Athena - Profile of the Greek Goddess Athena

Greek Mythology

Who Is Athena?

Athena is the name of an important goddess for the Greeks. She is the patron goddess of Athens, the goddess of wisdom, a goddess of crafts, and as a war goddess, an active participant in the Trojan War. She gave Athens the gift of the olive tree, providing oil, food, and wood.

Myths re-told by Thomas Bulfinch about Athena (Minerva) include:

• Minerva and Niobe
• Graeae and Gorgons - Perseus - Medusa - Atlas - Andromeda
• Fate of the Suitors
• Monsters
• Theseus
• Prometheus and Pandora
• Hercules -- Hebe and Ganymede
• Proserpine

Athena's Family: The Greek goddess Athena is said to be the offspring of Zeus alone, but that was only after the Oceanid Metis became pregant and Zeus swallowed her. By swallowing the Oceanid and her unborn child, Zeus became pregnant with Athena. Zeus wasn't built to deliver a baby, and he seems to have gestated the baby in his head. The solution: Hephaestus (or Prometheus) struck open Zeus' head with an axe to release the goddess Athena, who emerged from her father's head fully armed.

Roman Equivalent of Athena: The Greek goddess Athena was known as the goddess Minerva by the Romans.

Attributes of Athena: Aegis, spear, pomegranate, owl, distaff, helmet. She is described as grey-eyed.

Powers of Athena: Athena is the goddess of wisdom and crafts. She is the patron of Athens.

Sources on Athena: Ancient sources for Athena include: Aeschylus, Apollodorus, Callimachus, Diodorus Siculus, Euripides, Hesiod, Homer, Nonnius, Pausanias, Sophocles and Strabo.

Son of Athena: Athena is a virgin goddess, but she is still sometimes credited with being partially the mother of Erichthonius through an attempted rape by Hephaestus, whose seed spilled on her leg. When Athena wiped it off, it fell to earth (Gaia) and became Erichthonius. Thus, this half-snake half-man creature has two mothers and one father.

Parthenon: The Greeks built a great temple for Athena on the acropolis or high point of their city. The temple is known as the Parthenon. In it was a colossal gold and ivory statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos, Athena the Maiden. During the annual Panathenaia festival, a procession was made to the statue for the purpose of providing the statue of the goddess with new clothes.

• Portrait of a Priestess
• Parthenon

More on Athena: The Greek goddess Athena was involved in most of the heroic tales. She sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War, various heroes, and especially with Odysseus, appearing in disguise to his son Telemachus to spur the young man to action when the suitors of Penelope were eating Odysseus' kingdom of Ithaca out of house and home.

Since Athena was born without a mother -- sprung from her father's head -- in an important murder trial, she decided that the role of the mother was less essential in creation than the role of the father. Specifically, she sided with the matricide Orestes, who had kiled his mother Clytemnestra after she had killed her husband and his father Agamemnon.

In the tale of the Judgment of Paris (son of the Trojan King Priam), Athena was one of the two goddesses who lost the beauty contest to Aphrodite. This is part of the reason Athena sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War.

Athena also defeated Poseidon in the vote over who would be the patron god of Athens because her gift was more valuable -- the olive tree.

Pictures of Athena