Athena, also called Pallas Athena, is the goddess of wisdom, military strategy, arts and crafts, especially weaving. Unlike Ares, who loves the violence of battle, Athena stands for war waged with intelligence. To the Romans she was Minerva.
An extraordinary birth
Zeus had swallowed his first wife, Metis, goddess of cunning, because an oracle foretold that her son would be mightier than his father. Soon afterwards Zeus was seized by a terrible headache and asked Hephaestus to split his skull with an axe: out sprang Athena, fully grown and armed, with a war cry that shook heaven and earth.
Her symbols
- The owl, a bird that sees in the dark, symbol of wisdom; it still appears on the Greek one-euro coin.
- The olive tree, her gift to Athens.
- The helmet, spear and aegis, a shield or cloak of goatskin bearing Medusa's head, given to her by Perseus.
Main myths
- The contest for Athens: Athena and Poseidon competed for the city. Poseidon made a saltwater spring gush out, Athena an olive tree, useful for food, oil and wood. The citizens chose her, and the city took her name.
- Arachne: young Arachne boasted that she wove better than the goddess and challenged her. Her tapestry was perfect but showed the gods' amorous deceptions. Offended, Athena destroyed it, and the desperate girl hanged herself; the goddess turned her into a spider, condemned to weave forever. See metamorphoses.
- Protector of heroes: Athena helped Perseus, Heracles, Jason and above all Odysseus, the hero of cunning, whom she guided throughout his journey home.
- The Judgement of Paris: Athena lost the beauty contest won by Aphrodite, which is why she sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War.
The Parthenon
On the Acropolis of Athens the Athenians dedicated the Parthenon to her in the 5th century BC, the temple of Athena Parthenos, "the maiden", with a gold and ivory statue about 12 metres tall by Phidias. Every four years the city held the Great Panathenaea in her honour, with a solemn procession bringing the goddess a new robe (peplos) woven by Athenian girls. See the Acropolis.
See also the twelve Olympians.