Athena

 

(əthē'nə) , or Pallas Athena (păl'əs) , in Greek religion and mythology, one of the most important Olympian deities. According to myth, after Zeus seduced Metis he learned that any son she bore would overthrow him, so he swallowed her alive. Later Hephaestus split Zeus' skull with an ax, and out sprang Athena, fully armed. Athena was a deity of diverse functions and attributes. Her most conspicuous role was perhaps that of a goddess of war, the female counterpart of Ares. However, she was also a goddess of peace, noted for her compassion and generosity. Like Minerva, with whom the Romans identified her, she was a patron of the arts and crafts, especially spinning and weaving. In later times she was important as a goddess of wisdom. Athena was also a guardian of cities, notably Athens, where the Parthenon was erected as her temple. In a contest with Poseidon concerning dominion over Attica, Athena made an olive tree grow on the Acropolis while Poseidon caused a saltwater stream to gush from the Acropolis. The other Olympians, asked to judge the contest, decided in favor of Athena. Her statue, the Palladium, was supposed to protect the city that possessed it. It was said that because she accidentally killed Pallas she set the name Pallas before her own. Although a virgin goddess, she was concerned with fertility, and at Athens and Elis her worship was notably maternal. Athena is represented in art as a stately figure, armored, and wielding the aegis. Her most important festival was the Panathenaea, which was celebrated annually at Athens. It included athletic and musical contests, poetic recitations, and sacrifices. At the end of the festivities a grand procession carried a richly embroidered peplos to the Acropolis as a present to Athena.

In Greek mythology, Athena (Attic: Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnâ, or Ἀθήνη, Athḗnē; Doric: Ἀσάνα, Asána; Latin: Minerva) is the shrewd companion of Heroes and the Goddess of Heroic endeavour. She would also come to be known as the goddess of wisdom as philosophy became applied to cult in the later fifth century.^[1] She remained the patroness of weaving especially and other crafts (Athena Ergane) and the more disciplined side of war, where she led the battle (Athena Promachos)^[2]. Athena's wisdom also includes the cunning intelligence (metis) of such figures as Odysseus.

She is attended by an owl, and is often accompanied by the goddess of victory, Nike, which in established icons she offers upon her extended hand. Wearing a goatskin breastplate called the Aegis given to her by her father, Zeus^[3], she is often shown helmeted and with a shield bearing the Gorgon Medusa's head, the gorgoneion, a votive gift of Perseus. Athena is an armed warrior goddess, and appears in Greek mythology as a helper of many heroes, including Heracles, Jason, and Odysseus. In classical myth she never had a consort or lover, and thus was often known as Athena Parthenos ("Athena the virgin"), hence her most famous temple, the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens. In a remnant of archaic myth, she was the mother of Erichthonius by the attempted rape by Hephaestus, which failed.^[4]

In her role as a protector of the city, Athena was worshiped throughout the Greek world as Athena Polias ("Athena of the city"). She had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city.^[5]

Mythology

Birth of Athena, daughter of Zeus

Athena is most commonly described as the daughter of Zeus. Which accords her special status: the weapons for which she is so famous are the thunderbolt and the aegis, which she and he share exclusively. She was born from the forehead of Zeus.

The Olympian version

Though at Mycenaean Knossos Athena appears before Zeus does— in Linear B, as a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja, "Mistress Athena"—^[6] in the Olympian pantheon, Athena was remade as the favorite daughter of Zeus, born fully armed from his forehead after he swallowed her mother, Metis.^[7] The story of her birth comes in several versions. In the one most commonly cited, Zeus lay with Metis, the goddess of crafty thought and wisdom, but immediately feared the consequences. It had been prophesied that Metis would bear children more powerful than the sire,^[8] even Zeus himself. In order to forestall these dire consequences, after lying with her, Zeus "put her away inside his own belly;" he "swallowed her down all of a sudden,"^[9] He was too late: Metis had already conceived a child. When it came time, Zeus was in great pain; Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes or Palaemon (depending on the sources examined) cleaved Zeus's head with the double-headed Minoan axe, the labrys. Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown and armed with a shout, "and pealed to the broad sky her clarion cry of war. And Ouranos trembled to hear, and Mother Gaia" (Pindar, Seventh Olympian Ode).

Hera was so annoyed at Zeus producing a child apparently on his own that she caused herself to conceive and bear Hephaestus by herself. Metis never bore any more children, and Zeus persisted as supreme ruler of Mount Olympus.

Other origin tales

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 is said to have visited 'the inhabitable world' and bequeathed Attica to Athena. Sanchuniathon's account would make Athena, like Hera, the sister of Zeus, not his daughter.

Pallas Athena

The major competing tradition regarding Athena's parentage involves some of her more mysterious epithets: Pallas, as in Ancient Greek Παλλάς Άθήνη (also Pallantias) and Tritogeneia (also Trito, Tritonis, Tritoneia, Tritogenes). A separate entity named Pallas is invoked – whether Athena's father, sister, foster-sister, companion or opponent in battle. In every case, Athena kills Pallas, accidentally, and thereby gains the name for herself.

When Pallas is Athena's father the events, including her birth, are located near a body of water named Triton or Tritonis, the result of an etymology of Tritogeneia from Tritonis. When Pallas is Athena's sister or foster-sister, Athena's father or foster-father is himself Triton, the son and herald of Poseidon. But Athena may be called the daughter of Poseidon and a nymph named Tritonis without involving Pallas. Likewise, Pallas may be Athena's father or opponent without involving Triton.^[10] On this topic, Walter Burkert says "she is the Pallas of Athens, Pallas Athenaie, just as Hera of Argos is Here Argeie.^[11] For the Athenians, Burkert notes, Athena was simply "the Goddess", he thea, certainly an ancient title.

Athena Parthenos: Virgin Athena

Athena never had a consort or lover, and thus was also known as Athena Parthenos, "Virgin Athena." Her most famous temple, the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens takes its name from this title. It was not merely an observation of her virginity, but a recognition of her role as enforcer of rules of sexual modesty and ritual mystery. This role is expressed in a number of stories about Athena. Marinus reports that when Christians removed the statue of the Goddess from the Parthenon, a beautiful woman appeared in a dream of Proclus, a devotee of Athena, and announced that the "Athenian Lady" wished to dwell with him.^[12]

Erichthonius

Hephaestus attempted to rape Athena but she eluded him. His semen fell on the ground, and Erichthonius was born from the Earth, Gaia. Athena then raised the baby as a foster mother.^[13]

Athena put the infant Erichthonius in a small box (cista) which she entrusted to the care of three sisters, Herse, Pandrosus and Aglaulus of Athens. The goddess didn't tell them what the box contained, but warned them not to open it until she returned. One or two sisters opened the cista to reveal Erichthonius, in the form (or embrace) of a serpent. The serpent, or insanity induced by the sight, drove Herse and Pandrosus to throw themselves off the Acropolis.^[14] Jane Harrison (Prolegomena) finds this to be a simple cautionary tale directed at young girls carrying the cista in the Thesmophoria rituals, to discourage them from opening it outside the proper context.

Another version of the myth of the Athenian maidens is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses; in it Hermes falls in love with Herse. Herse, Aglaulus and Pandrosus go to the temple to offer sacrifices to Athena. Hermes demands help from Aglaulusto to seduce Herse. Aglaulus demands money in exchange. Hermes gives her the money the sisters had 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.^[15]

With this mythic origin Erichthonius became the founder-king of Athens, where many beneficial changes to Athenian culture were ascribed to him. During this time, Athena frequently protected him.

Medusa and Tiresias

Medusa, unlike her two sister-Gorgons, came to be thought of during the fifth century as mortal and extremely beautiful. But she had sex with — or was raped by — Poseidon in a temple of Athena. Upon discovering the desecration of her temple, Athena changed Medusa's form to match that of her sister Gorgons as punishment. Medusa's hair turned into snakes, her lower body was transformed, and meeting her gaze would turn any living creature to stone.

In one version of the Tiresias myth, Tiresias stumbled upon Athena bathing, and was blinded by her nakedness.^[16] To compensate him for his loss, she sent serpents to lick his ears, which gave him the gift of prophecy.

Lady of Athens

Athena competed with Poseidon to be the patron deity of Athens, which was yet unnamed in this founding myth. They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and that the Athenians would choose the gift they preferred. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a spring sprang up; this gave them a means of trade and water — Athens at its height was a significant sea power, defeating the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis — but it was salty and not very good for drinking. (In an alternate version, Poseidon offered the first horse.) Athena, however, offered them the first domesticated olive tree. The Athenians (or their king, Cecrops) accepted the olive tree and with it the patronage of Athena, for the olive tree brought wood, oil and food. Robert Graves was of the opinion that "Poseidon's attempts to take possession of certain cities are political myths".^[17] but any actual socio-political struggle encoded in this myth, whether between the inhabitants established during Mycenaean times and newer immigrants or otherwise, is beyond determining.

Athena was also the patron goddess of several other cities, notably Sparta.

Counselor

Athena guided Perseus in his quest to behead Medusa. She instructed Heracles to skin the Nemean Lion by using its own claws to cut through its thick hide. She also helped Heracles to defeat the Stymphalian Birds, and to navigate the underworld so as to capture Cerberos.

Odysseus' cunning and shrewd nature quickly won Athena's favor, though in the realistic epic mode she is largely confined to aiding him only from afar, as by implanting thoughts in his head, during his journey home from Troy. It is not until he washes up on the shore of an island where Nausicaa is washing her clothes that Athena can actually arrive herself to provide more tangible assistance. She appears in Nausicaa's dreams to ensure that the princess rescues Odysseus and eventually sends him to Ithaca. Athena, herself, appears in disguise to Odysseus upon his arrival. She initially lies and tells him Penelope, his wife, has remarried and that Odysseus is believed to be dead, though Odysseus lies to her, seeing through her disguise. Pleased with his resolve and shrewdness, she reveals herself to him and tells him everything he needs to know in order to win back his kingdom. She disguises him as an elderly man so that he will not be noticed by the Suitors or Penelope and she helps Odysseus defeat his suitors and end the feud against their relatives.

Arachne

The fable of Arachne is a late addition to Greek mythology,^[18] that does not appear in the myth repertory of the Attic vase-painters. Arachne's name simply means "spider" (αράχνη). Arachne was the daughter of a famous dyer in Tyrian purple in Hypaipa of Lydia. She became so conceited of her skill as a weaver that she began claiming that her skill was greater than that of Athena herself.

Athena gave Arachne a chance to redeem herself by assuming the form of an old woman and warning Arachne not to offend the gods. Arachne scoffed and wished for a weaving contest, so she could prove her skill.

Athena wove the scene of her victory over Poseidon that had inspired her patronage of Athens. According to the Latin narrative, Arachne's tapestry featured twenty-one episodes of the infidelity of the gods: Zeus being unfaithful with Leda, with Europa, with Danaë.

Even Athena admitted that Arachne's work was flawless, but was outraged at Arachne's disrespectful choice of subjects that displayed the failings and transgressions of the gods.^[19] Finally losing her temper, Athena destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom, striking it with her shuttle, Arachne realized her folly and hanged herself.

In Ovid's telling, Athena took pity on Arachne who was changed into a spider. The story suggests that the origin of weaving lay in imitation of spiders and that it was considered to have been perfected first in Asia Minor.

Cult and attributes

Athena's epithets include Άτρυτώνη, Atrytone (= the unwearying), Παρθένος, Parthénos (= virgin), and Ή Πρόμαχος, Promachos (the pre-fighter/-tress, i. e. the person who fights in front).

In poetry from Homer onward, Athena's most common epithet is glaukopis (γλαυκώπις), which is usually translated "bright-eyed" or "with gleaming eyes".^[20] It is a combination of glaukos (γλαύκος, meaning "gleaming," "silvery," and later, "bluish-green" or "gray") and ops (ώψ, "eye," or sometimes, "face"). It is interesting to note that glaux (γλαύξ, "owl") is from the same root, presumably because of its own distinctive eyes. The bird which sees in the night is closely associated with the goddess of wisdom: in archaic images, she is frequently depicted with an owl perched on her head. Olive tree is sacred to her. In earlier times, Athena may well have been a bird goddess, similar to the unknown goddess depicted with owls, wings and bird talons on the Burney relief, a Mesopotamian terracotta relief of the early second millennium BC. ^{[citation needed]}

Athena Tritogeneia

In the Iliad (4.514), the Homeric Hymns and in Hesiod's Theogony, she is given the curious epithet Tritogeneia. The meaning of this term is unclear. It seems to mean "Triton-born," perhaps indicating that the sea-god was her father according to some early myths,^[21] or, less likely, that she was born near Lake Triton in Africa. Another possible meaning is "triple-born" or "third-born," which may refer 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^{[citation needed]} identify her as Zeus' first child.

In her role as judge at Orestes' trial on the murder of his mother, Clytemnestra (which he won), Athena won the epithet Athena Areia.

Athena was later associated with the application of philosophy to cult in the fifth century. She remained the patroness of weaving, crafts and the more disciplined side of war^[22]. Athena's wisdom encompasses the technical knowledge employed in weaving, metal-working, but also includes the cunning intelligence (metis) of such figures as Odysseus.

The owl and the olive tree are sacred to her. She is attended by an owl, and is often accompanied by the goddess of victory, Nike. Wearing a goatskin breastplate called the Aegis given to her by her father, Zeus^[23], she is often shown helmeted and with a shield bearing the Gorgon Medusa's head, a votive gift of Perseus. Athena is an armed warrior goddess, and appears in Greek mythology as the counselor of many heroes, including Heracles, Jason, and Odysseus.

Athena was given many other cult titles. She had the epithet Athena Ergane as the patron of craftsmen and artisans. With the epithet Athena Parthenos ("virgin"), Athena was worshiped on the Acropolis, especially in the festival of the Panathenaea. With the epithet Athena Promachos she led in battle. With the epithet Athena Polias ("of the city"), Athena was the protectress of Athens and its Acropolis, but also of many other cities, including Argos, Sparta, Gortyn, Lindos, and Larisa. She was given the epithet Athena Hippeia or Athena Hippia as the inventor of the chariot, and was worshipped under this title at Athens, Tegea and Olympia. As Athena Hippeia she was given an alternative parentage: Poseidon and Polyphe, daughter of Oceanus. ^[24][25]. In each of these cities her temple was frequently the major temple on the acropolis.^[26] Athena was often equated with Aphaea, a local goddess of the island of Aegina, located near Athens, once Aegina was under Athenian's power. Plutarch also refers to an instance during the Parthenon's construction of her being called Athena Hygieia ("healer"):

A strange accident happened in the course of building, which showed that the goddess was not averse to the work, but was aiding and co-operating to bring it to perfection. One of the artificers, the quickest and the handiest workman among them all, with a slip of his foot fell down from a great height, and lay in a miserable condition, the physicians having no hope of his recovery. When Pericles was in distress about this, the goddess [Athena] appeared to him at night in a dream, and ordered a course of treatment, which he applied, and in a short time and with great ease cured the man. And upon this occasion it was that he set up a brass statue of Athena Hygeia, in the citadel near the altar, which they say was there before. But it was Phidias who wrought the goddess's image in gold, and he has his name inscribed on the pedestal as the workman of it.^[27]

In classical art

Athena is classically portrayed wearing full armor, with her helmet raised high on the forehead to reveal her face in the gesture of peaceful greeting; she carries a spear or has shifted it in order to extend upon her hand the image of Nike. Her shield bears at its centre the gorgoneion, the head of the gorgon Medusa. It is in this standing posture that she was depicted in Phidias's famous lost gold and ivory statue of her, 36 m tall, the Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon. Athena is also often depicted with an owl sitting on one of her shoulders.^[28] The Mourning Athena is a relief sculpture that dates around 460 BC and portrays a weary Athena resting on a staff. In earlier, archaic portraits of Athena in Black-figure pottery, the goddess retains some of her Minoan-Mycenaean character, such as great bird wings though this is not true of archaic sculpture such as those of Aphaean Athena, where Athena has subsumed an earlier, invisibly numinous— Aphaea— goddess with Cretan connections in her mythos. Other commonly received and repeated types of Athena in sculpture may be found in this list.

Apart from her attributes, there seems to be a relative consensus in sculpture from the fifth century onward as to what Athena looked like. Most noticeable in the face is perhaps the full round strong chin with a high nose that has a high bridge like a natural extension of the forehead. The eyes are typically somewhat deeply set. The unsmiling lips are usually full but the mouth is fairly narrow, usually just slightly wider than the nose. The neck is somewhat long. The net result is a serene, serious, somewhat aloof beauty.

Name, etymology and origin

She had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city.^[29] Athena is associated with Athens, a plural name because it was the place where she presided over her sisterhood, the Athenai, in earliest times: "[Mycenae] was the city where the Goddess was called Mykene, and Mycenae is named in the plural for the sisterhood of females who tended her there. At Thebes she was called Thebe, and the city again a plural, Thebae (or Thebes, where the 's' is the plural formation). Similarly, at Athens she was called Athena, and the city Athenae (or Athens, again a plural)." ^[30] Whether her name is attested in Eteocretan or not will have to wait for decipherment of Linear A.

Günther Neumann has suggested that Athena's name is possibly of Lydian origin;^[31] it may be a compound word derived in part from Tyrrhenian "ati", meaning "mother" and the name of the Hurrian goddess "Hannahannah" shortened in various places to "Ana". In Mycenaean Greek, at Knossos a single inscription A-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja /Athana potniya/ appears in the Linear B tablets from the Late Minoan II-era "Room of the Chariot Tablets"; these comprise the earliest Linear B archive anywhere.^[32] Though Athana potniya is often translated "Mistress Athena", it literally means "the potnia of At(h)ana", which perhaps means "the Lady of Athens";^[33] Any connection to the city of Athens in the Knossos inscription is uncertain.^[34] We also find A-ta-no-dju-wa-ja /Athana diwya/, the final part being the Linear B spelling of what we know from ancient Greek as Diwia (Mycenaean di-u-ja or di-wi-ja): "divine" Athena was also a weaver and the god of crafts. (see dyeus).^[35]

In his dialogue Cratylus, Plato gives the etymology of Athena's name based on the view of the ancient Athenians:

"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 Athene "mind" [nous] and "intelligence" [dianoia], 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" [Thou noesis], as though he would say: This is she who has the mind better than others. Nor shall we be far wrong in supposing that the author of it wished to identify this Goddess with moral intelligence [en ethei noesin], and therefore gave her the name ethonoe; which, however, either he or his successors have altered into what they thought a nicer form, and called her Athene".

Plato, Cratylus, 407b

Thus for Plato her name was to be derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα, Atheonóa— which the Greeks rationalised as from god's (theos) mind (nous).

Herodotus noted that the Egyptian citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess whose Egyptian name was Neith;^[36] they identified her with Athena. (Timaeus 21e), (Histories 2:170-175).

Some authors^{[citation needed]} believe that in early times, Athena was an owl herself, or a bird goddess in general: in Book 3 of the Odyssey, she takes the form of a sea-eagle. These authors argue that she dropped her prophylactic owl-mask before she lost her wings. "Athene, by the time she appears in art," Jane Ellen Harrison remarked, "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."^[37] Some authors^{[attribution needed]} claim her tasselled aegis may be the remnants of wings.

In post-classical culture

Athena (Minerva) is the subject of the $50 1915-S Panama-Pacific commemorative coin. At 2.5 troy oz (78 g) gold, this is the largest (by weight) coin ever produced by the U.S. Mint. This was the first $50 coin issued by the U.S. Mint and no higher was produced until the production of the $100 platinum coins in 1997. Of course, in terms of face-value in adjusted dollars, the 1915 is the highest denomination ever issued by the U.S. Mint.

For over a century a full-scale replica of the Parthenon has stood in Nashville, Tennessee, which is known as the Athens of the South. In 1990, a gilded 41 foot (12.5 m) tall replica of Phidias' statue of the goddess was added.

The state seal of California features an image of Athena (or Minerva) kneeling next to a brown grizzly bear.[3]

She is the symbol of the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany.

She is the symbol of the United States Women's Army Corp and was depicted on their Unit Crest. A medal awarded to women who served in the Women Army Auxiliary Corp from 10 July1942 to 31 August1943, and to the Women Army Corp from 1 September1943 to 2 September1945 featured her on the front.

Athena's Helmet is the central feature on the United States Military Academy crest.

Athena is a source of influence for feminist theologians such as Carol P. Christ.

The goddess also holds a special place in the traditions at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. A statue of Athena (a replica of the original bronze one in the archaeology library) resides in the Great Hall. It is traditional at exam time for students to leave offerings to the goddess with a note asking for good luck, or to repent for accidentally breaking any of the college's numerous other traditions. Athena's owl also serves as the mascot of the college.

A statue of the skeptical thinker Ernest Renan caused great controversy when it was installed in Tréguier, Brittany. Renan's 1862 biography of Jesus had denied his divinity, and he had written the Prayer on the Acropolis addressed to the goddess Athena. The statue was placed next to the cathedral. Renan's head was turned away from the building, while Athena was depicted beside him, raising her arm as if in challenge to the church. The installation was accompanied by a mass protest from local catholics and a religious service against the growth of skepticism and secularism.^[38]

See also

• Minerva

Notes

Bibliography

• Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion (Harvard).
• Graves, Robert, (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths revised edition.
• Harrison, Jane Ellen, 1903. Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion.
• Kerenyi, Karl, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks (Thames and Hudson).
• Palaima, Thomas, 2004. "Appendix One: Linear B Sources." In Trzaskoma, Stephen, et al., eds., Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation (Hackett).
• Ruck, Carl A.P. and Danny Staples, 1994. The World of Classical Myth: Gods and Goddesses, Heroines and Heroes (Durham, NC).
• Telenius, Seppo Sakari, 2005 and 2006. Athena-Artemis.
• Ventris, Michael and John Chadwick, 1973. Documents in Mycenaean Greek (Cambridge).

External links

• (Carlos Parada) Athena Album Repertory of main Athena types and post-Renaissance depictions
• Roy George, "Athena: The sculptures of the goddess": Another, more extensive repertory of Greek and Roman types
• Theoi.com Cult of Athena Extracts of classical texts
• The Nashville Parthenon

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