ATHENA

Athena is the Greek goddess of war, arts, skill, and most of all, wisdom.

The Romans identify her as Minerva (Hamilton 29). She sprung fully grown

from her father's head, but there are many different versions of how that

came to be. Some believe that she had no mother, while others think Metis,

one of Zeus's many consorts, led to the birth of the Athena

She was fierce and brave in battle; however, she only took part in wars

that defended the state and home from outside enemies. She was the patron

of the city, handcraft, and agriculture. She invented the bridle, which

permitted man to tame horses, the trumpet, the flute, the pot, the rake, the

plow, the yoke, the ship, and the chariot. She was the embodiment of

wisdom, reason, and purity. She was Zeus' favourite child and was allowed

to use his weapons including his thunderbolt. Her holy tree was the olive tree

and she was often symbolised as an owl.

Also, Athena found poetry and art are exceptionally accurate for the

Greek people as a whole, perhaps because Greek poets and artists tended,

like Athena, to belong to society and civilization and not like Artemis, like the

wilderness. Even the goddess as she was before Homer, the goddess whom

archeology and linguistics must reconstruct, finds close reflection in Homers

pages. When during 2nd millenium B.C. the Greeks settled the peninsula to

which they later gave their name, they probably found Athenas worships
already established, in Crete if not on the main land. The pre-Greek Minoan

Cretans worshiped a snake goddess who protected the home and who, like

other Minoan deities, was thought to appear among men in the shape of a

bird; snake and bird attributes as well as bird epiphany are especially

characteristics of Athena as she appears in Homers and afterward. The

Minoans worshiped their goddess in recessed sanctuaries in their palaces,

her priest being the master of the house or, in palaces, the king. Then,

probably, with the dissolution of the Mycenaean society around 1100-1000

B.C. and the migration of the Greeks across the Aegean to Asia Minor, Athena

became a warrior goddess. It seems quite possible that during these years

she was assimilated with an old Greek warrior goddess, Pallas

(Maiden),into the familiar Pallas Athena. In the Illiad Athena inspires and

fights along side the Aeachean worriers, and helps many Trojan War heroes;

like Odysseus, Diomedes, and many others. She fills Diomedess heart with

power; she gives him vision to see what is Mortal and what is Divine; she

strengthens him when he is wounded. She even guides his spear, an act that

is not understood as an unfair advantage, but rather as a symbol of his

prowess.

Etymology of the name and origins of

her cult
 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).[5]

Athena had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the

etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city. According

to mythical lore, she competed with Poseidon and she won by creating the

olive tree; the Athenians would accept her gift and name the city after her. In

history, the citizens of Athens built a statue of Athena as a temple to the

goddess, which had piercing eyes, a helmet on her head, attired with

an aegis orcuirass, and an extremely long spear. It also had a crystal shield

with the head of the Gorgonon it. A large snake accompanied her and she

held Nike, the goddess of victory, in her hand.

In a Mycenean fresco, there is a composition of two women extending

their hands towards a central figure who is covered by an enormous figure-

eight shield and could also depict the war-goddess with her palladium, or her

palladium in an aniconic representation. Therefore, Mylonas believes that

Athena was a Mycenaean creation.[6] On the other hand, Nilsson claims that

she was the goddess of the palace who protected the king, and that the
origin of Athena was the Minoan domestic snake-goddess.[7] In the so-called

Procession-fresco inKnossos which was reconstructed by the Mycenaeans,

two rows of figures carrying vessels, seem to meet in front of a central figure,

which is probably the Minoan palace goddess Atano.[8]

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.[9][10] Although Athana potniya often is translated Mistress

Athena, it literally means "the Potnia of At(h)ana", which perhaps, means the

Lady of Athens;[11] any connection to the city of Athens in the Knossos

inscription is uncertain.[12] We also find A-ta-no-dju-wa-ja (KO Za 1 inscription,

line 1), inLinear A Minoan; the final part being regarded as the Linear A

Minoan equivalent of the Linear B Mycenaean di-u-ja or di-wi-ja (Diwia,

"divine"). Divine Athena also was a weaver and the deity of crafts

(see dyeus).[13] Whether her name is attested in Eteocretan or not will have

to wait for decipherment of Linear A.

Apart from these Creto-Greek attributions, Gnther Neumann has

suggested that Athenas name is possibly of Lydian origin;[14] it may be a

compound word derived in part fromTyrrhenian ati, meaning mother and the

name of the Hurrian goddess Hannahannahshortened in various places

to Ana.[citation needed]
 In his dialogue Cratylus, the Greek philosopher Plato (428347 BC),

gives the etymology of Athenas name, based on the views 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 [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 [ theou noesis], as though he would

say: This is she who has the mind of God (a theonoa ). Perhaps,

however, the name Theonoe may mean she who knows divine things (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 (en ethei noesin), 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 for Plato her name was to be derived from

Greek , Atheonawhich the later Greeks rationalised as from the

deitys ( theos) mind ( nous).

Plato also noted that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a

goddess whose Egyptian name was Neith,[15] and which was identified with
Athena.[16] Neith was the war goddess and huntress deity of the Egyptians

since the ancient Pre-Dynastic period, who was also identified with weaving.

In addition, ancient Greek myths reported that Athena had visited many

mythological places such as Libya's Triton River in North Africa and

the Phlegraean plain.[17]Scholar Martin Bernal created the

controversial[18] Black Athena theory to explain this associated origin by

claiming that the conception of Neith was brought to Greece from Egypt,

along with "an enormous number of features of civilization and culture in the

third and second millennia".[19] The connection with Neith was later rejected

by other scholars in view of formal difficulties.[20]

R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name.[21]

Some authors[citation needed] believe that, in early times, Athena was either

an owl herself or abird goddess in general: In the third Book 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. Athena, by the time she

appears in art, Jane Ellen Harrison had 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.[22]

Some Greek authors[who?] have derived natural symbols from the

etymological roots of Athenas names to be aether, air, earth, and moon.

This was one of the primary developments of scholarly exploration in the

ancient world.[23]

Miriam Robbins Dexter has suggested that, at least at some point in

her history, Athena has been a solar deity.[24] Athena bears traits common

with Indo-European solar goddesses, such as the possession of a mirror and

the invention of weaving (for instance, the BalticSaule possesses both these

characteristics), and her association with Medusa (herself also suspected of

being the remnants of a solar goddess) adds solar iconography to her cultus.

Additionally, she is also equated with the Celtic Sulis,[clarification needed] a deity

whose name is derived from the common proto-Indo-European root for many

solar deities. Though the sun in Greek myth is personified as the male Helios,

several relictual solar goddesses are known, such as Alectrona.

Cult and patronages

Athenian tetradrachm representing the goddess Athena.

A new peplos was woven for Athena and ceremonially brought to dress

hercult image (British Museum).

Athena as the goddess of philosophy became an aspect of her cult in

Classical Greece during the late 5th century BC.[25] She is the patroness of

various crafts, especially of weaving, as Athena Ergane, and was honored as

such at festivals such as Chalceia. The metalwork of weapons also fell under

her patronage. She led battles (Athena Promachos or the warrior

maiden Athena Parthenos)[26] as the disciplined, strategic side of war, in

contrast to her brother Ares, the patron of violence, bloodlust and slaughter

"the raw force of war".[27] Athena is the goddess of knowledge, purity, arts,

crafts, learning, justice and wisdom. She represents intelligence, humility,

consciousness, cosmic knowledge, creativity, education, enlightenment, the

arts, eloquence and power. She stands for Truth, Justice, and Moral values.

She plays a tough, clever and independent role. Not only was this version of

Athena the opposite of Ares in combat, it was also the polar opposite of the

serene earth goddess version of the deity, Athena Polias.[26]

Athena appears in Greek mythology as the patron and helper of many

heroes, includingOdysseus, Jason, and Heracles. In Classical Greek myths,

she never consorts with a lover, nor does she ever marry,[28] earning the

title Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin). A remnant of archaic myth depicts

her as the adoptive mother of Erechtheus/Erichthoniusthrough the foiled

rape by Hephaestus.[29] Other variants relate that Erichthonius, the serpent

that accompanied Athena, was born to Gaia: when the rape failed, the semen

landed on Gaia and impregnated her. After Erechthonius was born, Gaia gave

him to Athena.

Though Athena is a goddess of war strategy, she disliked fighting

without purpose and preferred to use wisdom to settle predicaments.[30] The

goddess approved of fighting only for a reasonable cause or to resolve

conflict. She encouraged everyone to use intuitive wisdom rather than anger
or violence. As patron of Athens she fought in the Trojan war on the side of

the Achaeans.

Attributes and epithets

In poetry from Homer, an oral tradition of the 8th or 7th century BC,

onward, Athena's most common epithet is Glaukopis (), which

usually is translated as, bright-eyed or with gleaming eyes.[31] The word is a

combination of glaukos (, meaning gleaming, silvery, and later,

bluish-green or gray)[32] and ops (, eye, or sometimes, face).[33] It is

interesting to note that glaux (,[34] "little owl")[35] is from the same

root, presumably according to some, because of the bird's own distinctive

eyes. The bird which sees well in the night is closely associated with the

goddess of wisdom: in archaic images, Athena is frequently depicted with an

owl (or "owl of Athena" and later under the Roman Empire, "owl of Minerva")

perched on her hand. This pairing evolved in tandem so that even today the

owl is a symbol of perspicacity and erudition.

Unsurprisingly, the owl became a sort of Athenian mascot. The olive

tree is likewise 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]

 Other epithets include: Aethyia under which she was worshiped in

Megara.The word aethyia () signifies a diver, and figuratively, a ship, so

the name must reference Athena teaching the art of shipbuilding or

navigation. In a temple at Phrixa in Elis, which was reportedly built by

Clymenus, she was known as Cydonia.

The various Athena subgroups, or cults, all branching from the central

goddess herself often proctored various initiation rites of Grecian youth, for

example, the passage into citizenship by young men and for women the

elevation to the status of citizen wife. Her various cults were portals of a

uniform socialization, even beyond mainland Greece.

In the Iliad (4.514), the Homeric Hymns, and in Hesiod's Theogony,

Athena is given the curious epithet Tritogeneia. The meaning of this term is

unclear; it could mean various things, including "Triton-born", perhaps

indicating that the sea-deity was her parent according to some early myths.

[41][42] 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[43] identify her as

Zeus' first child. The latter would have to be drawn from Classical myths,

however, rather than earlier ones.

 In her role as judge at Orestes' trial on the murder of his mother,

Clytemnestra (which he won), Athena won the epithet Areia. Other epithets

were Ageleia and Itonia.

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

Athena was given many other cult titles. She has the epithet Ergane as

the patron of craftsmen and artisans. With the epithet Parthenos ("virgin")

she was especially worshipped in the festivals of the Panathenaea and

Pamboeotia where both militaristic and athletic displays took place.[44] With

the epithet Promachos she led in battle (see Promachos). With the epithet

Polias ("of the city"), Athena was the protector of not only Athens but also of

many other cities, including Argos, Sparta, Gortyn, Lindos, and Larisa.

She was given the epithet Hippeia ("of the horses", "equestrian"), as

the inventor of the chariot, and was worshiped under this title at Athens,

Tegea and Olympia. As Athena Hippeia she was given an alternative

parentage: Poseidon and Polyphe, daughter of Oceanus.[45][46] In each of

these cities her temple frequently was the major temple on the acropolis.[47]

Athena often was equated with Aphaea, a local goddess of the island of

Aegina, located near Athens, once Aegina was under Athenian's power. The

Greek historian Plutarch (46120 AD) also refers to an instance during the

Parthenon's construction of her being called Athena Hygieia ("healer", health

personified):
 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.[48]

In classical times the Plynteria, or Feast of Adorning, was observed

every May, it was a festival lasting five days. During this period the

Priestesses of Athena, or Plyntrides, performed a cleansing ritual within

the Erecththeum, the personal sanctuary of the goddess. Here Athena's

statue was undressed, her clothes washed, and body purified.

In Arcadia, she was assimilated with the ancient goddess Alea and

worshiped as Athena Alea.

Birth
After he swallowed her pregnant mother,Metis, Athena is "born" from Zeus'

forehead as he grasps the clothing of Eileithyia on the right;black-

figured amphora, 550525 BC, Louvre.

Although Athena appears before Zeus atKnossosin Linear B, as , a-

ta-na po-ti-ni-ja, Mistress Athena[49]in the Classical Olympian pantheon,

Athena was remade as the favourite daughter of Zeus, born fully armed from

his forehead.[50] 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 he immediately feared the consequences. It had been

prophesied that Metis would bear children more powerful than the sire,
[51]
even Zeus himself. In order to prevent this, Zeus swallowed Metis.[52] He

was too late: Metis had already conceived.

Eventually Zeus experienced an enormous

headache; Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes,Ares, or Palaemon (depending

on the sources examined) cleaved Zeus head with the double-

headed Minoan axe, the labrys. Athena leaped from Zeus 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). Plato, in the Laws, attributes the cult of Athena to the culture

of Crete, introduced, he thought, from Libya during the dawn of Greek

culture. Classical myths thereafter note that Hera was so annoyed at Zeus

for having produced a child that she conceived and

bore Hephaestus by herself, but in Philostratus the Elder (Greek rhetorician

3rd century AD), Imagines 2. 27 (trans. Fairbanks) Hera "rejoices" at Athena's

birth "as though Athena were her daughter also." In accordance with this

mythological tradition, Plato, in Cratylus (407B), gave the etymology of her

name as signifying the mind of god, theou noesis. The Christian apologist

of the 2nd century 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.[53]

Other tales[edit]

Atena farnese, Roman copy of a Greek original from Phidias' circle, c. 430 AD,

Museo Archeologico, Naples

Some origin stories tell of Athena having been born outside of Olympus and

raised by the god Triton. Fragments attributed by the Christian Eusebius of

Caesarea to the semi-legendary Phoenician historianSanchuniathon, 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.[54] Sanchuniathon's account would

make Athena the sister of Zeus and Hera, not Zeus' daughter.

Pallas Athena
The tradition regarding Athena's parentage involves some of her more

mysterious epithets: Pallas, as in the ancient-Greek (also

Pallantias) and Tritogeneia (also Trito, Tritonis, Tritoneia, Tritogenes). A distant

archaic separate entity named Pallas is invoked as Athena's father, sister,

foster sister, companion, or opponent in battle. One of these is Pallas, a

daughter of Triton (a sea god), and a childhood friend of Athena.[55]

In every case, Athena kills Pallas, accidentally, and thereby gains the name

for herself. In one telling, they practice the arts of war together until one day

they have a falling out. As Pallas is about to strike Athena, Zeus intervenes.

With Pallas stunned by a blow from Zeus, Athena takes advantage and kills

her. Distraught over what she has done, Athena takes the name Pallas for

herself.

When Pallas is Athena's father, the events, including her birth, are located

near a body of water named Triton or Tritonis. When Pallas is Athena's sister

or foster-sister, Athena's father or foster-father is 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.[56] On this topic, Walter

Burkert says "she is the Pallas of Athens, Pallas Athenaie, just as Hera of

Argos is Here Argeie.[57]For the Athenians, Burkert notes, Athena was simply

"the Goddess", h thes ( ), certainly an ancient title.

The Parthenon, Temple of Athena Parthenos

Erichthonius

Hephaestus attempted to rape Athena, but she eluded him. His semen fell to

the earth and impregnated the soil, and Erichthonius was born from the

Earth, Gaia. Athena then raised the baby as a foster mother.

Athena puts the infant Erichthonius into a small box (cista) which she

entrusts to the care of three sisters,Herse, Pandrosus, and Aglaulus of

Athens. The goddess does not tell them what the box contains, but warns

them not to open it until she returns. 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, drives Herse and Aglaulus to throw themselves

off the Acropolis.[60]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 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.[61]

With this mythic origin, Erichthonius became the founder-king of Athens, and

many beneficial changes to Athenian culture were ascribed to him. During

this time, Athena frequently protected him.

Medusa and Tiresias

In a late myth, Medusa, unlike her sister Gorgons, came to be viewed by the

Greeks of the 5th century as a beautiful mortal that served as priestess in

Athena's temple. Poseidon liked Medusa, and decided to rape her in the

temple of Athena, refusing to allow her vow of chastity to stand in his way.
[62]
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 also, and meeting

her gaze would turn any living man to stone. In the earliest myths, there is

only one Gorgon, but there are two snakes that form a belt around her waist.

In one version of the Tiresias myth, Tiresias stumbled upon Athena bathing,

and he was struck blind by her to ensure he would never again see what man

was not intended to see. But having lost his eyesight, he was given a special

giftto be able to understand the language of the birds (and thus to foretell

the future).

Athena depicted on a coin ofAttalus I, ruler of Pergamon; c. 200 BC

Other cult sites

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

Sparta, where the archaic cult of Athena Alea had its sanctuaries in the

surrounding villages of Mantineia and, notably, Tegea. In Sparta itself, the

temple of Athena Khalkoikos (Athena "of the Brazen House",

often latinized as Chalcioecus) was the grandest and located on the Spartan

acropolis; presumably it had a roof of bronze. The forecourt of the Brazen

House was the place where the most solemn religious functions in Sparta

took place.

Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece,[64] containing the

Temple ofAthena Alea. The temenos was founded by Aleus, Pausanias was

informed.[65] Votive bronzes at the site from the Geometric and Archaic

periods take the forms of horses and deer; there are sealstone and fibulae. In

the Archaic period the nine villages that underlie Tegea banded together in

a synoecism to form one city.[66] Tegea was listed in Homer'sCatalogue of

Ships as one of the cities that contributed ships and men for the Achaean

assault on Troy.

Counselor

Athena and Heracles on an Atticred-figure kylix, 480470 BC

Later myths of the Classical Greeks relate that Athena guided Perseus in his

quest to beheadMedusa. 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 theStymphalian Birds, and to navigate the underworld so as to

capture Cerberus.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus' cunning and shrewd nature quickly won Athena's

favour. In the realistic epic mode, however, she largely is confined to aiding

him only from afar, as 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.[67] It is not until he

washes up on the shore of an island where Nausicaa is washing her clothes

that Athena arrives personally to provide more tangible assistance. She

appears in Nausicaa's dreams to ensure that the princess rescues Odysseus

and plays a role in his eventual escort to Ithaca.

Athena appears in disguise to Odysseus upon his arrival, initially lying and

telling him that Penelope, his wife, has remarried and that he is believed to

be dead; but Odysseus lies back to her, employing skillful prevarications to

protect himself.[68] Impressed by his resolve and shrewdness, she reveals

herself and tells him what he needs to know in order to win back his

kingdom. She disguises him as an elderly man or beggar so that he cannot

be noticed by the suitors or Penelope, and helps him to defeat the suitors.

Athena also appears to Odysseus's son Telemachos. Her actions lead him to

travel around to Odysseus's comrades and ask about his father. He hears
stories about some of Odysseus's journey. Athena's push for Telemachos's

journey helps him grow into the man role, that his father once held.She also

plays a role in ending the resultant feud against the suitors' relatives. She

instructs Laertes to throw his spear and to kill the father of Antinous,

Eupeithes.

Facts about Athena

Athena was the Goddess of War, the female counterpart of Ares.

She was the daughter of Zeus; no mother bore her. She sprang from

Zeuss head, full-grown and clothed in armor.

She was Zeuss favorite child.

According to Homers account in the Iliad, Athena was a fierce and

ruthless warrior. In the Odyssey, she was angry and unforgiving. In the

course of the Trojan War, she struck Ajax with madness.

Known for protecting civilized life, she was the Goddess of the City.

According to some sources, Athena was praised for her compassion

and generosity.

Athena was a patron of the arts and crafts, especially when it came to

spinning and weaving.

In later poetry, Athena embodied wisdom and rational thought.

 Athena served as a guardian of Athens, where the Parthenon served as

her temple.

Zeus trusted her to wield the aegis and his thunderbolt.

Her most important festival was the Panathenaea, which was

celebrated annually at Athens.

She is referred to in poetry as gray-eyed.

The owl was her bird, and the olive tree was hers.

She turned the weaver Arachne into a spider after the mortal woman

insulted Athena and the Olympian gods.

Athena reared Ericthonius, son of Hephaestus. He was half man, half

serpent. Athena put the infant in a chest and gave it to others to watch

over, forbidding them to open it. When they did, she drove them mad

as punishment.

She is one of three virgin goddesses; the other two were Hestia and

Artemis.

Athena invented the flute, but she never played it.

Hermes and Athena went to the aid of Perseus in his quest to kill

Medusa. Looking directly at Medusa would turn any man to stone, so

Athena provided Perseus with her polished shield. Using it, he was able
 to see Medusa as if looking in a mirror. Again, Athena guided his hand

as he cut off Medusas head with his sword.

Hera and Athena fought against Paris in the Trojan War since he had

awarded the Golden Apple to Aphrodite.

The sacred image of Athena, a wood statue called the Palladium,

protected the Trojans as long as they had it.

Odysseus and Diomedes executed a plan to steal the image, greatly

encouraging the Greeks in their hopes to end the long-suffering war.

Athena helped Hercules when, as a part of his penance, he was

required to drive away the Stymphalian birds. She got them moving,

and Hercules shot them.