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.
Apollodorus 3.12.2
They say that when Athena was born she was brought up by Triton,*
who had a daughter Pallas; and that both girls practised the arts of war,
but that once on a time they fell out; and when Pallas was about to strike
a blow, Zeus in fear interposed the aegis, and Pallas, being startled,
looked up, and so fell wounded by Athena. And being exceedingly grieved
for her, Athena made a wooden image in her likeness, and wrapped the aegis,
which she had feared, about the breast of it, and set it up beside Zeus
and honored it.
Apollodorus 1.6.2
(Enceladus was one of the giants who challenged the Olympian gods;
Athena fought in that war)
Enceladus fled, but Athena threw on him in his flight the island of
Sicily; and she flayed Pallas and used his skin to shield her own
body in the fight.
Iliad 4.65a
So said she, and the father of men and gods failed not to hearken; forthwith
he spake to Athene winged words: [70] ìHaste thee with all speed unto the
host into the midst of Trojans and Achaeans, and contrive how that the
Trojans may be first in defiance of their oaths to work evil upon the Achaeans
that exult in their triumph.î
So saying, he stirred on Athene that was already
eager, and down from the peaks of Olympus she went darting. [75] Even in
such wise as the son of crooked-counselling Cronos sendeth a star to be
a portent for seamen or for a wide host of warriors, a gleaming star, and
therefrom the sparks fly thick; even so darted Pallas Athene to earth,
and down she leapt into the midst; and amazement came upon all that beheld,
[80] on horse-taming Trojans and well-greaved Achaeans; and thus would
a man say with a glance at his neighbour:ìVerily shall we again have evil
war and the dread din of battle, or else friendship is set amid the hosts
by Zeus, who is for men the dispenser of battle.î
Apollodorus 1.9.16
(Jason is the commander of the Argonautic expedition that went on a
quest for the golden fleece)
Sent to fetch the fleece, Jason called in the help of Argus, son of Phrixus; and Argus, by Athena's advice, built a ship of fifty oars named Argo after its builder; and at the prow Athena fitted in a speaking timber from the oak of Dodona.
Apollodorus 2.4.2
(Perseus decapitates the Gorgon, Medusa, with the help of Athena)
And having received also from Hermes an adamantine sickle [Perseus]
flew to the ocean and caught the Gorgons asleep. They were Stheno, Euryale,
and Medusa. Now Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent
to fetch her head. But the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales
of dragons, and great tusks like swine's, and brazen hands, and golden
wings, by which they flew; and they turned to stone such as beheld them.
So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while Athena guided his hand
and he looked with averted gaze on a brazen shield, in which he beheld
the image of the Gorgon,* he beheaded her.
He gave back the sandals and the wallet (kibisis) and the cap to Hermes, but the Gorgon's head he gave to Athena. Hermes restored the aforesaid things to the nymphs and Athena inserted the Gorgon's head in the middle of her shield. But it is alleged by some that Medusa was beheaded for Athena's sake; and they say that the Gorgon was fain to match herself with the goddess even in beauty.
Apollodorus 1.14.4
Some say that this Erichthonius was a son of Hephaestus and Athena,
as follows: Athena came to Hephaestus, desirous of fashioning arms. But
he, being forsaken by Aphrodite, fell in love with Athena, and began to
pursue her; but she fled. When he got near her with much ado ( for he was
lame), he attempted to embrace her; but she, being a chaste virgin, would
not submit to him, and he dropped his seed on the leg of the goddess. In
disgust, she wiped off the seed with wool and threw it on the ground; and
as she fled and the seed fell on the ground, Erichthonius was produced.
Him Athena brought up unknown to the other gods, wishing to make him immortal;
and having put him in a chest, she committed it to Pandrosus, daughter
of Cecrops, forbidding her to open the chest. But the sisters of Pandrosus
opened it out of curiosity, and beheld a serpent coiled about the babe;
and, as some say, they were destroyed by the serpent, but according to
others they were driven mad by reason of the anger of Athena and threw
themselves down from the acropolis. Having been brought up by Athena herself
in the precinct, Erichthonius expelled Amphictyon and became king
of Athens; and he set up the wooden image of Athena in the acropolis,
and instituted the festival of the Panathenaea, and married Praxithea,
a Naiad nymph, by whom he had a son Pandion.
Pausanias 1.14.6
Above the Cerameicus and the portico called the King's Portico is a temple of Hephaestus. I was not surprised that by it stands a statue of Athena, because I knew the story about Erichthonius. But when I saw that the statue of Athena had blue eyes I found out that the legend about them is Libyan. For the Libyans have a saying that the Goddess is the daughter of Poseidon and Lake Tritonis, and for this reason has blue eyes like Poseidon.
1.18.2
[2] Above the sanctuary of the Dioscuri is a sacred enclosure of Aglaurus. It was to Aglaurus and her sisters, Herse and Pandrosus, that they say Athena gave Erichthonius, whom she had hidden in a chest, forbidding them to pry curiously into what was entrusted to their charge. Pandrosus, they say, obeyed, but the other two (for they opened the chest) went mad when they saw Erichthonius, and threw themselves down the steepest part of the Acropolis.
[5] As you enter the temple that they name the Parthenon, all the sculptures you see on what is called the pediment refer to the birth of Athena, those on the rear pediment represent the contest for the land between Athena and Poseidon. The statue itself is made of ivory and gold. On the middle of her helmet is placed a likeness of the Sphinx ó the tale of the Sphinx I will give when I come to my description of Boeotia ó and on either side of the helmet are griffins in relief.
Parthenon and statue of Athena
The statue of Athena is upright, with a tunic reaching to the feet, and on her breast the head of Medusa is worked in ivory. She holds a statue of Victory about four cubits high, and in the other hand a spear; at her feet lies a shield and near the spear is a serpent. This serpent would be Erichthonius. On the pedestal is the birth of Pandora in relief. Hesiod and others have sung how this Pandora was the first woman; before Pandora was born there was as yet no womankind. The only portrait statue I remember seeing here is one of the emperor Hadrian, and at the entrance one of Iphicrates,* who accomplished many remarkable achievements.
Description of the statue:
A consensus of ancient opinion recognized Pheidias as the greatest of all artists. Two cult-images of enormous size, composed of ivory for the flesh parts and sheet-gold for the hair and drapery, were naturally the most celebrated; their dates are established with relative precision. In 438, eight or nine years after the work was started on the Parthenon, he completed its cult image of Athena Parthenos (The Virgin), and he was commissioned soon after to supply the cult irnage for the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
He was brought to trial at Athens on the charge of embezzling the precious materials of the Parthenos statue, which had required, it is said, more than a ton of gold and a great quantity of ivory. He was convicted, however, of misappropriating public fundr avowedly expended on ivory, and was further accused of sacrilege, for it was alleged that he had represented himself and Pericles on the statue's shield. This accusation was especially aimed at Pericles, against whose prestige the whole proceeding was in reality directed.
The Parthenos is said to have been 40 feet high and was profusely ornamented wherever possible; no copy on a reduced scale could contain more than a few details. Even the face, which should have been easier to reproduce than the decorated parts, differs greatly in the various marble copies and the imitations on gems and medallions. The majesty that impressed eye-witnesses is lost in every instance. Although artistically a travesty, the Varvakeion statuette, which was found at Athens in a house of the second century C.E., should be comparatively reliable; it is just over three feet high. The proportions of both face and body are surely falsified; the thick-set young woman of this vulgar statuette can correspornd only in general lines with the original figure. The ivory and the gold formed an overlay to a shape of cheap materials built around a wooden scaffold. Against the left shoulder leaned a spear, propping the left hand, which also rested on the shield; the latter was kept in place by the coils of the serpent, sacred to Athens. Upon the right hand stood a statue, alleged to have been six feet high, of Victory holding a wreath.
The goddess wore her peplos (robe) open at the side, like a girl, but the edges overlapped to conceal the limbs; the overfall reached below the waist, and over it lay an extra girdle, a peculiarity of the 'Peplos of Athena'. On the chest lay the aegis, with serpents writhing in and out of the Gorgon's hair to either side; the tongue protruded from the mouth, following the archaic custom. Wavy locks of hair fell over the goddess's shoulder on to the aegis, while the space between them was diversified by an ornate necklace; bracelets, too, were worn on the arm. The weight of the body was evenly distributed, except that one knee was relaxed very slightly, not enough to upset the symmetry which was the predominant feature of the pose. The head, too, was turned very slightly to the right, presumably towards the Victory, although the gaze is not directed downwards in the statuette; the hair fell equally to either side and the knot of the aegis and belt lay precisely on the central line of the body; the arms formed the same angle with the shoulders and the mass of the shield balanced that of the pillar on the right. The folds of the overfall ran in evenly to the girdle, below which both layers of drapery fell vertically in a manner suggestive of the fluting in the surrounding Doric colonnade. The ornaments of the helmet consisted of a sphinx in the center and two winged horses, each supporting a plume; across the forehead ran a row of the foreparts of animals, while griffins were embossed upon the upturned cheek-pieces. scraps of which remain projecting above the ars in the Berlin copy of the head. Elaborate rings also hung from the ears.
The shield, which in the 'Varvakeion' copy bears only a Gorgon's head, originally carried battle-scenes between gods and giants on the inner side and between Greeks and Amazons on its outer side. Other statuettes at Athens and fragmentary copies of the shield alone give a rough idea of the Battle against the Amazons, a loose composition arranged in groups of two or three figures apiece. A legend recorded by Plutarch states that Pheidias represented himself on the shield as a bald old man raising a boulder in both hands, while Pericles also appeared, though scarcely recognizable because an arm stretched across his face in the act of thrusting with a spear.