Etymology: Polis
Etymology: Polis
Etymology: Polis
or Athene,[c] often given the epithet Pallas,[d] is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, handicraft, and
warfare[4] who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva.[5] Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress
of various cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens, from which she most likely received her name.
[6]
The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is dedicated to her. Her major symbols include owls, olive trees, snakes, and
the Gorgoneion. In art, she is generally depicted wearing a helmet and holding a spear.
From her origin as an Aegean palace goddess, Athena was closely associated with the city. She was known
as Polias and Poliouchos (both derived from polis, meaning "city-state"), and her temples were usually located atop the
fortified acropolis in the central part of the city. The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis is dedicated to her, along with
numerous other temples and monuments. As the patron of craft and weaving, Athena was known as Ergane. She's also
a warrior goddess, and was believed to lead soldiers into battle as Athena Promachos. Her main festival in Athens was
the Panathenaia, which was celebrated during the month of Hekatombaion in midsummer and was the most important
festival on the Athenian calendar.
In Greek mythology, Athena was believed to have been born from the forehead of her father Zeus. In the founding myth of
Athens, Athena bested Poseidon in a competition over patronage of the city by creating the first olive tree. She's known
as Athena Parthenos "Athena the Virgin," but in one archaic Attic myth, the god Hephaestus tried and failed to rape her,
resulting in Gaia giving birth to Erichthonius, an important Athenian founding hero. Athena was the patron goddess of heroic
endeavor; she was believed to have aided the heroes Perseus, Heracles, Bellerophon, and Jason. Along
with Aphrodite and Hera, Athena was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War.
She plays an active role in the Iliad, in which she assists the Achaeans and, in the Odyssey, she is the divine counselor
to Odysseus. In the later writings of the Roman poet Ovid, Athena was said to have competed against the mortal Arachne in
a weaving competition, afterward transforming Arachne into the first spider; Ovid also describes how she
transformed Medusa into a Gorgon after witnessing her being raped by Poseidon in her temple. Since the Renaissance,
Athena has become an international symbol of wisdom, the arts, and classical learning. Western artists and allegorists have
often used Athena as a symbol of freedom and democracy.
Contents
1Etymology
2Origins
3Cult and patronages
o 3.1Panhellenic and Athenian cult
o 3.2Regional cults
4Epithets and attributes
5Mythology
o 5.1Birth
o 5.2Pallas Athena
o 5.3Lady of Athens
o 5.4Patron of heroes
o 5.5Punishment myths
o 5.6Trojan War
6Classical art
7Post-classical culture
o 7.1Art and symbolism
o 7.2Modern interpretations
8Genealogy
9See also
10Notes
11References
o 11.1Bibliography
12External links
Etymology
The Acropolis at Athens (1846) by Leo von Klenze. Athena's name probably comes from the name of the city of Athens.[6][7]
Athena is associated with the city of Athens.[6][8] The name of the city in ancient Greek is Ἀθῆναι (Athȇnai), a plural toponym,
designating the place where—according to myth—she presided over the Athenai, a sisterhood devoted to her worship.[7] In
ancient times, scholars argued whether Athena was named after Athens or Athens after Athena.[6] Now scholars generally
agree that the goddess takes her name from the city;[6][8] the ending -ene is common in names of locations, but rare for
personal names.[6] Testimonies from different cities in ancient Greece attest that similar city goddesses were worshipped in
other cities[7] and, like Athena, took their names from the cities where they were worshipped.[7] For example, in Mycenae there
was a goddess called Mykene, whose sisterhood was known as Mykenai,[7] whereas at Thebes an analogous deity was
called Thebe, and the city was known under the plural form Thebai (or Thebes, in English, where the 's' is the plural
formation).[7] The name Athenai is likely of Pre-Greek origin because it contains the presumably Pre-Greek morpheme *-ān-.[9]
In his dialogue Cratylus, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428–347 BC) gives some rather imaginative etymologies of
Athena's name, based on the theories of the ancient Athenians and his own etymological speculations:
That is a graver matter, and there, my friend, the modern interpreters of Homer may, I think, assist in explaining the view of
the ancients. For most of these in their explanations of the poet, assert that he meant by Athena "mind" [νοῦς, noũs] and
"intelligence" [διάνοια, diánoia], and the maker of names appears to have had a singular notion about her; and indeed calls
her by a still higher title, "divine intelligence" [θεοῦ νόησις, theoũ nóēsis], as though he would say: This is she who has the
mind of God [ἁ θεονόα, a theonóa). Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may mean "she who knows divine things" [τὰ
θεῖα νοοῦσα, ta theia noousa] better than others. Nor shall we be far wrong in supposing that the author of it wished to
identify this Goddess with moral intelligence [εν έθει νόεσιν, en éthei nóesin], and therefore gave her the name Etheonoe;
which, however, either he or his successors have altered into what they thought a nicer form, and called her Athena.
— Plato, Cratylus 407b
Thus, Plato believed that Athena's name was derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα, Atheonóa—which the later Greeks rationalised
as from the deity's (θεός, theós) mind (νοῦς, noũs). The second-century AD orator Aelius Aristides attempted to derive
natural symbols from the etymological roots of Athena's names to be aether, air, earth, and moon.[10]
Origins
Fragment of a fresco from the Cult Center at Mycenae dating the late thirteenth century BC depicting a warrior goddess, possibly Athena,
Athena was originally the Aegean goddess of the palace, who presided over household crafts and protected the king.[12][13][14]
[15]
A single Mycenaean Greek inscription 𐀀𐀲𐀙𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊 a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja /Athana potnia/ appears at Knossos in the Linear
B tablets from the Late Minoan II-era "Room of the Chariot Tablets";[16][17][11] these comprise the earliest Linear B archive
anywhere.[16] Although Athana potnia is often translated as "Mistress Athena", it could also mean "the Potnia of Athana",
or the Lady of Athens.[11][18] However, any connection to the city of Athens in the Knossos inscription is uncertain.[19] A sign
series a-ta-no-dju-wa-ja appears in the still undeciphered corpus of Linear A tablets, written in the unclassified Minoan
language.[20] This could be connected with the Linear B Mycenaean expressions a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja and di-u-ja or di-wi-
ja (Diwia, "of Zeus" or, possibly, related to a homonymous goddess),[16] resulting in a translation "Athena of Zeus" or "divine
Athena". Similarly, in the Greek mythology and epic tradition, Athena figures as a daughter of Zeus (Διός
θυγάτηρ; cfr. Dyeus).[21] However, the inscription quoted seems to be very similar to "a-ta-nū-tī wa-ya", quoted as SY Za 1 by
Jan Best.[21] Best translates the initial a-ta-nū-tī, which is recurrent in line beginnings, as "I have given".[21]
A Mycenean fresco depicts two women extending their hands towards a central figure, who is covered by an enormous
figure-eight shield; this may depict the warrior-goddess with her palladion, or her palladion in an aniconic representation.[22]
[23]
In the "Procession Fresco" at Knossos, which was reconstructed by the Mycenaeans, two rows of figures carrying vessels
seem to meet in front of a central figure, which is probably the Minoan precursor to Athena.[24] The early twentieth-century
scholar Martin Persson Nilsson argued that the Minoan snake goddess figurines are early representations of Athena.[12][13]
Nilsson and others have claimed that, in early times, Athena was either an owl herself or a bird goddess in general.[25] In the
third book of the Odyssey, she takes the form of a sea-eagle.[25] Proponents of this view argue that she dropped her
prophylactic owl-mask before she lost her wings. "Athena, by the time she appears in art," Jane Ellen Harrison remarks,
"has completely shed her animal form, has reduced the shapes she once wore of snake and bird to attributes, but
occasionally in black-figure vase-paintings she still appears with wings."[26]
Ancient Akkadian cylinder seal (dating c. 2334–2154 BC) depicting Inanna, the goddess of war, armored and carrying weapons, resting her
A new peplos was woven for Athena and ceremonially brought to dress her cult image (British Museum).
In her aspect of Athena Polias, Athena was venerated as the goddess of the city and the protectress of the citadel.[13][40][41] In
Athens, the Plynteria, or "Feast of the Bath", was observed every year at the end of the month of Thargelion.[42] The festival
lasted for five days. During this period, the priestesses of Athena, or plyntrídes, performed a cleansing ritual within
the Erechtheion, a sanctuary devoted to Athena and Poseidon.[43] Here Athena's statue was undressed, her clothes washed,
and body purified.[43] Athena was worshipped at festivals such as Chalceia as Athena Ergane,[44][41] the patroness of various
crafts, especially weaving.[44][41] She was also the patron of metalworkers and was believed to aid in the forging of armor and
weapons.[44] During the late fifth century BC, the role of goddess of philosophy became a major aspect of Athena's cult.[45]
As Athena Promachos, she was believed to lead soldiers into battle.[46][47] Athena represented the disciplined, strategic side of
war, in contrast to her brother Ares, the patron of violence, bloodlust, and slaughter—"the raw force of war".[48][49] Athena was
believed to only support those fighting for a just cause[48] and was thought to view war primarily as a means to resolve
conflict.[48] The Greeks regarded Athena with much higher esteem than Ares.[48][49] Athena was especially worshipped in this
role during the festivals of the Panathenaea and Pamboeotia,[50] both of which prominently featured displays of athletic and
military prowess.[50] As the patroness of heroes and warriors, Athena was believed to favor those who used cunning and
intelligence rather than brute strength.[51]
The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, which is dedicated to Athena Parthenos[52]
In her aspect as a warrior maiden, Athena was known as Parthenos (Παρθένος "virgin"),[46][53][54] because, like her fellow
goddesses Artemis and Hestia, she was believed to remain perpetually a virgin.[55][56][46][54][57] Athena's most famous temple,
the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, takes its name from this title.[57] According to Karl Kerényi, a scholar of Greek
mythology, the name Parthenos is not merely an observation of Athena's virginity, but also a recognition of her role as
enforcer of rules of sexual modesty and ritual mystery.[57] Even beyond recognition, the Athenians allotted the goddess value
based on this pureness of virginity, which they upheld as a rudiment of female behavior.[57] Kerényi's study and theory of
Athena explains her virginal epithet as a result of her relationship to her father Zeus and a vital, cohesive piece of her
character throughout the ages.[57] This role is expressed in a number of stories about Athena. Marinus of Neapolis reports
that when Christians removed the statue of the goddess from the Parthenon, a beautiful woman appeared in a dream
to Proclus, a devotee of Athena, and announced that the "Athenian Lady" wished to dwell with him.[58]
Regional cults
Athena was not only the patron goddess of Athens, but also other cities, including Argos, Sparta, Gortyn, Lindos, and Larisa.
[47]
The various cults of Athena were all branches of her panhellenic cult[47] and often proctored various initiation rites of
Grecian youth, such as the passage into citizenship by young men or the passage of young women into marriage.[47] These
cults were portals of a uniform socialization, even beyond mainland Greece.[47] Athena was frequently equated with Aphaea,
a local goddess of the island of Aegina, originally from Crete and also associated with Artemis and the nymph Britomartis.
[59]
In Arcadia, she was assimilated with the ancient goddess Alea and worshiped as Athena Alea.[60] Sanctuaries dedicated to
Athena Alea were located in the Laconian towns of Mantineia and Tegea. The temple of Athena Alea in Tegea was an
important religious center of ancient Greece.[g] The geographer Pausanias was informed that the temenos had been founded
by Aleus.[61]
Athena had a major temple on the Spartan Acropolis,[62][41] where she was venerated as Poliouchos and Khalkíoikos ("of the
Brazen House", often latinized as Chalcioecus).[62][41] This epithet may refer to the fact that cult statue held there may have
been made of bronze,[62] that the walls of the temple itself may have been made of bronze,[62] or that Athena was the patron of
metal-workers.[62] Bells made of terracotta and bronze were used in Sparta as part of Athena's cult.[62] An Ionic-style temple to
Athena Polias was built at Priene in the fourth century BC.[63] It was designed by Pytheos of Priene,[64] the same architect who
designed the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.[64] The temple was dedicated by Alexander the Great[65] and an inscription from
the temple declaring his dedication is now held in the British Museum.[63]
Epithets and attributes
See also: Category:Epithets of Athena
Cult statue of Athena with the face of the Carpegna type (late 1st century BC to early 1st century AD), from the Piazza dell'Emporio, Rome
Bust of the Velletri Pallas type, copy after a votive statue of Kresilas in Athens (c. 425 BC)
In Homer's epic works, Athena's most common epithet is Glaukopis (γλαυκῶπις), which usually is translated as, "bright-
eyed" or "with gleaming eyes".[74] The word is a combination of glaukós (γλαυκός, meaning "gleaming, silvery", and later,
"bluish-green" or "gray")[75] and ṓps (ὤψ, "eye, face").[76] The word glaúx (γλαύξ,[77] "little owl")[78] is from the same root,
presumably according to some, because of the bird's own distinctive eyes. Athena was clearly associated with the owl from
very early on;[79] in archaic images, she is frequently depicted with an owl perched on her hand.[79] Through its association with
Athena, the owl evolved into the national mascot of the Athenians and eventually became a symbol of wisdom.[5]
In the Iliad (4.514), the Odyssey (3.378), the Homeric Hymns, and in Hesiod's Theogony, Athena is also given the curious
epithet Tritogeneia (Τριτογένεια), whose significance remains unclear.[80] It could mean various things, including "Triton-born",
perhaps indicating that the homonymous sea-deity was her parent according to some early myths.[80] One myth relates the
foster father relationship of this Triton towards the half-orphan Athena, whom he raised alongside his own daughter Pallas.
[81]
Kerényi suggests that "Tritogeneia did not mean that she came into the world on any particular river or lake, but that she
was born of the water itself; for the name Triton seems to be associated with water generally."[82][83] In Ovid's Metamorphoses,
Athena is occasionally referred to as "Tritonia".
Another possible meaning may be "triple-born" or "third-born", which may refer to a triad or to her status as the third
daughter of Zeus or the fact she was born from Metis, Zeus, and herself; various legends list her as being the first child after
Artemis and Apollo, though other legends identify her as Zeus' first child.[84] Several scholars have suggested a connection to
the Rigvedic god Trita,[85] who was sometimes grouped in a body of three mythological poets.[85] Michael Janda has connected
the myth of Trita to the scene in the Iliad in which the "three brothers" Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divide the world between
them, receiving the "broad sky", the sea, and the underworld respectively.[86][87] Janda further connects the myth of Athena
being born of the head (i. e. the uppermost part) of Zeus, understanding Trito- (which perhaps originally meant "the third") as
another word for "the sky".[86] In Janda's analysis of Indo-European mythology, this heavenly sphere is also associated with
the mythological body of water surrounding the inhabited world (cfr. Triton's mother, Amphitrite).[86]
Yet another possible meaning is mentioned in Diogenes Laertius' biography of Democritus, that Athena was called
"Tritogeneia" because three things, on which all mortal life depends, come from her.[88]
Mythology
Birth
Athena is "born" from Zeus's forehead as a result of him having swallowed her mother Metis, as he grasps the clothing of Eileithyia on the
She was the daughter of Zeus, produced without a mother, so that she emerged full-grown from his forehead. There was an
alternative story that Zeus swallowed Metis, the goddess of counsel, while she was pregnant with Athena, so that Athena
finally emerged from Zeus. Being the favourite child of Zeus, she had great power. In the classical Olympian pantheon,
Athena was regarded as the favorite daughter of Zeus, born fully armed from his forehead.[89][90][91][h] The story of her birth
comes in several versions.[92][93][94] The earliest mention is in Book V of the Iliad, when Ares accuses Zeus of being biased in
favor of Athena because "autos egeinao" (literally "you fathered her", but probably intended as "you gave birth to her").[95]
[96]
She was essentially urban and civilized, the antithesis in many respects of Artemis, goddess of the outdoors. Athena was
probably a pre-Hellenic goddess and was later taken over by the Greeks. In the version recounted by Hesiod in
his Theogony, Zeus married the goddess Metis, who is described as the "wisest among gods and mortal men", and engaged
in sexual intercourse with her.[97][98][96][99] After learning that Metis was pregnant, however, he became afraid that the unborn
offspring would try to overthrow him, because Gaia and Ouranos had prophesied that Metis would bear children wiser than
their father.[97][98][96][99] In order to prevent this, Zeus tricked Metis into letting him swallow her, but it was too late because Metis
had already conceived.[97][100][96][99] A later account of the story from the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, written in the second
century AD, makes Metis Zeus's unwilling sexual partner, rather than his wife.[101][102] According to this version of the story,
Metis transformed into many different shapes in effort to escape Zeus,[101][102] but Zeus successfully raped her and swallowed
her.[101][102]
After swallowing Metis, Zeus took six more wives in succession until he married his seventh and present wife, Hera.[99] Then
Zeus experienced an enormous headache.[103][96][99] He was in such pain that he ordered someone
(either Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ares, or Palaemon, depending on the sources examined) to cleave his head
open with the labrys, the double-headed Minoan axe.[104][96][105][102] Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown and armed.[104][96][91]
[106]
The "First Homeric Hymn to Athena" states in lines 9–16 that the gods were awestruck by Athena's appearance[107] and
even Helios, the god of the sun, stopped his chariot in the sky.[107] Pindar, in his "Seventh Olympian Ode", states that she
"cried aloud with a mighty shout" and that "the Sky and mother Earth shuddered before her."[108][107]
Hesiod states that Hera was so annoyed at Zeus for having given birth to a child on his own that she conceived and
bore Hephaestus by herself,[99] but in Imagines 2. 27 (trans. Fairbanks), the third-century AD Greek rhetorician Philostratus
the Elder writes that Hera "rejoices" at Athena's birth "as though Athena were her daughter also." The second-century AD
Christian apologist Justin Martyr takes issue with those pagans who erect at springs images of Kore, whom he interprets as
Athena: "They said that Athena was the daughter of Zeus not from intercourse, but when the god had in mind the making of
a world through a word (logos) his first thought was Athena."[109] According to a version of the story in a scholium on
the Iliad (found nowhere else), when Zeus swallowed Metis, she was pregnant with Athena by the Cyclops Brontes.
[110]
The Etymologicum Magnum[111] instead deems Athena the daughter of the Daktyl Itonos.[112] Fragments attributed by the
Christian Eusebius of Caesarea to the semi-legendary Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon, which Eusebius thought had
been written before the Trojan war, make Athena instead the daughter of Cronus, a king of Byblos who visited "the
inhabitable world" and bequeathed Attica to Athena.[113][114]
Pallas Athena
Detail of a Roman fresco from Pompeii showing Ajax the Lesser dragging Cassandra away from the palladion during the fall of Troy, an
Athena's epithet Pallas is derived either from πάλλω, meaning "to brandish [as a weapon]", or, more likely,
from παλλακίς and related words, meaning "youth, young woman".[116] On this topic, Walter Burkert says "she is the Pallas of
Athens, Pallas Athenaie, just as Hera of Argos is Here Argeie."[6] In later times, after the original meaning of the name had
been forgotten, the Greeks invented myths to explain its origin, such as those reported by the Epicurean
philosopher Philodemus and the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, which claim that Pallas was originally a separate entity,
whom Athena had slain in combat.[117]
In one version of the myth, Pallas was the daughter of the sea-god Triton;[81] she and Athena were childhood friends, but
Athena accidentally killed her during a friendly sparring match.[118] Distraught over what she had done, Athena took the name
Pallas for herself as a sign of her grief.[118] In another version of the story, Pallas was a Gigante;[104] Athena slew him during
the Gigantomachy and flayed off his skin to make her cloak, which she wore as a victory trophy.[104][13][119][120] In an alternative
variation of the same myth, Pallas was instead Athena's father,[104][13] who attempted to assault his own daughter,[121] causing
Athena to kill him and take his skin as a trophy.[122]
The palladion was a statue of Athena that was said to have stood in her temple on the Trojan Acropolis.[123] Athena was said
to have carved the statue herself in the likeness of her dead friend Pallas.[123] The statue had special talisman-like
properties[123] and it was thought that, as long as it was in the city, Troy could never fall.[123] When the Greeks captured
Troy, Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, clung to the palladion for protection,[123] but Ajax the Lesser violently tore her away
from it and dragged her over to the other captives.[123] Athena was infuriated by this violation of her protection.[115] Although
Agamemnon attempted to placate her anger with sacrifices, Athena sent a storm at Cape Kaphereos to destroy almost the
entire Greek fleet and scatter all of the surviving ships across the Aegean.[124]
Lady of Athens
The Dispute of Minerva and Neptune by René-Antoine Houasse (c. 1689 or 1706)
In Homer's Iliad, Athena, as a war goddess, inspired and fought alongside the Greek heroes; her aid was synonymous with
military prowess. Also in the Iliad, Zeus, the chief god, specifically assigned the sphere of war to Ares, the god of war, and
Athena. Athena's moral and military superiority to Ares derived in part from the fact that she represented the intellectual and
civilized side of war and the virtues of justice and skill, whereas Ares represented mere blood lust. Her superiority also
derived in part from the vastly greater variety and importance of her functions and from the patriotism of Homer's
predecessors, Ares being of foreign origin. In the Iliad, Athena was the divine form of the heroic, martial ideal: she
personified excellence in close combat, victory, and glory. The qualities that led to victory were found on the aegis, or
breastplate, that Athena wore when she went to war: fear, strife, defense, and assault. Athena appears in Homer's Odyssey
as the tutelary deity of Odysseus, and myths from later sources portray her similarly as helper of Perseus and Heracles
(Hercules). As the guardian of the welfare of kings, Athena became the goddess of good counsel, of prudent restraint and
practical insight, as well as of war. In a founding myth reported by Pseudo-Apollodorus,[111] Athena competed
with Poseidon for the patronage of Athens.[125] They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift[125] and that Cecrops,
the king of Athens, would determine which gift was better.[125] Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water
spring sprang up;[125] this gave the Athenians access to trade and water.[126] Athens at its height was a significant sea power,
defeating the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis[126]—but the water was salty and undrinkable.[126] In an alternative version of
the myth from Vergil's Georgics,[111] Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse.[125] Athena offered the first
domesticated olive tree.[125][54] Cecrops accepted this gift[125] and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens.[125] The olive
tree brought wood, oil, and food,[126] and became a symbol of Athenian economic prosperity.[54][127] Robert Graves was of the
opinion that "Poseidon's attempts to take possession of certain cities are political myths",[126] which reflect the conflict
between matriarchal and patriarchal religions.[126]
The Athena Giustiniani, a Roman copy of a Greek statue of Pallas Athena. The guardian serpent of the Athenian Acropolis sits coiled at her
feet.[128]
Pseudo-Apollodorus[111] records an archaic legend, which claims that Hephaestus once attempted to rape Athena, but she
pushed him away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh.[129][52][130] Athena wiped the semen off using a tuft of wool, which she
tossed into the dust,[129][52][130] impregnating Gaia and causing her to give birth to Erichthonius.[129][52][130] Athena adopted
Erichthonius as her son and raised him.[129][130] The Roman mythographer Hyginus[111] records a similar story in which
Hephaestus demanded Zeus to let him marry Athena since he was the one who had smashed open Zeus's skull, allowing
Athena to be born.[129] Zeus agreed to this and Hephaestus and Athena were married,[129] but, when Hephaestus was about to
consummate the union, Athena vanished from the bridal bed, causing him to ejaculate on the floor, thus impregnating Gaia
with Erichthonius.[129]
The geographer Pausanias[111] records that Athena placed the infant Erichthonius into a small chest[131] (cista), which she
entrusted to the care of the three daughters of Cecrops: Herse, Pandrosos, and Aglauros of Athens.[131] She warned the three
sisters not to open the chest,[131] but did not explain to them why or what was in it.[131] Aglauros, and possibly one of the other
sisters,[131] opened the chest.[131] Differing reports say that they either found that the child itself was a serpent, that it was
guarded by a serpent, that it was guarded by two serpents, or that it had the legs of a serpent.[132] In Pausanias's story, the
two sisters were driven mad by the sight of the chest's contents and hurled themselves off the Acropolis, dying instantly,
[133]
but an Attic vase painting shows them being chased by the serpent off the edge of the cliff instead.[133]
Erichthonius was one of the most important founding heroes of Athens[52] and the legend of the daughters of Cecrops was a
cult myth linked to the rituals of the Arrhephoria festival.[52][134] Pausanias records that, during the Arrhephoria, two young girls
known as the Arrhephoroi, who lived near the temple of Athena Polias, would be given hidden objects by the priestess of
Athena,[135] which they would carry on their heads down a natural underground passage.[135] They would leave the objects they
had been given at the bottom of the passage and take another set of hidden objects,[135] which they would carry on their
heads back up to the temple.[135] The ritual was performed in the dead of night[135] and no one, not even the priestess, knew
what the objects were.[135] The serpent in the story may be the same one depicted coiled at Athena's feet in Pheidias's
famous statue of the Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon.[128] Many of the surviving sculptures of Athena show this serpent.[128]
Herodotus records that a serpent lived in a crevice on the north side of the summit of the Athenian Acropolis[128] and that the
Athenians left a honey cake for it each month as an offering.[128] On the eve of the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480
BC, the serpent did not eat the honey cake[128] and the Athenians interpreted it as a sign that Athena herself had abandoned
them.[128] Another version of the myth of the Athenian maidens is told in Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid (43
BC – 17 AD); in this late variant Hermes falls in love with Herse. Herse, Aglaulus, and Pandrosus go to the temple to offer
sacrifices to Athena. Hermes demands help from Aglaulus to seduce Herse. Aglaulus demands money in exchange.
Hermes gives her the money the sisters have already offered to Athena. As punishment for Aglaulus's greed, Athena asks
the goddess Envy to make Aglaulus jealous of Herse. When Hermes arrives to seduce Herse, Aglaulus stands in his way
instead of helping him as she had agreed. He turns her to stone.[136]
Patron of heroes
Attic red-figure kylix painting from c. 480-470 BC showing Athena observing as the Colchian dragon disgorges the hero Jason[137]
According to Pseudo-Apollodorus's Bibliotheca, Athena advised Argos, the builder of the Argo, the ship on which the
hero Jason and his band of Argonauts sailed, and aided in the ship's construction.[138][139] Pseudo-Apollodorus also records
that Athena guided the hero Perseus in his quest to behead Medusa.[140][141][142] She and Hermes, the god of travelers,
appeared to Perseus after he set off on his quest and gifted him with tools he would need to kill the Gorgon.[142][143] Athena
gave Perseus a polished bronze shield to view Medusa's reflection rather than looking at her directly and thereby avoid
being turned to stone.[142][144] Hermes gave him an adamantine scythe to cut off Medusa's head.[142][145] When Perseus swung his
blade to behead Medusa, Athena guided it, allowing his scythe to cut it clean off.[142][144] According to Pindar's Thirteenth
Olympian Ode, Athena helped the hero Bellerophon tame the winged horse Pegasus by giving him a bit.[146][147]
In ancient Greek art, Athena is frequently shown aiding the hero Heracles.[148] She appears in four of the twelve metopes on
the Temple of Zeus at Olympia depicting Heracles's Twelve Labors,[149][148] including the first, in which she passively watches
him slay the Nemean lion,[148] and the tenth, in which she is shown actively helping him hold up the sky.[150] She is presented
as his "stern ally",[151] but also the "gentle... acknowledger of his achievements."[151] Artistic depictions of
Heracles's apotheosis show Athena driving him to Mount Olympus in her chariot and presenting him to Zeus for his
deification.[150] In Aeschylus's tragedy Orestes, Athena intervenes to save Orestes from the wrath of the Erinyes and presides
over his trial for the murder of his mother Clytemnestra.[152] When half the jury votes to acquit and the other half votes
to convict, Athena casts the deciding vote to acquit Orestes[152] and declares that, from then on, whenever a jury is tied, the
defendant shall always be acquitted.[153]
In The Odyssey, Odysseus' cunning and shrewd nature quickly wins Athena's favour.[154][139] For the first part of the poem,
however, she largely is confined to aiding him only from afar, mainly by implanting thoughts in his head during his journey
home from Troy. Her guiding actions reinforce her role as the "protectress of heroes," or, as mythologian Walter Friedrich
Otto dubbed her, the "goddess of nearness," due to her mentoring and motherly probing.[155][140][156] It is not until he washes up
on the shore of the island of the Phaeacians, where Nausicaa is washing her clothes that Athena arrives personally to
provide more tangible assistance.[157] She appears in Nausicaa's dreams to ensure that the princess rescues Odysseus and
plays a role in his eventual escort to Ithaca.[158] Athena appears to Odysseus upon his arrival, disguised as a herdsman;[159][160]
[154]
she initially lies and tells him that Penelope, his wife, has remarried and that he is believed to be dead,[159] but Odysseus
lies back to her, employing skillful prevarications to protect himself.[161][160] Impressed by his resolve and shrewdness, she
reveals herself and tells