.[124] Many of the surviving
sculptures of Athena show this serpent.[124]
Herodotus records that a serpent lived in a crevice on the north side of the summit of the
Athenian Acropolis[124] and that the Athenians left a honey cake for it each month as an
offering.[124] On the eve of the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, the serpent
did not eat the honey cake[124] and the Athenians interpreted it as a sign that Athena
herself had abandoned them.[124] 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.[132]
Patron of heroes[edit]

Attic red-figure kylix painting from c. 480-470 BC showing Athena observing as

the Colchian dragon disgorges the hero Jason[133]

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.[134][135] Pseudo-Apollodorus also records that Athena guided the
hero Perseus in his quest to behead Medusa.[136][137][138] She and Hermes, the god of
travelers, appeared to Perseus after he set off on his quest and gifted him with tools he
would need to kill the Gorgon.[138][139] Athena gave Perseus a polished bronze shield to
view Medusa's reflection rather than looking at her directly and thereby avoid being
turned to stone.[138][140] Hermes gave him an adamantine scythe to cut off Medusa's
head.[138][141] When Perseus swung his blade to behead Medusa, Athena guided it,
allowing his scythe to cut it clean off.[138][140] According to Pindar's Thirteenth Olympian
Ode, Athena helped the hero Bellerophon tame the winged horse Pegasus by giving him
a bit.[142][143]
In ancient Greek art, Athena is frequently shown aiding the hero Heracles.[144] She
appears in four of the twelve metopes on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia depicting
Heracles's Twelve Labors,[145][144] including the first, in which she passively watches him
slay the Nemean lion,[144] and the tenth, in which she is shown actively helping him hold
up the sky.[146] She is presented as his "stern ally",[147] but also the "gentle... acknowledger
of his achievements."[147] Artistic depictions of Heracles's apotheosis show Athena driving
him to Mount Olympus in her chariot and presenting him to Zeus for his
deification.[146] 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.[148] When half the jury votes to acquit and the other half votes
to convict, Athena casts the deciding vote to acquit Orestes[148] and declares that, from
then on, whenever a jury is tied, the defendant shall always be acquitted.[149]
In The Odyssey, Odysseus' cunning and shrewd nature quickly wins Athena's
favour.[150][135] 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.[151][136][152] 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.[153] She appears in Nausicaa's dreams to
ensure that the princess rescues Odysseus and plays a role in his eventual escort to
Ithaca.[154] Athena appears to Odysseus upon his arrival, disguised as a
herdsman;[155][156][150] she initially lies and tells him that Penelope, his wife, has remarried
and that he is believed to be dead,[155] but Odysseus lies back to her, employing skillful
prevarications to protect himself.[157][156] Impressed by his resolve and shrewdness, she
reveals herself and tells him what he needs to know in order to win back his
kingdom.[158][156][150] She disguises him as an elderly beggar so that he will not be
recognized by the suitors or Penelope,[159][156] and helps him to defeat the
suitors.[159][160][156] Athena also appears to Odysseus's son Telemachus.[161] Her actions lead
him to travel around to Odysseus's comrades and ask about his father.[162] He hears
stories about some of Odysseus's journey.[162] Athena's push for Telemachos's journey
helps him grow into the man role, that his father once held.[163] 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 Attic red-figure kylix, 480–470 BC

 

Athena, detail from a silver kantharos with Theseus in Crete (c. 440-435 BC), part of
the Vassil Bojkov collection, Sofia, Bulgaria

Silver coin showing Athena with Scylla decorated helmet and Heracles fighting the Nemean
lion (Heraclea Lucania, 390-340 BC)

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[edit]
Classical Greek depiction of Medusa from the fourth century BC

The Gorgoneion appears to have originated as an apotropaic symbol intended to ward off
evil.[164] In a late myth invented to explain the origins of the Gorgon,[165] Medusa is
described as having been a young priestess who served in the temple of Athena in
Athens.[166] Poseidon lusted after Medusa, and raped her in the temple of
Athena,[166] refusing to allow her vow of chastity to stand in his way.[166] 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.[167]
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.[168] According to Pindar, Athena gave the aulos to
mortals as a gift.[168] Later, the comic playwright Melanippides of Melos (c. 480-430 BC)
embellished the story in his comedy Marsyas,[168] 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.[168] The aulos was picked up by the satyr Marsyas, who
was later killed by Apollo for his hubris.[168] Later, this version of the story became
accepted as canonical[168] 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.[168]
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.[126][169] Chariclo's son Tiresias happened to be
hunting on the same mountain and came to the spring searching for water.[126][169] He
inadvertently saw Athena naked, so she struck him blind to ensure he would never again
see what man was not intended to see.[126][170][171] Chariclo intervened on her son's behalf
and begged Athena to have mercy.[126][171][172] Athena replied that she could not restore
Tiresias's eyesight,[126][171][172] so, instead, she gave him the ability to understand the
language of the birds and thus foretell the future.[173][172][126]
Minerva and Arachne by René-Antoine Houasse (1706)

The fable of Arachne appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses (8 AD) (vi.5–54 and 129–
145),[174][175][176] which is nearly the only extant source for the legend.[175][176] The story does
not appear to have been well known prior to Ovid's rendition of it[175] 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.[176] According to Ovid, Arachne (whose name means spider in
ancient Greek[177]) was the daughter of a famous dyer in Tyrian purple in Hypaipa
of Lydia, and a weaving student of Athena.[178] She became so conceited of her skill as a
weaver that she began claiming that her skill was greater than that of Athena
herself.[178][179] Athena gave Arachne a chance to redeem herself by assuming the form of
an old woman and warning Arachne not to offend the deities.[174][179] Arachne scoffed and
wished for a weaving contest, so she could prove her skill.[180][179]
Athena wove the scene of her victory over Poseidon in the contest for the patronage of
Athens.[180][181][179] Athena's tapestry also depicted the 12 Olympian gods and defeat of
mythological figures who challenged their authority.[182] Arachne's tapestry featured
twenty-one episodes of the deities' infidelity,[180][181][179] including Zeus being unfaithful
with Leda, with Europa, and with Danaë.[181] It represented the unjust and discrediting
behavior of the gods towards mortals.[182] Athena admitted that Arachne's work was
flawless,[180][179][181] but was outraged at Arachne's offensive choice of subject, which
displayed the failings and transgressions of the deities.[180][179][181] Finally, losing her temper,
Athena destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom, striking it with her shuttle.[180][179][181] Athena
then struck Arachne across the face with her staff four times.[180][179][181] Arachne hanged
herself in despair,[180][179][181] but Athena took pity on her and brought her back from the
dead in the form of a spider.[180][179][181]
Trojan War[edit]
Main article: Judgement of Paris

Ancient Greek mosaic from Antioch dating to the second century AD, depicting the Judgement of
Paris

The myth of the Judgement of Paris is mentioned briefly in the Iliad,[183] but is described in
depth in an epitome of the Cypria, a lost poem of the Epic Cycle,[184] 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).[183] Only Eris, goddess of discord,
was not invited.[184] 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.[185] Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the
rightful owner of the apple.[185][126]
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.[185][126] After bathing
in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, the goddesses appeared before
Paris for his decision.[185] In the extant ancient depictions of the Judgement of Paris,
Aphrodite is only occasionally represented nude, and Athena and Hera are always fully
clothed.[186] Since the Renaissance, however, western paintings have typically portrayed
all three goddesses as completely naked.[186]
All three goddesses were ideally beautiful and Paris could not decide between them, so
they resorted to bribes.[185] Hera tried to bribe Paris with power over
all Asia and Europe,[185][126] and Athena offered fame and glory in battle,[185][126] 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.[187][126] This woman was Helen, who was already
married to King Menelaus of Sparta.[187] Paris selected Aphrodite and awarded her the
apple.[187][126] The other two goddesses were enraged and, as a direct result, sided with the
Greeks in the Trojan War.[187][126]
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.[188][135] Several artistic
representations from the early sixth century BC may show Athena and
Diomedes,[188] 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.[188] Numerous passages in the Iliad also mention Athena having previously served
as the patron of Diomedes's father Tydeus.[189][190] When the Trojan women go to the
temple of Athena on the Acropolis to plead her for protection from Diomedes, Athena
ignores them.[111]
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[191] and persuades him to
hold his ground so that they can fight Achilles together.[191] Then, Hector throws his spear
at Achilles and misses, expecting Deiphobus to hand him another,[192] but Athena
disappears instead, leaving Hector to face Achilles alone without his
spear.[192] 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.[193] Even after Odysseus himself expresses pity
for Ajax,[194] Athena declares, "To laugh at your enemies - what sweeter laughter can
there be than that?" (lines 78–9).[194] Ajax later commits suicide as a result of his
humiliation.[194]

Classical art[edit]
Athena appears frequently in classical Greek art, including on coins and in paintings on
ceramics.[195][196] She is especially prominent in works produced in Athens.[195] In classical
depictions, Athena is usually portrayed standing upright, wearing a full-
length chiton.[197] She is most often represented dressed in armor like a male
soldier[196][197][6] and wearing a Corinthian helmet raised high atop her forehead.[198][6][196] Her
shield bears at its centre the aegis with the head of the gorgon (gorgoneion) in the center
and snakes around the edge.[165] Sometimes she is shown wearing the aegis as a
cloak.[196] As Athena Promachos, she is shown brandishing a spear.[195][6][196] 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.[195]
The Mourning Athena or Athena Meditating is a famous relief sculpture dating to around
470-460 BC[198][195] that has been interpreted to represent Athena Polias.[198] The most
famous classical depiction of Athena was the Athena Parthenos, a now-lost 11.5 m
(38 ft)[199] gold and ivory statue of her in the Parthenon created by the Athenian
sculptor Phidias.[197][195] 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.[195] Athena
Polias is also represented in a Neo-Attic relief now held in the Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts,[198] which depicts her holding an owl in her hand[i] and wearing her characteristic
Corinthian helmet while resting her shield against a nearby herma.[198] The Roman
goddess Minerva adopted most of Athena's Greek iconographical associations,[200] but
was also integrated into the Capitoline Triad.[200]

Attic black-figure exaleiptron of the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus (c. 570–560 BC) by
the C Painter[195]

Attic red-figure kylix of Athena Promachos holding a spear and standing beside a Doric
column (c. 500-490 BC)
 

Restoration of the polychrome decoration of the Athena statue from the Aphaea temple
at Aegina, c. 490 BC (from the exposition "Bunte Götter" by the Munich Glyptothek)

The Mourning Athena relief (c. 470-460 BC)[198][195]

Attic red-figure kylix showing Athena slaying the Gigante Enceladus (c. 550–500 BC)
 

Relief of Athena and Nike slaying the Gigante Alkyoneus (?) from the Gigantomachy Frieze
on the Pergamon Altar (early second century BC)

Classical mosaic from a villa at Tusculum, 3rd century AD, now at Museo Pio-Clementino,
Vatican

Mythological scene with Athena (left) and Herakles (right), on a stone palette of the Greco-
Buddhist art of Gandhara, India

 Atena farnese, Roman copy of a Greek original from Phidias' circle, c. 430 AD, Museo
Archeologico, Naples
Post-classical culture[edit]
Art and symbolism[edit]

Statue of Pallas Athena in front of the Austrian Parliament Building. Athena has been used
throughout western history as a symbol of freedom and democracy.[201]

Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Firmicus, denigrated Athena
as representative of all the things that were detestable about paganism;[202] they
condemned her as "immodest and immoral".[203] During the Middle Ages, however, many
attributes of Athena were given to the Virgin Mary,[203] who, in fourth century portrayals,
was often depicted wearing the Gorgoneion.[203] Some even viewed the Virgin Mary as a
warrior maiden, much like Athena Parthenos;[203] 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.[204] 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.[205]
During the Renaissance, Athena donned the mantle of patron of the arts and human
endeavor;[206] allegorical paintings involving Athena were a favorite of the Italian
Renaissance painters.[206] 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.[207][208] 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.[209][208][210] Athena is also used as the personification of
wisdom in Bartholomeus Spranger's 1591 painting The Triumph of Wisdom or Minerva
Victorious over Ignorance.[200]
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Athena was used as a symbol for female
rulers.[211] In his book A Revelation of the True Minerva (1582), Thomas
Blennerhassett portrays Queen Elizabeth I of England as a "new Minerva" and "the
greatest goddesse nowe on earth".[212] A series of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens depict
Athena as Marie de' Medici's patron and mentor;[213] 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.[213] The German sculptor Jean-Pierre-Antoine
Tassaert later portrayed Catherine II of Russia as Athena in a marble bust in
1774.[200] During the French Revolution, statues of pagan gods were torn down all
throughout France, but statues of Athena were not.[213] Instead, Athena was transformed
into the personification of freedom and the republic[213] and a statue of the goddess stood
in the center of the Place de la Revolution in Paris.[213] In the years following the
Revolution, artistic representations of Athena proliferated.[214]
A statue of Athena stands directly in front of the Austrian Parliament
Building in Vienna,[215] and depictions of Athena have influenced other symbols of western
freedom, including the Statue of Liberty and Britannia.[215] For over a century, a full-scale
replica of the Parthenon has stood in Nashville, Tennessee.[216] 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.[216] The state seal of California bears the image of Athena
kneeling next to a brown grizzly bear.[217] 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.[218]

Pallas and the Centaur (c. 1482) by Sandro Botticelli

 

Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue (1502) by Andrea Mantegna[209][208][210]

Athena Scorning the Advances of Hephaestus (c. 1555-1560) by Paris Bordone

 

Minerva Victorious over Ignorance (c. 1591) by Bartholomeus Spranger

Maria de Medici (1622) by Peter Paul Rubens, showing her as the incarnation of Athena[213]
 

Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars (1629) by Peter Paul Rubens

Pallas Athena (c. 1655) by Rembrandt

Minerva Revealing Ithaca to Ulysses (fifteenth century) by Giuseppe Bottani

 

Minerva and the Triumph of Jupiter (1706) by René-Antoine Houasse

The Combat of Mars and Minerva (1771) by Joseph-Benoît Suvée

Minerva Fighting Mars (1771) by Jacques-Louis David

 

Minerva of Peace mosaic in the Library of Congress

Athena on the Great Seal of California

Modern interpretations[edit]

Modern Neopagan Hellenist altar dedicated to Athena and Apollo

One of Sigmund Freud's most treasured possessions was a small, bronze sculpture of
Athena, which sat on his desk.[219] Freud once described Athena as "a woman who is
unapproachable and repels all sexual desires - since she displays the terrifying genitals
of the Mother."[220] Feminist views on Athena are sharply divided;[220] some feminists
regard her as a symbol of female empowerment,[220] 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."[220] In contemporary Wicca, Athena is venerated as an aspect of
the Goddess[221] and some Wiccans believe that she may bestow the "Owl Gift" ("the
 ability to write and communicate clearly") upon her worshippers.[221] Due to her status as
one of the twelve Olympians, Athena is a major deity
in Hellenismos,[222] a Neopagan religion which seeks to authentically revive and recreate
the religion of ancient Greece in the modern world.[223]
Athena is a natural patron of universities: At Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania a statue
of Athena (a replica of the original bronze one in the arts and archaeology library) resides
in the Great Hall.[224] It is traditional at exam time for students to leave offerings to the
goddess with a note asking for good luck,[224] or to repent for accidentally breaking any of
the college's numerous other traditions.[224] Pallas Athena is the tutelary goddess of the
international social fraternity Phi Delta Theta.[225] Her owl is also a symbol of the
fraternity.[225]

Genealogy[edit]
showAthena's
family tree

See also[edit]

 Ancient Greece portal

 Myths portal

 Religion portal

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

Notes[edit]
1. ^ In other traditions, Athena's father is sometimes listed
as Pallas the Giant, Cyclops Brontes, or Itonosthe Daktyl.[1]
2. ^ /əˈθiːnə/; Attic Greek: Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnâ,
or Ἀθηναία, Athēnaía; Epic: Ἀθηναίη, Athēnaíē; Doric: Ἀθάνα, Athā́ nā
3. ^ /əˈθiːniː/; Ionic: Ἀθήνη, Athḗnē
4. ^ /ˈpæləs/; Παλλάς Pallás
5. ^ "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.)
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ "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)
8. ^ 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.
9. ^ The owl's role as a symbol of wisdom originates in this association with Athena.
10. ^ According to Homer, Iliad 1.570–579, 14.338, Odyssey 8.312, Hephaestus was
apparently the son of Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.
11. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 927–929, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone,
with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.
12. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus' severed
genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
 13. ^ According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus
(Iliad 3.374, 20.105; Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione (Iliad 5.370–71), see Gantz, pp. 99–
100.

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