（Ἀθήνη or Ἀθηνᾶ), one of the great divinities of the
Greeks. Homer Hom. Il. 5.880) calls her a daughter of Zeus,
without any allusion to her mother or to the manner in which
she was called into existence, while most of the later
traditions agree in stating that she was born from the head
of Zeus. According to Hesiod (Hes. Th. 886, &c.), Metis, the
first wife of Zeus, was the mother of Athena, but when Metis
was pregnant with her, Zeus, on the advice of Gaea and
Uranus, swallowed Metis up, and afterwards gave birth
himself to Athena, who sprang from his head. (Hesiod, l.c.
924.) Pindar Pind. O. 7.35, &c.) adds, that Hephaestus split
the head of Zeus with his axe, and that Athena sprang forth
with a mighty war-shout. Others relate, that Prometheus or
Hermes or Palamaon assisted Zeus in giving birth to Athena,
and mentioned the river Triton as the place where the event
took place. (Apollod. 1.4.6; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. 7.66.)
Other traditions again relate, that Athena sprang from the
head of Zeus in frill armour, a statement for which
Stesichorus is said to have been the most ancient authority.
(Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 355; Philostr. Icon. 2.27; Schol. ad
Apollon. 4.1310.) All these traditions, however, agree in
making Athena a daughter of Zeus; but a second set regard
her as the daughter of Pallas, the winged giant, whom she
afterwards killed on account of his attempting to violate
her chastity, whose skin she used as her aegis, and whose
wings she fastened to her own feet. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. l.c.;
Cic. de Nat. Deor. 3.23.) A third tradition carries us to
Libya, and calls Athena a daughter of Poseidon and Tritonis.
Athena, says Herodotus (4.180), on one occasion became angry
with her father and went to Zeus, who made her his own
daughter. This passage shews more clearly than any other the
manner in which genuine and ancient Hellenic myths were
transplanted to Libya, where they were afterwards regarded
as the sources of Hellenic ones. Respecting this Libyan
Athena, it is farther related, that she was educated by the
rivergod Triton, together with his own daughter Pallas.
(Apollod. 3.12.3.) In Libya she was also said to have
invented the flute; for when Perseus had cut off the head of
Medusa, and Stheno and Euryale, the sisters of Medusa,
lamented her death, while plaintive sounds issued from the
mouths of the serpents which surrounded their heads, Athena
is said to have imitated these sounds on a reed. (Pind. P.
12.19, &c.; compare the other accounts in Hyg. Fab. 165;
Apollod. 1.4.2 ; Paus. 1.24.1.) The connexion of Athena with
Triton and Tritonis caused afterwards the various traditions
about her birth-place, so that wherever there was a river or
a well of that name, as in Crete, Thessaly, Boeotia,
Arcadia, and Egypt, the inhabitants of those districts
asserted that Athena was born there. It is from such birth-
places on a river Triton that she seems to have been called
Tritonis or Tritogeneia (Paus. 9.33.5), though it should be
observed that this surname is also explained in other ways;
for some derive it from an ancient Cretan, Aeolic, or
Boeotian word, τριτώ, signifying " head," so that it would
mean " the goddess born from the head," and others think
that it was intended to commemorate the circumstance of her
being born on the third day of the month. (Tztez. ad Lycoph.
519.) The connexion of Athena with Triton naturally
suggests, that we have to look for the most ancient seat of
her worship in Greece to the banks of the river Triton in
Boeotia, which emptied itself into lake Copais, and on which
there were two ancient Pelasgian towns, Athenae and Eleusis,
which were according to tradition swallowed up by the lake.
From thence her worship was carried by the Minyans into
Attica, Libya, and other countries. (Müller, Orchom. p.
355.) We must lastly notice one tradition, which made Athena
a daughter of Itonius and sister of Iodama, who was killed
by Athena (Paus. 9.34.1; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 355), and another
according to which she was the daughter of Hephaestus.
These various traditions about Athena arose, as in most
other cases, from local legends and from identifications of
the Greek Athena with other divinities. The common notion
which the Greeks entertained about her, and which was most
widely spread in the ancient world, is, that she was the
daughter of Zeus, and if we take Metis to have been her
mother, we have at once the clue to the character which she
bears in the religion of Greece ; for, as her father was the
most powerful and her mother the wisest among the gods, so
Athena was a combination of the two, that is, a goddess in
whom power and wisdom were harmoniously blended. From this
fundamental idea may be derived the various aspects under
which she appears in the ancient writers. She seems to have
been a divinity of a purely ethical character, and not the
representative of any particular physical power manifested
in nature; her power and wisdom appear in her being the
protectress and preserver of the state and of social
institutions. Everything, therefore, which gives to the
state strength and prosperity, such as agriculture,
inventions, and industry, as well as everything which
preserves and protects it from injurious influence from
without, such as the defence of the walls, fortresses, and
harbours, is under her immediate care.
As the protectress of agriculture, Athena is represented as
the inventor of the plough and rake: she created the olive
tree, the greatest blessing of Attica, taught the people to
yoke oxen to the plough, took care of the breeding of
horses, and instructed men how to tame them by the bridle,
her own invention. Allusions to this feature of her
character are contained in the epithets βούδεια, βοαρμία,
ἀλρίφα, ἱππία, or χαλινῖτις. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1076;
Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 520; Hesych. s. v. Ἱππία; Serv. ad Aen.
4.402; Pind. O. 13.79.) At the beginning of spring thanks
were offered to her in advance (προχαριστήρια, Suid. s. v.)
for the protection she was to afford to the fields. Besides
the inventions relating to agriculture, others also
connected with various kinds of science, industry, and art,
are ascribed to her, and all her inventions are not of the
kind which men make by chance or accident, but such as
require thought and meditation. We may notice the invention
of numbers (Liv. 7.3), of the trumpet (Böckh, ad Pind. p.
344), the chariot, and navigation. [AETHYIA.] In regard to
all kinds of useful arts, she was believed to have made men
acquainted with the means and instruments which are
necessary for practising them, such as the art of producing
fire. She was further believed to have invented nearly every
kind of work in which women were employed, and she herself
was skilled in such work : in short Athena and Hephaestus
were the great patrons both of the useful and elegant arts.
Hence she is called ἐργάνη (Paus. 1.24.3), and later writers
make her the goddess of all widom, knowledge, and art, and
represent her as sitting on the right hand side of her
father Zeus, and supporting him with her counsel. (Hom. Od.
xxiii 160, 18.190; Hymn. in Ven. 4, 7, &c.; Plut. Cim. 10;
Ovid, Ov. Fast. 3.833; Orph. Hymn. 31.8; Spanh. ad Callim.
p. 643; Hor. Carm. 1.12. 19; comp. Dict. of Ant. under
Ἀθήναια and Χαλκεῖα.) As the goddess who made so many
inventions necessary and useful in civilized life, she is
characterized by various epithets and surnames, expressing
the keenness of her sight or the power of her intellect,
such as ὀπτιλέτις, ὀφθαλμῖτις, ὀξυδερκής, γλαυκῶπις,
πολύβουλος, πολύμητις, and μηχανῖτις.
As the patron divinity of the state, she was at Athens the
protectress of the phratries and houses which formed the
basis of the state. The festival of the Apaturia had a
direct reference to this particular point in the character
of the goddess. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Apaturia.) She also
maintained the authority of the law, and justice, and order,
in the courts and the assembly of the people. This notion
was as ancient as the Homeric poems, in which she is
described as assisting Odysseus against the lawless conduct
of the suitors. (Od. 13.394.) She was believed to have
instituted the ancient court of the Areiopagus, and in cases
where the votes of the judges were equally diviled, she gave
the casting one in favour of the accused. (Aeschyl. Eum.
753; comp. Paus. 1.28.5.) The epithets which have reference
to this part of the goddess's character are άξιόποινος, the
avenger (Paus. 3.15.4), Βουλαῖα, and ἀγυραῖα. (3.11.8.)
As Athena promoted the internal prosperity of the state, by
encouraging agriculture and industry, and by maintaining law
and order in all public transactions, so also she protected
the state from outward enemies, and thus assumes the
character of a warlike divinity, though in a very different
sense from Ares, Eris, or Enyo. According to Homer (Hom. Il.
5.736, &c.), she does not even bear arms, but borrows them
from Zeus; she keeps men from slaughter when prudence
demands it (Il. 1.199, &c.), and repels Ares's savage love
of war, and conquers him. (5.840, &c., 21.406.) She does not
love war for its own sake, but simply on account of the
advantages which the state gains in engaging in it; and she
therefore supports only such warlike undertakings as are
begun with prudence, and are likely to be followed by
favourable results. (10.244, &c.) The epithets which she
derives from her warlike character are ἀγελεία, λαφρία,
ἀλκιμάχη, λαόσσοος, and others. In times of war, towns,
fortresses, and harbours are under her especial care, whence
she is designated as ερυσίπτολις, ἀλαλκομενηΐς, πολιάς,
πολιοῦχος, ἀκραῖα, ἀκρία, κληδοῦχος, πυλαῖτις, προμαχόρμα,
and the like. As the prudent goddess of war, she is also the
protectress of all heroes who are distinguished for prudence
and good counsel, as well as for their strength and valour,
such as Heracles, Perseus, Bellerophontes, Achilles,
Diomedes, and Odysseus. In the war of Zeus against the
giants, she assisted her father and Heracles with her
counsel, and also took an active part in it, for she buried
Enceladus under the island of Sicily, and slew Pallas.
(Apollod. 1.6.1, &c.; comp. Spanheim, ad Callim. p. 643;
Hor. Carm. 1.12. 19.) In the Trojan war she sided with the
more civilised Greeks, though on their return home she
visited them with storms, on account of the manner in which
the Locrian Ajax had treated Cassandra in her temple. As a
goddess of war and the protectress of heroes, Athena usually
appears in armour, with the aegis and a golden staff, with
which she bestows on her favourites youth and majesty. (Hom.
Od. 16.172.)
The character of Athena, as we have here traced it, holds a
middle place between the male and female, whence she is
called in an Orphic hymn (31.10) ἄρσην καὶ θῆλυς, and hence
also she is a virgin divinity (Hom. Hymn. 9.3), whose heart
is inaccessible to the passion of love, and who shuns
matrimonial connexion. Teircsias was deprived of his sight
for having seen her in the bath (Callim. Hymn. pp. 546,589),
and Hephaestus, who made an attempt upon her chastity, was
obliged to flee. (Apollod. 3.6.7, 14.6; Hom. Il. 2.547, &c.;
comp. Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 111.) For this reason, the ancient
traditions always describe the goddess as dressed; and when
Ovid (Ov. Ep. 5.36) makes her appear naked before Paris, he
abandons the genuine old story. lier statue also was always
dressed, and when it was carried about at the Attic
festivals, it was entirely covered. But, notwithstanding the
common opinion of her virgin character, there are some
traditions of late origin which describe her as a mother.
Thus, Apollo is called a son of Hephaestus and Athena--a
legend which may have arisen at the time when the Ionians
introduced the worship of Apollo into Attica, and when this
new divinity was placed in some family connexion with the
ancient goddess of the country. (Müller, Dor. 2.2.13.)
Lychnus also is called a son of Hephaestus and Athena.
(Spanheim, ad Callim. p. 644.)
Athena was worshipped in all parts of Greece, and from the
ancient towns on the lake Copais her worship was nitroduced
at a very early period into Attica, where she became the
great national divinity of the city and the country. Here
she was afterwards regarded as the θεὰ σώτειρα, ὐγίεια, and
παιωνία, and the serpent, the symbol of perpetual
renovation, was sacred to her. (Paus. 1.23.5, 31.3, 2.4.) At
Lindus in Rhodes her worship was likewise very ancient.
Respecting its introduction into Italy, and the
modifications which her character underwent there, see
MINERVA. Among the things sacred to her we may mention the
owl, serpent, cock, and olive-tree, which she was said to
have created in her contest with Poseidon about the
possession of Attica. (Plut. de Is. et Os.; Paus. 6.26.2,
1.24.3; Hyg. Fab. 164.) At Corone in Messenia her statue
bore a crow in its hand. (Paus. 4.34.3.) The sacrifices
offered to her consisted of bulls, whence she probably
derived the surname of ταυροβόλος (Suid. s. v.), rams, and
cows. (Hom. Il. 2.550; Ov. Met. 4.754.) Eustathius (ad Hom.
l.c.) remarks, that only female animals were sacrificed to
her, but no female lambs. In Ilion, Locrian maidens or
children are said to have been sacrificed to her every year
as an atonement for the crime committed by the Locrian Ajax
upon Cassandra; and Suidas (s. v. ποινή) states, that these
human sacrifices continued to be offered to her down to B.
C. 346. Respecting the great festivals of Athena at Athens,
see Dict. of Ant. s. vv. Panathenaea and Arrhephoria.
Athena was frequently represented in works of art; but those
in which her figure reached the highest ideal of perfection
were the three statues by Pheidias. The first was the
celebrated colossal statue of the goddess, of gold and
ivory, which was erected on the acropolis of Athens; the
second was a still greater bronze statue, made out of the
spoils taken by the Athenians in the battle of Marathon; the
third was a small bronze statue called the beautiful or the
Lemnian Athena, because it had been dedicated at Athens by
the Lemnians. The first of these statues represented the
goddess in a standing position, bearing in her hand a Nike
four cubits in height. The shield stood by her feet; her
robe came down to her feet, on her breast was the head of
Medusa, in her right hand she bore a lance, and at her feet
there lay a serpent. (Paus. 1.24.7, 28.2.) We still possess
a great number of representations of Athena in statues,
colossal busts, reliefs, coins, and in vase-paintings. Among
the attributes which characterise the goddess in these works
of art, we mention--1. The helmet, which she usually wears
on her head, but in a few instances carries in her hand. It
is usually ornamented in the most beautiful manner with
griffins, heads of rams, horses, and sphinxes. (Comp. Hom.
Il. 5.743.) 2. The aegis. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Aegis.) 3.
The round Argolic shield. in the centre of which is
represented the head of Medusa. 4. Objects sacred to her,
such as an olive branch, a serpent, an owl, a cock, and a
lance. Her garment is usually the Spartan tunic without
sleeves, and over it she wears a cloak, the peplus, or,
though rarely, the chlamys. The general expression of her
figure is thoughtfulness and earnestness; her face is rather
oval than round, the hair is rich and generally combed
backwards over the temples, and floats freely down behind.
The whole figure is majestic, and rather strong built than
slender: the hips are small and the shoulders broad, so that
the whole somewhat resembles a male figure. (Hirt, Mythol.
Bilderb. i. p. 46, &c.; Welcker, Zeitschrift für Gesch. der
alten Kunst, p. 256, &c.) - A Dictionary of Greek and Roman
biography and mythology, William Smith, Ed.
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