Athena
A goddess to be inspired by but with some secrets…
In Greek religion and
mythology, Athena or Athene also referred to as Palas Athena/Athene is the
goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just
warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts and skill. Minerva
is the Roman goddess identified with Athena.
Athena is also a
shrewd companion of heroes and is the goddess of heroic endeavor or effort. She
is the virgin patroness of Athens. The Athenians founded the Parthenon (which
is one of the largest Doric temples) on the Acropolis of her namesake city,
Athens, in her honour.
Athena's veneration
as the patron of Athens seems to have existed from the earliest times, and was
so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural
changes. In her role as a protector of the city (polis), many people throughout
the Greek world worshiped Athena as Athena Polias ("Athena of the
city"). The city of Athens and the goddess Athena essentially bear the
same name (Athena the Goddess, Athenai the city) while it is not known which of
the two words is derived from the other.
Athena daughter of
Zeus, father of the gods (known in Roman mythology as Jupiter) and Metis,
goddess of crafty thought and wisdom (known in Roman mythology as Metis).
Athena was born fully armed from head to toe from her father’s forehead. With
many versions, in the one most commonly cited, Zeus lay with Metis, but he immediately feared the consequences. It
had been prophesied that Metis would bear children more powerful than the sire,
even Zeus himself.
In order to forestall
these dire consequences, after lying with Metis, Zeus "put her away inside
his own belly;" he "swallowed her down all of a sudden." He was
too late: Metis had already conceived.
Eventually Zeus
experienced an enormous headache; Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ares, or Palaemon
(depending on the sources examined) cleaved Zeus's head with the double-headed
Minoan axe, the labrys.
Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown and armed,
with a shout— "and pealed to the broad sky her clarion cry of war. And
Ouranos trembled to hear, and Mother Gaia..." (Pindar, Seventh Olympian
Ode). Plato, in the Laws, attributes the cult of Athena to the culture of
Crete, introduced, he thought, from Libya during the dawn of Greek culture.
I chose this
character because I really like her sacred bird, which is the little owl. I
also like her qualities of wisdom, courage,
inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics,
strength, strategy, the arts, crafts and skill since most of them help women or
people to get their dreams or to stand up. Finally, Athena resembles or could
be consider to be the goddess of the intelligence since most of this qualities
are math and strategies and I prefer being intelligent than beautiful...
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