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NAME, EPITHETS, ATTRIBUTES
The goddess Athena belongs most intimately by both name and sphere of influence to Athens, the city that is still dominated today by her Maidens' Apartment, the Parthenon, which has come to epitomize all Greek art. The goddess most probably took her name from the city; she is the Pallas of Athens, just as Hera of is Hera of Argos. Her name appeared in the script of the Myceneans, Linear B. (Athens was a Mycenean kingdom before becoming a polis, a city-state.) For the Athenians, she was quite simply "the goddess". The word Pallas remains obscure; it was interpreted sometimes as Maiden, and sometimes as "the weapon-brandishing."
Certainly in Greek times, Athena is everywhere the preeminent citadel and city goddess; often this is also expressed by her epithets, Polias, etc. Her temple is therefore very frequently the central temple of the city on the fortress hill, not only in Athens, but also in other cities, even in Homer's Troy, in spite of the fact that, in epic, Athena is the enemy of Troy.
Images:
Vases: Boston 95.43 Athena and youth Closeup
Coins: Dewing 1134 Dewing 1594
As goddess of citadel and city she manifests herself in the evocative image of the armed maiden, valiant and untouchable; to conquer a city is "to loosen her veils." Armed goddesses are also found in the Near East: Ishtar, for example. The image of the small Pallas, the Palladion, corresponds iconographically to Syrian warrior statuettes with helmet, shield, and raised weapon. Myth tells how the fate of Troy hung on its Palladion: only after Odysseus and Diomedes had entered Troy by night and stolen the Palladion could the city fall. Several cities later claimed to posses this Palladion, most notably Athens and Argos.
Athena does not carry her weapons without reason. Hesiod describes her as 'dread rouser of battle-strife, unwearied leader of the host, a mistress who delights in the clamorous cry of war and battle and slaughter'." As the Greeks rush onwards into battle, Pallas Athena sweeps through their ranks with weapons flashing, exciting in every man "unflagging strength, for struggle and war." So in the wild noise of war and in the extreme pitch of excitement the warrior believes he perceives the goddess herself.
The emblem and armor of Athena is the aegis: whenever she raises up the aegis her enemies are overtaken by panic and soon are lost. The aegis, as its name tells, is a goat-skin; a special goat sacrifice forms part of the Athena cult in Athens. Myth recounts how this goat was a monster, which Athena herself killed and skinned; pictorial art turned the animal head into a Gorgon head and bordered the aegis with snakes, while the Iliad poet speaks more circumspectly of golden tassels.
The Palladion or Palladium: texts
It was a talisman: an effigy that fell upon Troy. While the city possessed it, it could not be taken.
It was a statue representing Athena's childhood friend, Pallas, killed by her accidentally.
But other myths tell how Athena slew and skinned a human creature, a giant called Pallas, and clothed herself in his skin, which is why she is called Pallas; it was even claimed that this Pallas had been her own father.
ATHENA'S MYTHS
According to Apollodorus 1.3.6, Zeus had intercourse with Metis, who turned into many shapes in order to avoid his embraces. When she was with child, Zeus, taking time by the forelock, swallowed her, because Earth said that, after giving birth to the maiden who was then in her womb, Metis would bear a son who should be the lord of heaven. From fear of that Zeus swallowed her. And when the time came for the birth to take place, Prometheus or, as others say, Hephaestus, smote the head of Zeus with an axe, and Athena, fully armed, leaped up from the top of his head at the river Triton.
Competition with Poseidon. The olive tree
The olive tree is sacred to the goddess, in particular that olive tree on the Athenian Acropolis which seemed to embody the continuity of the city and became such a symbol of hope when it broke into leaf again after the Persian fire. Together with Zeus she watches over olive trees in general, from which the oil is collected that serves as a prize to the victors at her festival, the Panathenaia.
Poseidon and Athena strove for land of Attica, and gods, or king, or people, judged between them. Athena caused the olive tree to grow and thereby secured Athens for herself, while Poseidon, with the salt-water spring which he had struck from the rock, was obliged to stand down. (Marks are to be seen underneath the porch of the Erechtheion, the temple across from the Parthenon, where there was an altar of Poseidon). According to another account, he produced the first horse ever seen. But Athena planted the olive tree or evoked it with the magic touch of her spear.
Erichtonius: text images: # 1 # 2
Several myths are connected with her relations to ancient kings of the land. The mythic founders or early kings of Athens were auto-chthon-s (born from the Earth, chthon). Such is the boast of several peoples. In Athens several kings sprung from the land. One myth says that Hephaesthus wanted to wed Athena, she refused, he caught her and struggled. His seed fell on the earth (or her thigh, which she wiped with a tuft of wool she then threw down), fertilized it and Eri-chthon-ius was born. Gaia, the Earth, handed him to Athena to care for. She put it in a covered chest and entrusted it to the care of the three daughters of Kekrops, Aglauros, Herse, and Pandrosos, asking them not to open it. But two could not resist, then Athena took charge of the child. The baby was guarded by two serpents, or he himself was snake-footed.
Athena helps the heroes: texts
Her inventions and the skills that she protects
Athena built the first ship, invented the bridle for horses and the use of chariots. She helped many heroes: Perseus, who beheaded the Gorgon, Heracles in his Labors, the Greek heroes of the Trojan war, especially Achillles, and her favorite Odysseus.
The salphinx (trumpet) and the aulos or double reed (usually translated as "flute"), were her inventions. According to the poet Pindar Athena took a hint from the hissing of the snake hair of the surviving Gorgons when Medusa was killed. Another myth says that she disliked her invention because it distorted her face, so she threw the aulos away. Marsyas, a satyr, picked them up and challenged Apollo, who flayed him alive. From his blood or tears which satyrs and other minor deities shed for him, sprang a river that bore his name.
Athena is concerned with peaceful handicrafts, especially the work of women at spindle and loom. Athena Ergane is inventor and patroness of wool-working, of the glorious handicrafts which constitute such an important part of domestic property and pride; she even works the spindle herself. For her the women of Athens weave the robe which is handed over at the Panathenaia festival; all the same, the scenes worked into the robe are generally of the battle with the Giants. Athena is also the goddess of carpenters: she invented the chariot as well as the bridle for the horse, she built the first ship, and she helped construct the Wooden Horse.
Realms of influence
What unites these divergent spheres of competence is not an elemental force, but the force of civilization, the just division of roles among women, craftsmen, and warriors and the organizational wisdom which achieves this. It is not the wild olive of Olympia but the cultivated tree which is the gift of Athena. Poseidon violently sires the horse, Athena bridles it and builds the chariot; Poseidon excites the waves, Athena builds the ship; Hermes may multiply the flocks, Athena teaches the use of wool. Even in war Athena cultivates war-dance, tactics, and discipline. More than any other Greek deity, Athena is always near her protege: she is described by a scholar as "Goddess of Nearness." Wherever difficulties disappear and the impossible becomes possible, Athena is at hand, but her presence does not detract from the achievement of the other: "In league with Athena set your own hand to work," says a proverb.
The metope from Olympia which shows her lightly supporting the sky which weighs so heavily on the shoulders of Heracles is one of the most beautiful images of her intervention - grace and assistance which remains ever subtle and almost playful. Thus, on other occasions also, she is always at Heracles' side, and thus, as often represented, she helps Perseus outwit and kill the Gorgon. In the Iliad she intervenes most directly to aid Diomedes by making herself his charioteer and even inciting him to wound Ares. The intervention of Athena, of course, may also be dangerous: the triumph of one is the downfall of another. She entices Hector to his death by appearing to him as his brother, only to give Achilles back his spear at the crucial moment and vanish; to defend the Greeks she destroys Ajar without scruple.
THE PARTHENON AND THE STATUE OF ATHENA BY PHEIDIAS
Statue of Athena (copy) # 1 #2 Description