Fiamma
December 12th, 2007, 06:01 PM
From http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Athena.html :
ATHENE (or Athena) was the great Olympian goddess of wise counsel, war, the defence of towns, heroic endeavour, weaving, pottery and other crafts. She was depicted crowned with a crested helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing the snake-trimmed aigis cloak wrapped around her breast and arm, adorned with the monstrous head of the Gorgon.
The more famous myths featuring the goddess Athene include:--
* Her birth from the head of Zeus, fully-grown and arrayed in arms;
* Her contest with Poseidon for dominion of Athens in which she produced the first olive tree and he the first horse;
* The War of the Giants in which she buried Enkelados beneath Mount Etna and made her aigis from the skin of Pallas;
* The attempted rape of the goddess by Hephaistos, who spilled his seed upon the earth and produced Erikhthonios, who she then adopted as her own;
* The assisting of Perseus in his quest to slay the Gorgon and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece;
* The assisting of Herakles with his twelve labours;
* The weaving contest with Arakhne who was transformed by the goddess into a spider;
The blinding of Teiresias for viewing her naked in the bath;
* The Judgement of Paris in which she competed with Hera and Aphrodite for the prize of the golden apple;
* The Trojan War where she sided with the Greeks in battle, but attacked their ships with a storm when they failed to punish Oilean Ajax for violating her Trojan shrine.
Cult of Athena:
http://www.theoi.com/Cult/AthenaCult.html
From http://www.gods-heros-myth.com/godpages/athene.html :
Athene was a very important Olympian. She was associated with many things; among them as the goddess of war, peace, compassion, architects, sculptors, horses, oxen, olives, prudence, and wise counsel. She was also the patron of the arts, crafts, spinning, weaving, and Athens.
Pronunciation: a-THEE-nuh
Birth: The popular story of her birth is that of springing fully armed from the head of her father Zeus. Zeus had previously swallowed her mother Metis, fearing that her child would one day rule the world. Another story tells of her birth involving a cloud. Zeus struck it with his head and caused Athena's birth. Yet another tale tells of her birth near the lake of Triton, and raised by three nymphs.
Father: Zeus
Mother: No mother, born of Zeus' forehead; indirectly Metis
Other Name: Minerva, Hephaistia
Special Objects: Aegis (a shield), Spear, and Helmet
Plants: Olive Tree
Animals: Wise Owl, sometimes the Snake
Cult Center: Crete, Mycenae, Athens, Rome
Myths: The Odyssey, Bellerophon, Perseus and Medusa, Argus and the Argo, Cadmus and the Dragon's Teeth, Diomedes and Tydeus, Homer, Virgil, Pausanius, Ovid, Aeschylus, Sophocles, The Illiad
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena :
In Greek mythology, Athena (Attic: Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnâ, or Ἀθήνη, Athḗnē; Doric: Ἀσάνα, Asána; Latin: Minerva) is the shrewd companion of heroes and the Goddess of heroic endeavour. Her cult seems to have existed from very early times as the patron of Athens and was so persistent that myths about her were rewritten often to adapt to cultural changes over the multiple eras of Ancient Greek traditions. The Greek philosopher, Plato (429-347 B.C.E.), identified her with the Libyan deity Neith who was the war-goddess and huntress deity of the Egyptians since the ancient predynastic period. She also would come to be known as the goddess of wisdom as philosophy became applied to cult in the later fifth century.[1] She was the patroness of weaving especially, and other crafts (Athena Ergane) and the more disciplined side of war, where she led the battle (Athena Promachos)[2]. The metalwork associated with the creation of weapons fell under her patronage. Athena's wisdom also includes the cunning intelligence (metis) of such figures as Odysseus.
She is attended by an owl, and is often accompanied by the goddess of victory, Nike, whom in established icons she offers upon her extended hand. Wearing a goatskin breastplate called the Aegis in late myths said to have been given to her by her father, Zeus[3] although she was associated with this long before in other cultural contexts. She often is shown helmeted and with a shield bearing the Gorgon Medusa's head, the gorgoneion, the hallmark of the early goddess cult in Greece that was given the highest position in the apex of the front facade of the Parthenon. Her shield was later said to be a votive gift of Perseus. A serpent often accompanies this goddess and frequently is depicted at the base of the staff of her lance. The sea and ships as well as horses and chariots are associated with her, but with less frequency.
Athena is an armed warrior goddess, and appears in Greek mythology as a helper of many heroes, including Odysseus, Jason, and Heracles. In Classical Greek myths she never had a consort or lover, and thus, often was known as Athena Parthenos ("Athena the virgin"), hence the name of her most famous temple, the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens. In a remnant of archaic myth, she was the mother of Erichthonius by the attempted rape by Hephaestus, which failed.[4] Other variants relate that the serpent who accompanied Athena, also called Erichthonius, was born to Gaia, Earth, when the rape failed and the semen landed on Gaia, impregnating her, and that after the birth he was given to Athena by Gaia.
In her role as a protector of the city, Athena was worshiped throughout the Greek world as Athena Polias ("Athena of the city"). She had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city
From http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/athena.html :
Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill. She was the favorite child of Zeus. She had sprung fully grown out of her father's head. Her mother was Metis, goddess of wisdom and Zeus' first wife. In fear that Metis would bear a son mightier than himself. Zeus swallowed her and she began to make a robe and helmet for her daughter. The hammering of the helmet caused Zeus great pain in the form of headaches and he cried out in agony. Skilled Hephaestus ran to his father and split his skull open and from it emerged Athena, fully grown and wearing her mother's robe and helmet. She is the virgin mother of Erichthnonius.
Athena and her uncle Poseidon were both very fond of a certain city in Greece. Both of them claimed the city and it was decided that the one that could give the finest gift should have it. Leading a procession of citizens, the two gods mounted the Acropolis. Poseidon struck the side of the cliff with his trident and a spring welled up. The people marveled, but the water was as salty as Poseidon's sea and it was not very useful. Athena's gift was an olive tree, which was better because it gave the people food, oil and wood. Athena named her city Athens.
Athena's companion was the goddess of victory, Nike, and her usual attribute is the owl. Athena possessed the Aegis.
From http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/olympians.html#Athena :
Athena was the virgin goddess of arts, craft and war. Also known as Athene, she was also identified as the Roman goddess, Minerva. Athena was daughter of Zeus and his first wife Metis (wisdom), who was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.
After Zeus had overthrown his father Cronus and became supreme ruler of heaven, Gaea warned her grandson that if Metis has a second child, it would be a son. Zeus was told that this son would one day overthrow him, as he had done to his own father (Cronus). Not wanting to suffer the same fate as his father, he swallowed Metis, while she was still pregnant.
Months later, Zeus suffered from a great headache. Either Prometheus or Hephaestus used an axe to split open Zeus' head. Athena leaped out of Zeus' head, wearing full armour and uttering a war cry. The gods were astonished and profoundly alarmed at this prodigy. It was only when she removed her helm, that Athena revealed herself to be less formidable in aspect. Athena became Zeus' favourite child.
Triton, son of Poseidon, raised Athena as she was growing up. Athena was sometimes known by her epithet, Tritogeneia - "thrice born", either because of Triton or because she grew up at Lake Tritonis, in Libya.
Triton had a daughter named Pallas, who became a playmate for Athena. The young goddess was playing with her friend, when Athena accidentally killed her. In memory of her childhood playmate, she put her friend's name before her own. Thereafter, she was called Pallas Athena. She also created a wooden image of her friend, which was called the Palladium. However, her father (Zeus) thrown the statue out of heaven and it landed in the tent of Ilus, the son of King Tros of Dardania.
There is some confusion over the origin and meaning of the name Pallas. Pallas is a name that can be applied to male or female. In the case of Athena, when it was used as a name for a girl, the name Pallas probably means "girl" or "maiden". However, some modern scholars dispute this meaning, because Pallas could also mean "brandisher".
As to the name of Athena, the meaning is lost. Athena could be a pre-Hellenic name, either Minoan or Mycenaean in origin. Athena may be the equivalent with the Minoan or Mycenaean mother goddess Atana Potnia (A-TA-NA PO-TI-NI-JA). See Mother Goddesses.
There is a theory that Athena seems to be a pre-Hellenic goddess (ie, before the arrival of Dorians, Ionians and Aeolians), existing originally as a Minoan or Mycenaean goddess of crafts, homes, hearth and communities. When the Hellenic people migrated to Greece, they brought with them Pallas, the virgin war goddess. The two goddesses fused into a single goddess, known as Pallas Athena, which we know of today, retaining the attributes and functions of both goddesses.
As a virgin goddess, she was known by her epithet, Parthenos. The Greeks saw her as goddess of severe beauty, with the bluest eyes, sometimes with gray flashing eyes. In art she was normally depicted as wearing the terror-inducing aegis, symbolising the dark storm clouds, and was armed with the resistless spear (shaft of lightning). In the poem the Shield of Heracles, ascribed to Hesiod:
She was armed like as if she would array a battle, with a spear in her hand, and a golden helmet, and the aegis about her shoulders. And was going towards the awful strife.
Since her mother was the goddess of wisdom, Athena inherited her mother's intellectual abilities. She personified the clear upper air as well as mental clearness and acuteness, embodying the spirit of truth and divine wisdom.
But Athena was also the goddess of war. She participated with skill and wisdom in wars to defend the state, but she did not fight, like Ares, with uncontrolled ferocity, for the sheer love of strife and mindless slaughter. She did not participate in war for the love of killing, but rather, her activities in war were intended to restore order, and thus she was ultimately the goddess of peace. Athena represented the more noble aspects of war such as courage and self-control, whereas Ares symbolised the more brutal aspects of war.
As the goddess of war, she also became patron goddess of many heroes, acting more like an ideal elder sister, providing guidance. She aided Bellerophon in taming the winged horse, Pegasus. According to some sources, Athena, not Poseidon, taught mankind the art of horsemanship.
In the war of the Seven against Thebes, Athena would have saved her favourite warrior Tydeus and made him immortal, had Tydeus not been duped into swallowing his killer's brains.
Athena also helped several of her mortal half-brothers, such as Perseus and Heracles. She provided Perseus with information on how to kill the Gorgon Medusa. Athena accompanied and advised Heracles in various adventures. It was Athena who brought Heracles to aid the gods in a war. In the war against the giants (Gigantomachia), she killed the giant named Pallas by crushing him under a huge boulder. She used Pallas' skin as her garment, the aegis. She was popular among the heroes, because she was the goddess of victory, and one of her epithets was Athena Nike.
Athena was one of the goddesses who wanted the golden apple during the Judgement of Paris. She promised Paris to make him a great hero, winning all his wars. Her enmity was incurred against the Trojans when Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite. She sided with the Greeks, often aiding her favourites, particularly Achilles, Diomedes and Odysseus. With Athena's encouragement, Diomedes not only wounded Aeneas, but also the two gods Aphrodite and Ares.
When Ares confronted her, she easily bested him. As Ares charged her, with his sword brandishing, Athena calmly hurled a large rock at Ares, knocking the war god unconscious. She had also struck Aphrodite in the breasts with her two fists, when the love goddess ran to her lover's side. Perhaps it was revenge for losing the golden apple to Aphrodite in the Judgement of Paris.
This was not the only confrontation she had with Ares. According to the Epic Cycle, Telegony, Odysseus was involved in a war between the Thesprotians and the Brygi. Odysseus was on the Thesprotian side because he had married Callidice, the Queen of the Thesprotians. Ares routed Odysseus' army of Thesprotis, and Athena engaged in Ares in combat. No detail was given, except that Apollo separated the quarreling deities.
Athena was responsible for causing Hector to fight Achilles without divine aid: Achilles killed Hector in single combat. Athena inflicted madness on Ajax, when he lost the armour of Achilles to Odysseus.
It was a sacred statuette of Athena or that of her childhood friend Pallas, called the Palladium, which made Troy invulnerable to attack, during the Trojan War.
Originally, the Palladium was kept in Olympus, but when the Pleiad Electra sought protection against Zeus who was determined to rape her, Zeus angrily threw it out of heaven, landing near the tent of Ilus.(If this legend is true, then the Palladium took a long time to fall from heaven to earth (4 generations to be precise), because Dardanus, son of Electra, was Ilus' great grandfather.)
Upon the advice of the Trojan seer Helenus, Odysseus and Diomedes stole the Palladium from its altar. (According to Vergil in the Aeneid, the Palladium that Diomedes and Odysseus had stolen was a fake, and Aeneas took the real Palladium with him to Italy.) It was Athena who inspired Odysseus to design the Wooden Horse (Trojan Horse) that would bring about the fall of Troy.
However, her enmity was turned towards most of the Greek leaders, when they failed to punish Ajax the Lesser for raping Cassandra in her temple. Athena asked Poseidon to destroy most of the Greek fleet in a violent storm.
However, she continued to aid Odysseus, and was the main patron of his family, during the hero's absence. She appeared in various guises, offering advice to Penelope and Telemachus. She had even accompanied Telemachus in the journey to Pylos and Sparta, in the guise of Mentor, Odysseus' old friend. She inspired Odysseus and Telemachus in the battle against Penelope's suitors, and forced the dead suitors' family to make peace with Odysseus. See the Odyssey.
Athena was probably also the goddess of justice. When the Erinyes (Furies) persecuted Orestes and afflicted him with madness, Athena acted as judge in Orestes' trial in Athens. When the Athenian jury were tied in their verdict on Orestes' innocent and guilt, she cast her verdict in favour of Orestes. She thereby acquitted Orestes of murdering his mother.
Cecrops was king of Attica (at the time, the region was known as Cecropia), when she and her uncle Poseidon sought to claim Athens by becoming a patron deity of the city. The citizens awarded the city to Athena, because she caused an olive tree to spring out of the rock on the Acropolis. The city was then named after her. See Cecrops in the House of Athens.
It was during this time that Hephaestus tried to ravish the virgin war-goddess. Athena easily repulsed his amorous advance upon her. The semen from Hephaestus fell on the ground of the Acropolis, impregnating Gaea (Earth), so Erichthonius was conceived. Some people suggested that Athena was really the mother of Erichthonius, without losing her virginity; the semen on her thigh, which she wiped off, could have easily given it life is one possibility that could be considered. Erichthonius was an infant with a tail and legs of a serpent. Athena hid the child in a chest. She gave the chest to Herse and Agraulus, daughters of Cecrops, warning them not to open the chest. However, the two sisters could not resist the temptation, and opened the box. Either Athena inflicted madness upon the girls for disobedience, or the deformity of Erichthonius drove them insane. Whichever was the case, the two leaped off the Acropolis to their death. See Erichthonius in the House of Athens.
As goddess of craft, she invented the flute, but discarded it when Hera and Aphrodite laughed at her whenever she blew it. She cursed anyone who picked up the musical instrument that she had discarded. A satyr named Marsyas picked up the flute and dared to challenge Apollo in a musical contest, but he lost and was flayed alive by the god.
She helped Argus to build the Argo for Jason and his crew. Surprisingly, her role in the Quest was relatively small.
Her epithets were Mechanitis (patroness of undertakings), Nike (victory), Pallas (girl?), Parthenia, Parthenos (virgin goddess), Polymetis (resourceful), Promachus (protectress), Soteira (savior), and Tritogeneia (thrice born).
Her place of worship was not only in Athens, but also in Argos, Sparta and Troy as well. The olive tree was sacred to her, and her sacred animals were horses, sea eagles, cocks and serpents, but her favourite bird was the owl.
ATHENE (or Athena) was the great Olympian goddess of wise counsel, war, the defence of towns, heroic endeavour, weaving, pottery and other crafts. She was depicted crowned with a crested helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing the snake-trimmed aigis cloak wrapped around her breast and arm, adorned with the monstrous head of the Gorgon.
The more famous myths featuring the goddess Athene include:--
* Her birth from the head of Zeus, fully-grown and arrayed in arms;
* Her contest with Poseidon for dominion of Athens in which she produced the first olive tree and he the first horse;
* The War of the Giants in which she buried Enkelados beneath Mount Etna and made her aigis from the skin of Pallas;
* The attempted rape of the goddess by Hephaistos, who spilled his seed upon the earth and produced Erikhthonios, who she then adopted as her own;
* The assisting of Perseus in his quest to slay the Gorgon and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece;
* The assisting of Herakles with his twelve labours;
* The weaving contest with Arakhne who was transformed by the goddess into a spider;
The blinding of Teiresias for viewing her naked in the bath;
* The Judgement of Paris in which she competed with Hera and Aphrodite for the prize of the golden apple;
* The Trojan War where she sided with the Greeks in battle, but attacked their ships with a storm when they failed to punish Oilean Ajax for violating her Trojan shrine.
Cult of Athena:
http://www.theoi.com/Cult/AthenaCult.html
From http://www.gods-heros-myth.com/godpages/athene.html :
Athene was a very important Olympian. She was associated with many things; among them as the goddess of war, peace, compassion, architects, sculptors, horses, oxen, olives, prudence, and wise counsel. She was also the patron of the arts, crafts, spinning, weaving, and Athens.
Pronunciation: a-THEE-nuh
Birth: The popular story of her birth is that of springing fully armed from the head of her father Zeus. Zeus had previously swallowed her mother Metis, fearing that her child would one day rule the world. Another story tells of her birth involving a cloud. Zeus struck it with his head and caused Athena's birth. Yet another tale tells of her birth near the lake of Triton, and raised by three nymphs.
Father: Zeus
Mother: No mother, born of Zeus' forehead; indirectly Metis
Other Name: Minerva, Hephaistia
Special Objects: Aegis (a shield), Spear, and Helmet
Plants: Olive Tree
Animals: Wise Owl, sometimes the Snake
Cult Center: Crete, Mycenae, Athens, Rome
Myths: The Odyssey, Bellerophon, Perseus and Medusa, Argus and the Argo, Cadmus and the Dragon's Teeth, Diomedes and Tydeus, Homer, Virgil, Pausanius, Ovid, Aeschylus, Sophocles, The Illiad
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena :
In Greek mythology, Athena (Attic: Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnâ, or Ἀθήνη, Athḗnē; Doric: Ἀσάνα, Asána; Latin: Minerva) is the shrewd companion of heroes and the Goddess of heroic endeavour. Her cult seems to have existed from very early times as the patron of Athens and was so persistent that myths about her were rewritten often to adapt to cultural changes over the multiple eras of Ancient Greek traditions. The Greek philosopher, Plato (429-347 B.C.E.), identified her with the Libyan deity Neith who was the war-goddess and huntress deity of the Egyptians since the ancient predynastic period. She also would come to be known as the goddess of wisdom as philosophy became applied to cult in the later fifth century.[1] She was the patroness of weaving especially, and other crafts (Athena Ergane) and the more disciplined side of war, where she led the battle (Athena Promachos)[2]. The metalwork associated with the creation of weapons fell under her patronage. Athena's wisdom also includes the cunning intelligence (metis) of such figures as Odysseus.
She is attended by an owl, and is often accompanied by the goddess of victory, Nike, whom in established icons she offers upon her extended hand. Wearing a goatskin breastplate called the Aegis in late myths said to have been given to her by her father, Zeus[3] although she was associated with this long before in other cultural contexts. She often is shown helmeted and with a shield bearing the Gorgon Medusa's head, the gorgoneion, the hallmark of the early goddess cult in Greece that was given the highest position in the apex of the front facade of the Parthenon. Her shield was later said to be a votive gift of Perseus. A serpent often accompanies this goddess and frequently is depicted at the base of the staff of her lance. The sea and ships as well as horses and chariots are associated with her, but with less frequency.
Athena is an armed warrior goddess, and appears in Greek mythology as a helper of many heroes, including Odysseus, Jason, and Heracles. In Classical Greek myths she never had a consort or lover, and thus, often was known as Athena Parthenos ("Athena the virgin"), hence the name of her most famous temple, the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens. In a remnant of archaic myth, she was the mother of Erichthonius by the attempted rape by Hephaestus, which failed.[4] Other variants relate that the serpent who accompanied Athena, also called Erichthonius, was born to Gaia, Earth, when the rape failed and the semen landed on Gaia, impregnating her, and that after the birth he was given to Athena by Gaia.
In her role as a protector of the city, Athena was worshiped throughout the Greek world as Athena Polias ("Athena of the city"). She had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city
From http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/athena.html :
Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill. She was the favorite child of Zeus. She had sprung fully grown out of her father's head. Her mother was Metis, goddess of wisdom and Zeus' first wife. In fear that Metis would bear a son mightier than himself. Zeus swallowed her and she began to make a robe and helmet for her daughter. The hammering of the helmet caused Zeus great pain in the form of headaches and he cried out in agony. Skilled Hephaestus ran to his father and split his skull open and from it emerged Athena, fully grown and wearing her mother's robe and helmet. She is the virgin mother of Erichthnonius.
Athena and her uncle Poseidon were both very fond of a certain city in Greece. Both of them claimed the city and it was decided that the one that could give the finest gift should have it. Leading a procession of citizens, the two gods mounted the Acropolis. Poseidon struck the side of the cliff with his trident and a spring welled up. The people marveled, but the water was as salty as Poseidon's sea and it was not very useful. Athena's gift was an olive tree, which was better because it gave the people food, oil and wood. Athena named her city Athens.
Athena's companion was the goddess of victory, Nike, and her usual attribute is the owl. Athena possessed the Aegis.
From http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/olympians.html#Athena :
Athena was the virgin goddess of arts, craft and war. Also known as Athene, she was also identified as the Roman goddess, Minerva. Athena was daughter of Zeus and his first wife Metis (wisdom), who was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.
After Zeus had overthrown his father Cronus and became supreme ruler of heaven, Gaea warned her grandson that if Metis has a second child, it would be a son. Zeus was told that this son would one day overthrow him, as he had done to his own father (Cronus). Not wanting to suffer the same fate as his father, he swallowed Metis, while she was still pregnant.
Months later, Zeus suffered from a great headache. Either Prometheus or Hephaestus used an axe to split open Zeus' head. Athena leaped out of Zeus' head, wearing full armour and uttering a war cry. The gods were astonished and profoundly alarmed at this prodigy. It was only when she removed her helm, that Athena revealed herself to be less formidable in aspect. Athena became Zeus' favourite child.
Triton, son of Poseidon, raised Athena as she was growing up. Athena was sometimes known by her epithet, Tritogeneia - "thrice born", either because of Triton or because she grew up at Lake Tritonis, in Libya.
Triton had a daughter named Pallas, who became a playmate for Athena. The young goddess was playing with her friend, when Athena accidentally killed her. In memory of her childhood playmate, she put her friend's name before her own. Thereafter, she was called Pallas Athena. She also created a wooden image of her friend, which was called the Palladium. However, her father (Zeus) thrown the statue out of heaven and it landed in the tent of Ilus, the son of King Tros of Dardania.
There is some confusion over the origin and meaning of the name Pallas. Pallas is a name that can be applied to male or female. In the case of Athena, when it was used as a name for a girl, the name Pallas probably means "girl" or "maiden". However, some modern scholars dispute this meaning, because Pallas could also mean "brandisher".
As to the name of Athena, the meaning is lost. Athena could be a pre-Hellenic name, either Minoan or Mycenaean in origin. Athena may be the equivalent with the Minoan or Mycenaean mother goddess Atana Potnia (A-TA-NA PO-TI-NI-JA). See Mother Goddesses.
There is a theory that Athena seems to be a pre-Hellenic goddess (ie, before the arrival of Dorians, Ionians and Aeolians), existing originally as a Minoan or Mycenaean goddess of crafts, homes, hearth and communities. When the Hellenic people migrated to Greece, they brought with them Pallas, the virgin war goddess. The two goddesses fused into a single goddess, known as Pallas Athena, which we know of today, retaining the attributes and functions of both goddesses.
As a virgin goddess, she was known by her epithet, Parthenos. The Greeks saw her as goddess of severe beauty, with the bluest eyes, sometimes with gray flashing eyes. In art she was normally depicted as wearing the terror-inducing aegis, symbolising the dark storm clouds, and was armed with the resistless spear (shaft of lightning). In the poem the Shield of Heracles, ascribed to Hesiod:
She was armed like as if she would array a battle, with a spear in her hand, and a golden helmet, and the aegis about her shoulders. And was going towards the awful strife.
Since her mother was the goddess of wisdom, Athena inherited her mother's intellectual abilities. She personified the clear upper air as well as mental clearness and acuteness, embodying the spirit of truth and divine wisdom.
But Athena was also the goddess of war. She participated with skill and wisdom in wars to defend the state, but she did not fight, like Ares, with uncontrolled ferocity, for the sheer love of strife and mindless slaughter. She did not participate in war for the love of killing, but rather, her activities in war were intended to restore order, and thus she was ultimately the goddess of peace. Athena represented the more noble aspects of war such as courage and self-control, whereas Ares symbolised the more brutal aspects of war.
As the goddess of war, she also became patron goddess of many heroes, acting more like an ideal elder sister, providing guidance. She aided Bellerophon in taming the winged horse, Pegasus. According to some sources, Athena, not Poseidon, taught mankind the art of horsemanship.
In the war of the Seven against Thebes, Athena would have saved her favourite warrior Tydeus and made him immortal, had Tydeus not been duped into swallowing his killer's brains.
Athena also helped several of her mortal half-brothers, such as Perseus and Heracles. She provided Perseus with information on how to kill the Gorgon Medusa. Athena accompanied and advised Heracles in various adventures. It was Athena who brought Heracles to aid the gods in a war. In the war against the giants (Gigantomachia), she killed the giant named Pallas by crushing him under a huge boulder. She used Pallas' skin as her garment, the aegis. She was popular among the heroes, because she was the goddess of victory, and one of her epithets was Athena Nike.
Athena was one of the goddesses who wanted the golden apple during the Judgement of Paris. She promised Paris to make him a great hero, winning all his wars. Her enmity was incurred against the Trojans when Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite. She sided with the Greeks, often aiding her favourites, particularly Achilles, Diomedes and Odysseus. With Athena's encouragement, Diomedes not only wounded Aeneas, but also the two gods Aphrodite and Ares.
When Ares confronted her, she easily bested him. As Ares charged her, with his sword brandishing, Athena calmly hurled a large rock at Ares, knocking the war god unconscious. She had also struck Aphrodite in the breasts with her two fists, when the love goddess ran to her lover's side. Perhaps it was revenge for losing the golden apple to Aphrodite in the Judgement of Paris.
This was not the only confrontation she had with Ares. According to the Epic Cycle, Telegony, Odysseus was involved in a war between the Thesprotians and the Brygi. Odysseus was on the Thesprotian side because he had married Callidice, the Queen of the Thesprotians. Ares routed Odysseus' army of Thesprotis, and Athena engaged in Ares in combat. No detail was given, except that Apollo separated the quarreling deities.
Athena was responsible for causing Hector to fight Achilles without divine aid: Achilles killed Hector in single combat. Athena inflicted madness on Ajax, when he lost the armour of Achilles to Odysseus.
It was a sacred statuette of Athena or that of her childhood friend Pallas, called the Palladium, which made Troy invulnerable to attack, during the Trojan War.
Originally, the Palladium was kept in Olympus, but when the Pleiad Electra sought protection against Zeus who was determined to rape her, Zeus angrily threw it out of heaven, landing near the tent of Ilus.(If this legend is true, then the Palladium took a long time to fall from heaven to earth (4 generations to be precise), because Dardanus, son of Electra, was Ilus' great grandfather.)
Upon the advice of the Trojan seer Helenus, Odysseus and Diomedes stole the Palladium from its altar. (According to Vergil in the Aeneid, the Palladium that Diomedes and Odysseus had stolen was a fake, and Aeneas took the real Palladium with him to Italy.) It was Athena who inspired Odysseus to design the Wooden Horse (Trojan Horse) that would bring about the fall of Troy.
However, her enmity was turned towards most of the Greek leaders, when they failed to punish Ajax the Lesser for raping Cassandra in her temple. Athena asked Poseidon to destroy most of the Greek fleet in a violent storm.
However, she continued to aid Odysseus, and was the main patron of his family, during the hero's absence. She appeared in various guises, offering advice to Penelope and Telemachus. She had even accompanied Telemachus in the journey to Pylos and Sparta, in the guise of Mentor, Odysseus' old friend. She inspired Odysseus and Telemachus in the battle against Penelope's suitors, and forced the dead suitors' family to make peace with Odysseus. See the Odyssey.
Athena was probably also the goddess of justice. When the Erinyes (Furies) persecuted Orestes and afflicted him with madness, Athena acted as judge in Orestes' trial in Athens. When the Athenian jury were tied in their verdict on Orestes' innocent and guilt, she cast her verdict in favour of Orestes. She thereby acquitted Orestes of murdering his mother.
Cecrops was king of Attica (at the time, the region was known as Cecropia), when she and her uncle Poseidon sought to claim Athens by becoming a patron deity of the city. The citizens awarded the city to Athena, because she caused an olive tree to spring out of the rock on the Acropolis. The city was then named after her. See Cecrops in the House of Athens.
It was during this time that Hephaestus tried to ravish the virgin war-goddess. Athena easily repulsed his amorous advance upon her. The semen from Hephaestus fell on the ground of the Acropolis, impregnating Gaea (Earth), so Erichthonius was conceived. Some people suggested that Athena was really the mother of Erichthonius, without losing her virginity; the semen on her thigh, which she wiped off, could have easily given it life is one possibility that could be considered. Erichthonius was an infant with a tail and legs of a serpent. Athena hid the child in a chest. She gave the chest to Herse and Agraulus, daughters of Cecrops, warning them not to open the chest. However, the two sisters could not resist the temptation, and opened the box. Either Athena inflicted madness upon the girls for disobedience, or the deformity of Erichthonius drove them insane. Whichever was the case, the two leaped off the Acropolis to their death. See Erichthonius in the House of Athens.
As goddess of craft, she invented the flute, but discarded it when Hera and Aphrodite laughed at her whenever she blew it. She cursed anyone who picked up the musical instrument that she had discarded. A satyr named Marsyas picked up the flute and dared to challenge Apollo in a musical contest, but he lost and was flayed alive by the god.
She helped Argus to build the Argo for Jason and his crew. Surprisingly, her role in the Quest was relatively small.
Her epithets were Mechanitis (patroness of undertakings), Nike (victory), Pallas (girl?), Parthenia, Parthenos (virgin goddess), Polymetis (resourceful), Promachus (protectress), Soteira (savior), and Tritogeneia (thrice born).
Her place of worship was not only in Athens, but also in Argos, Sparta and Troy as well. The olive tree was sacred to her, and her sacred animals were horses, sea eagles, cocks and serpents, but her favourite bird was the owl.