Athena

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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, craft, war, diplomacy, weaving, poetry, medicine, and commerce
Mattei Athena Louvre Ma530 n2.jpg
Mattei Athena at Louvre. Roman copy from the 1st century BCAD 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
Parents Metis and Zeus[Notes 1]
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
Roman equivalent Minerva
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Athena (?'?i?n?; Attic Greek ?????, Athena, or ????a?a, Athenaia; Epic ????a??,
Athenaie; Doric ????a, Athana) or Athene (?'?i?ni?; Ionic ?????, Athene), often
given the epithet Pallas ('pl?s; ?a????), is the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom,
craft, and war.[1] In later times, Athena was syncretized with the Roman goddess
Minerva.[2]

From her origin as an Aegean palace goddess, Athena was regarded as the patron and
protectress of various cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens, from
which she received her name.[3] She was known as Polias and Poliouchos (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. As the patron of craft and weaving, Athena was known
as Ergane. Athena was also a warrior goddess, and was believed to lead soldiers
into battle as Athena Promachos. In ancient Greek literature, Athena is portrayed
as the astute companion of heroes and as the patron goddess of heroic endeavour; in
the Odyssey, she is the divine counselor to Odysseus, and she was believed to have
also aided the hero Perseus.

In Greek mythology, Athena was believed to have been born from the head of her
father Zeus. 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. In the founding myth of Athens, Athena bested
Poseidon in a competition over patronage of the city by creating the first olive
tree. Along with Aphrodite and Hera, Athena was one of the three goddesses whose
feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War.
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 and the arts.
Western artists and allegorists have often used Athena as a symbol of freedom and
democracy.

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Origins
3 Cult and patronages
4 Epithets and attributes
5 Mythology
5.1 Birth
5.1.1 Other tales
5.2 Pallas Athena
5.3 Athena Parthenos
5.3.1 Erichthonius
5.3.2 Medusa and Tiresias
5.4 Lady of Athens
5.5 Counselor
5.6 Judgment of Paris
5.7 Roman fable of Arachne
6 Classical art
7 Post-classical culture
8 Genealogy
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
11.1 Bibliography
11.1.1 Ancient sources
11.1.2 Modern sources
12 External links
Etymology[edit]
Athena is associated with the city of Athens.[3] The name of the city in ancient
Greek is ????a? (Athenai), a plural toponym, designating the place whereaccording
to mythshe presided over her sisterhood, the Athenai.[4] In ancient times,
scholars argued whether Athena was named after Athens or Athens after Athena.[3]
Now scholars generally agree that the goddess takes her name from the city;[3] the
ending -ene is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names.[3]
Testimonies from different cities in ancient Greece attest that similar city
goddesses were worshipped in other cities[4] and, like Athena, took their names
from the cities where they were worshipped.[4] For example, in Mycenae there was a
goddess called Mykene, whose sisterhood was known as Mykenai,[4] 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).[4] The name
Athenai is likely of Pre-Greek origin[5] because it contains the presumably Pre-
Greek morpheme -an-.[5]

In his dialogue Cratylus, the Greek philosopher Plato (428347 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 [????, nous]
and intelligence [d?????a, dinoia], 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 [?e?? ???s??, theou nesis], as though he would say This is she who
has the mind of God [? ?e???a, a theona). Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may
mean she who knows divine things [t? ?e?a ????sa, 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 [e? ??e? ??es??, en thei nesin],
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 ??e???a,
Atheonawhich the later Greeks rationalised as from the deity's (?e??, thes) mind
(????, nous). 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.[6]

Origins[edit]
Athena was originally the Aegean goddess of the palace, who presided over household
crafts and protected the king.[7][8][9][10] A single Mycenaean Greek
inscription ?????????????? 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;[11]
these comprise the earliest Linear B archive anywhere.[12][13] Although Athana
potnia often is translated Mistress Athena,[14] it could also mean the Potnia of
Athana, and thus perhaps the Lady of Athens.[14] However, any connection to the
city of Athens in the Knossos inscription is uncertain.[15] In the still
undeciphered corpus of Linear A tabletswritten in the unclassified Minoan
languagea sign series a-ta-no-dju-wa-ja is to be found.[16] 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),[17]
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 (???? ????t??;
cfr. Dyeus).[18] However, the inscription quoted seems to be very similar to a-ta-
nu-ti wa-ya, quoted as SY Za 1 by Jan Best.[18] Best translates the initial a-ta-
nu-ti, which is recurrent in line beginnings, as I have given.[18]

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;[19]
this may depict the warrior-goddess with her palladium, or her palladium in an
aniconic representation.[19] In the Procession Fresco at Knossos, which was
reconstructed by the Mycenaeans,[20] two rows of figures carrying vessels seem to
meet in front of a central figure,[20] which is probably the Minoan precursor to
Athena.[20] The early twentieth-century scholar Martin Persson Nilsson argued that
the Minoan snake goddess figurines are early representations of Athena.[7][8]

Marble Greek copy signed Antiokhos, a 1st-century BC variant of Phidias' 5th

century Athena Promachos that stood on the Acropolis
Nilsson and others have claimed that, in early times, Athena was either an owl
herself or a bird goddess in general.[21] In the third book of the Odyssey, she
takes the form of a sea-eagle.[21] 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.[22]

It is generally agreed that the cult of Athena preserves some aspects of the Proto-
Indo-European transfunctional goddess.[23][24] 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,[8] both of whom were often portrayed bearing arms.[8]
Miriam Robbins Dexter has suggested that, at least at some point in her history,
Athena was a solar deity.[25] Athena bears traits common with Indo-European solar
goddesses,[25] including the possession of a mirror and the invention of weaving,
characteristics which are also held by the Baltic goddess Saule.[25] Athena's
association with Medusa, who is also suspected of being a solar goddess,[25] adds
further solar iconography to her cultus.[25] Athena was later syncretized with
Sulis, a Celtic goddess whose name is derived from the common Proto-Indo-European
root for many solar deities.[25] Though the sun in Greek myth is personified as the
male Helios, several relictual solar goddesses are known, such as Alectrona.[25]

Plato notes that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess known as Neith,
[Notes 2] whom he identifies with Athena.[26] 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.[Notes 3] 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.[27] The Black Athena hypothesis stirred
up widespread controversy near the end of the twentieth century,[28] but it has now
been widely rejected by modern scholars.