Athena - A Goddess For Men

Olympians Part IV

Continued...

Athletic Maiden with a heart sublime,
Slayer of the Gorgon, fugitive of the bridal bed,
Mother of Art in all your abundance, catalyst of progress!
You bring folly to the corrupt and a sense of purpose to the pure!
Indeed, you are male and female in one,
Patron of war and wisdom,
You are fluid of form, a dragon,
Infused with inspiration of the Gods!

(www.globaltown.com/shawn/athena.html) Orphic Hymn to Athena

While Athena was a friend to Greek heroes, she wasn't so helpful to women. Deborah Lyons, in Chapter 3 of Gender and Immortality, details Athena's bias against her own sex.

Destruction

Arachne, According to Ovid

The story of Arachne told in Book 6 of Ovid's Metamorphoses is one of the most familiar stories about Athena. The theme is a familiar one: comparing a mortal woman to a goddess with disastrous consequences for the human. For instance, the comparison of the mortal Psyche with the goddess Aphrodite formed the background for the story of Cupid and Psyche. While ultimately there was a happy ending, to avert Aphrodite's wrath, Psyche's family abandoned her to death. The comparison of Arachne with Aphrodite had more lasting consequences.

Arachne had bragged that she could spin and weave as well as the goddess:

One at the loom so excellently skill'd, That to the Goddess she refus'd to yield, (Ovid, Metamorphoses VI)

so Athena challenged her to a contest. The goddess was favorably impressed with Arachne's weaving of the gods' debaucheries

This the bright Goddess passionately mov'd,
With envy saw, yet inwardly approv'd.
The scene of heav'nly guilt with haste she tore,
Nor longer the affront with patience bore;
A boxen shuttle in her hand she took,
And more than once Arachne's forehead struck.

but couldn't tolerate the affront to her pride, so she turned the woman into a spider doomed to weave forever.

Fro [< URL = http://web.uvic.ca/grs/bowman/myth/gods/athene_t.html accessed 05/18/1999 >] Athena - Classical Texts

Another similar story is told about Pallas, the daughter of Triton, whose death Athena caused indirectly while they were practicing martial arts. In Apollodorus' account Pallas is also a sort of stepsister of Athena, who is being raised by Pallas' father Tritonos.103 These sibling relations between goddess and mortals are extraordinary, not least for the genealogical and theological difficulties they would create if taken seriously. Nothing similar is found between gods and heroes, nor for any other goddess. Deborah Lyons: Gender and Immortality

Iodama, According to Pausanias

Athena killed Iodama who was either her sister or her priestess. According to Pausanias, Athena turned her to stone using the head of Medusa (a beautiful female who had compared herself with Athena and suffered a hideous metamorphoses in consequence). When Iodama glanced at the head, the snaky locks turned her to stone.

[9.34.2] The following tale, too, is told. Iodama, who served the goddess as priestess, entered the precinct by night, where there appeared to her Athena, upon whose tunic was worked the head of Medusa the Gorgon. When Iodama saw it, she was turned to stone.

Other Women Athena Harmed

Alcinoe
Daughters of Cecrops
Arachne
Medusa

and

the value of women in general

At the matricide trial of Orestes Athena cast the deciding vote. Because she had little regard for the feminine, she sidesd with the matricide. She even calls the mother nothing more than a nurse to the unborn. Proof that a mother is unimportant, Athena found in herself.

The one who mounts is the parent, whereas she, as a stranger for a stranger, [660] preserves the young plant, if the god does not harm it. And I will show you proof of what I say: a father might exist without a mother. A witness is here at hand, the child of Olympian Zeus, who was not nursed in the darkness of a womb, [665] and she is such a child as no goddess could give birth to.
Aeschylus Eumenides

Online Resources

• Aegis
  Identification of the symbol with which Athena was associated.
• Athena
  Subtitled "The adorable goddess of the Athenians," page explains Arachne, Pegasus,Athena's accoutrements, and her epithets.
• Athena, Goddess of Wisdom
  From Perseus Project's Hercules pages.
• Encyclopedia Mythica entry on Athena
  Basic article.
• The Encyclopedia of the goddess Athena
  Epithets, etymology, cult, functions, representations, birth, temples, relations with heroes, and quarrels with Poseidon. Also see Athena timeline.
• Nike
  Identification of Athena's companion. IXION suppliant to Athena.
• Pheidias: Sculptor to the gods
  The Athena Parthenos, by Colin Delaney. An article on what the statue -- full of mythological scenes -- must have looked like.

Art

• Athena Images
  More images of Athena. From the University of Victoria.
• Birth of Athena
  Athena emerging fully armed from father's head with Hephestus and axe standing by from a black-figure vase.