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Liber X · Greek Mythology

Liber X · Greek Mythology · Chapter IV: The Olympian Gods

Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War: Myths, Symbols and Cult

Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, war and crafts: her birth from the head of Zeus, contest with Poseidon for Athens, the Parthenon, Panathenaia and her myths.

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Athena, often called Pallas Athena, was the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare and skilled crafts such as weaving, and the patron of Athens. In myth she sprang fully armed from the head of Zeus, won Attica from Poseidon with the gift of the olive tree, and stood beside heroes from Perseus to Odysseus. In cult she was honoured on the Acropolis of Athens, in the Parthenon and at the great festival of the Panathenaia, and the Romans identified her with Minerva.

The Birth of Athena from the Head of Zeus§

Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BCE) sets Athena's birth at the heart of Zeus's reign. Warned that his wife Metis would bear first a daughter equal to him in strength and counsel and then a son who would become king, Zeus swallowed Metis while she was pregnant. The daughter was born from his head; Hesiod says that Zeus bore her from his own head, and in anger Hera produced Hephaestus without a father.

Later poets add the dramatic details. In Pindar's Seventh Olympian Ode (464 BCE), Hephaestus splits Zeus's head with a bronze axe and Athena leaps out with a great shout that makes heaven and mother Earth shudder; other writers give the axe to Prometheus. The short Homeric Hymn to Athena describes her springing from the immortal head in golden armour while Olympus reels, the sea heaves and the Sun halts his horses until she takes off her armour. The scene was carved on the east pediment of the Parthenon and painted on many Athenian vases, often with Hephaestus standing by with his axe.

The myth makes a theological point. Athena carries the mind of Metis, the cunning intelligence that Zeus has absorbed, and she remains her father's daughter: in Aeschylus's Eumenides (458 BCE) she says that she takes the father's side in all things, since no mother bore her.

Names, Epithets and Symbols§

The name Athena is closely bound to the city of Athens, but which is named after which is uncertain; many scholars think the name is pre-Greek. A Linear B tablet from Knossos mentions a-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ja, usually read as "Mistress of Athana", which may be an early form of the goddess. Homer's favourite epithet for her is glaukopis, "grey-eyed" or "bright-eyed", which later Greeks connected with the owl, glaux. Her other title, Pallas, was explained by stories that she had killed a Giant of that name and used his skin, or that she had accidentally slain a girlhood companion, Pallas, daughter of Triton, a tale told by Apollodorus. In memory of her friend she made the Palladium, the wooden image whose presence kept Troy safe.

Her epithets mark her many spheres: Parthenos, the virgin; Promachos, who fights in the front line; Polias, guardian of the city; Ergane, the worker, patron of weaving and crafts; Nike, victory; Hygieia, health; and Hippia, mistress of horses, who gave Bellerophon the golden bridle that tamed Pegasus. She wears a helmet, carries a spear and shield, and over her shoulders the aegis, a goatskin cape fringed with snakes and set with the head of Medusa, which Perseus gave her after the Gorgon's death. Her tree is the olive, and her bird the little owl, which appeared on Athenian silver coins for centuries.

Athena and Poseidon: The Contest for Athens§

The Athenians told how Athena and Poseidon both claimed Attica in the reign of the first king, Cecrops, who was half man and half snake. Poseidon struck the rock of the Acropolis with his trident and produced a spring of salt water; Athena caused the first olive tree to grow beside it. In Apollodorus's account the gods judged that Athena's gift was greater, while a story preserved by Augustine, citing the Roman scholar Varro, says that the citizens voted, the women outnumbered the men by one, and Poseidon's anger was appeased by taking the vote away from women. The contest filled the west pediment of the Parthenon, and visitors were shown the marks of the trident and the sacred olive in the precinct of the Erechtheion.

A second Athenian myth explains how a virgin goddess could have a ward. Hephaestus, pursuing Athena with desire, spilled his seed on her thigh; she wiped it away with wool and threw it to the ground, and Earth gave birth to Erichthonius. Athena hid the child in a chest and entrusted it to the daughters of Cecrops, forbidding them to look inside; two of them disobeyed, saw a child coiled with a serpent, and threw themselves from the Acropolis. Erichthonius became a king of Athens and was said to have founded the Panathenaia, so the Athenians, who called themselves earth-born, could claim descent in a sense from their goddess. The story is told by Euripides, Apollodorus and Ovid, with variations in names and details.

The Parthenon and the Panathenaia§

Athena's most important festival was the Panathenaia, held each summer in the month Hekatombaion, with a grander version every fourth year, traditionally reorganised in 566 BCE. Its centre was a procession through the city to the Acropolis, carrying a new peplos, a woven robe for the ancient olive-wood statue of Athena Polias. Young girls helped begin the weaving months before, and the robe's decoration showed the battle of the gods and Giants. Victors in the athletic and musical contests won amphorae of oil from Athena's sacred olives, painted with the goddess in fighting pose. Other rites included the Plynteria, when the old statue was washed.

The Parthenon, built between 447 and 432 BCE under Pericles by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates, with sculpture overseen by Phidias, housed his colossal Athena Parthenos of gold and ivory, about twelve metres high, dedicated in 438 BCE. It is lost, but small Roman copies such as the Varvakeion statuette in Athens give an idea of it: the goddess standing, helmeted, with Victory on her outstretched hand and a great shield with a coiled serpent at her side. A bronze Athena Promachos by Phidias also stood on the Acropolis, its spear point reportedly visible to sailors rounding Cape Sounion. Wider practices of sacrifice and festival are described in Greek religion and the mysteries.

Athena in Myth: Helper of Heroes and Guardian of Skill§

In the Iliad Athena fights for the Greeks with a fury rooted in the Judgment of Paris, when the Trojan prince preferred Aphrodite to her and Hera. She restrains Achilles from killing Agamemnon by seizing his hair, guides the spear of Diomedes against Ares and Aphrodite, and deceives Hector into his last fight. In the Odyssey she is the patron and almost the friend of Odysseus, whose cunning resembles her own, appearing in disguise as Mentor to guide his son Telemachus. She helped Perseus, Heracles and Bellerophon, and oversaw the building of the Argo for Jason. In the Eumenides she founds the court of the Areopagus and casts the deciding vote that acquits Orestes.

As goddess of craft she could be harsh to rivals. Ovid's Metamorphoses (8 CE) tells how the Lydian weaver Arachne challenged her and wove the loves of the gods so perfectly that Athena tore the work and struck her, and Arachne was turned into a spider. Athena was said to have invented the double pipe, the aulos, and thrown it away when she saw how playing it puffed out her cheeks; the satyr Marsyas picked it up and later challenged Apollo. In Callimachus's Bath of Pallas, the young Tiresias sees her bathing and is blinded, but Athena, pitying his mother, gives him the gift of prophecy.

Athena as an Image of Wisdom§

Ancient allegorists already read Athena as divine intelligence, born from the mind of Zeus, and the Stoics and Neoplatonists developed the idea; Proclus wrote a hymn to her as the guardian of philosophy. Through the Roman Minerva, one of the Capitoline triad with Jupiter and Juno, she entered Latin culture as patron of learning and craft. Renaissance and later European art made her the emblem of wisdom, prudence and the arts, from Botticelli's Pallas and the Centaur to the many statues that stand before academies, libraries and parliaments. The philosopher Hegel's remark that the owl of Minerva flies only at dusk turned her bird into a lasting image of reflective understanding. Her place among the other Olympians is traced in Zeus, king of the gods and Hermes, Hephaestus, Ares and Aphrodite.

Frequently asked questions§

Who were Athena's parents?§

Her father was Zeus and her mother the Titaness Metis, whom Zeus swallowed while she was pregnant. Athena was therefore born from Zeus's head without a mother's labour, which made her in Greek eyes wholly her father's daughter.

Why is the owl the symbol of Athena?§

The little owl was common on the Acropolis and appeared on Athenian coins, and Greeks linked it with her epithet glaukopis. Because the owl sees in darkness, later writers made it a symbol of wisdom and learning.

What is the difference between Athena and Ares?§

Both were war gods, but Athena stood for strategy, discipline and the defence of the city, while Ares embodied the violence and frenzy of battle. In the Iliad Athena helps Diomedes wound Ares, a scene that shows the Greek preference for intelligent warfare.

Did Athena have children?§

As a virgin goddess she had none of her own. Athenian myth made Erichthonius, born from the earth after Hephaestus's failed pursuit of her, her foster son, and she raised him as the future king of Athens.

Sources and further reading§