ATHENA - in Greek mythology, the goddess of wisdom and just war. The myth of the birth of Athena from Zeus and Metis (“wisdom”, Greek metis - “thought”, reflection) - the period of classical Olympic mythology. httr://www.5ballov.ru/referats/preview/19024/4
The birth of Athena is depicted in this myth from the standpoint of the heroic mythology of the patriarchal period, in which the male organizing principle was especially prominent. Athena is, as it were, a direct continuation of Zeus, the executor of his plans and will. She is the thought of Zeus, realized in action. Gradually, the motherhood of Metis takes on an increasingly abstract, and even symbolic, character, so that Athena is considered the offspring of Zeus alone and takes on the functions of the deity of wisdom, just as Zeus took them from Metis. Right there.
Zeus, knowing from Gaia and Uranus that his son from Metis would deprive him of power, swallowed his pregnant wife and then, with the help of Hephaestus (or Prometheus), who split his head with an ax, he himself gave birth to Athena, who emerged from his head in fully armed. Since this event supposedly took place near the lake (or river) Triton in Libya, Athena received the nickname Tritonidae or Tritogenae. Right there.
Athena is one of the most important figures not only in Olympic mythology; she is equal in importance to Zeus and sometimes even surpasses him, rooted in ancient period development of Greek mythology - matriarchy. She is equal in strength and wisdom to Zeus. She is given honors after Zeus and her place is closest to Zeus. Along with the new functions of the goddess of military power, Athena retained her matriarchal independence, manifested in her understanding as a maiden and protector of chastity. http://www.5ballov.ru/referats/preview/19024/4
The origins of Athena's wisdom go back to the image of the goddess with snakes of the Cretan-Mycenaean period. The image of a goddess with a shield of Mycenaean times is a prototype of Olympian Athena. Among the indispensable attributes of Athena is the aegis - a shield made of goatskin with the head of the snake-haired Medusa, which has enormous magical power, frightening gods and people. Right there.
There is numerous information about the cosmic features of the image of Athena. Her birth is accompanied by golden showers, she guards the lightning of Zeus. Her image, the so-called palladium, fell from the sky (hence Pallas Athena). Right there.
According to Herodotus, Athena is the daughter of Poseidon and the nymph Tritonis. Athena was identified with the daughters of Kekrops - Pandrosa ("all-wet") and Aglavra ("light-air"), or Agravla ("field-furrowed"). Right there.
The sacred tree of Athena was the olive. The olive trees of Athena were considered the "trees of fate", and Athena herself was thought of as fate and the Great Mother Goddess. Right there.
The powerful goddess of the archaic, the owner of the aegis, Athena, during the period of heroic mythology, directs her strength to fight the titans and giants. Together with Hercules, Athena kills one of the giants, she piles the island of Sicily on another, and tears off the skin of a third and covers her body with it during the battle. Right there.
She is the killer of the gorgon Medusa and goes by the name "Gorgon Slayer". Athena demands sacred respect; no mortal can see her. There is a well-known myth about how she deprived young Tiresias (the son of her favorite Chariklo) of his sight when he accidentally saw her ablution. http://www.5ballov.ru/referats/preview/19024/4
Classical Athena is endowed with ideological and organizing functions: she patronizes heroes, protects public order, etc. Zeus sent Athena to help Hercules, and he brought the dog of the god Hades out of Erebus. Athena's favorite was Odysseus, an intelligent and brave hero. In Homer's poems (especially the Odyssey), not a single important event occurs without the intervention of Athena. She is the main defender of the Achaean Greeks and the constant enemy of the Trojans, although her cult also existed in Troy. Athena is the protector of Greek cities (Athens, Argos, Megara, Sparta, etc.), bearing the name “city defender”. Right there.
A huge statue of Athena Promachos (“front line fighter”) with a spear shining in the sun adorned the Acropolis in Athens, where the Erechtheion and Parthenon temples were dedicated to the goddess. Right there.
A monument to the glorification of the wise ruler of the Athenian state, the founder of the Areopagus, is the tragedy of Aeschylus “Eumenides”. Right there.
Athena is always considered in the context of artistic craft, art, craftsmanship. She helps potters, weavers, needlewomen, and working people in general. Athena helped Prometheus steal fire from Hephaestus's forge. Right there.
Athena is credited with inventing the flute and teaching Apollo to play it. Her touch alone is enough to make a person beautiful (she raised Odysseus to stature, endowed him with curly hair, and clothed him with strength and attractiveness). She endowed Penelope with amazing beauty on the eve of meeting her husband. http://www.5ballov.ru/referats/preview/19024/4
Athena is the goddess of wisdom. She is characterized by wisdom in government affairs. For late antiquity, Athena was the principle of the indivisibility of the cosmic Mind and a symbol of comprehensive world wisdom. Athena was revered as the legislator and patroness of Athenian statehood - Phratria ("brotherly"), Bulaya ("councillor"), Soteira ("savior"), Pronoia ("provident").
Although the cult of Athena was widespread throughout mainland and island Greece (Arcadia, Argolis, Corinth, Sikyon, Thessaly, Boeotia, Crete, Rhodes), Athena was especially revered in Attica, in Athens (the name of the city of Athens was associated by the Greeks with the name of the patron goddess of the city) . Agricultural holidays were dedicated to her. During these celebrations, the statue of Athena was washed, and the young men took an oath of civil service to the goddess. Right there.
In Rome, Athena was identified with Minerva. Two large passages from Ovid's Fast are devoted to the Roman festivals of Minerva. Throughout antiquity, Athena remains evidence of the organizing and directing power of reason, which organizes the cosmic and social life, glorifying the strict foundations of a state based on democratic legislation. Right there.
The image of Athena is reflected in many significant monuments of Greek sculpture. The giant statue of "Athena Parthenos" by Phidias, erected in Athens in the Parthenon in 438 BC, has not survived and is known to us from several smaller copies. Numerous figurines of the goddess have been preserved. Certain scenes from the myths about Athena are reflected in the relief plastic of the temples, for example, a multi-figure group on the eastern pediment of the Parthenon depicts the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus; on the western pediment, the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of the land of Attica is embodied. http://www.5ballov.ru/referats/preview/19024/4
Scenes dedicated to the birth of Athena, her participation in the Trojan War, and her dispute with Poseidon were widespread in Greek vase painting. There are images of Athena on Pompeii frescoes. Right there.
During the Renaissance, Athena is depicted in accordance with the ancient artistic tradition - in a shell and helmet. In a number of scenes, Athena appears as the personification of wisdom and symbolizes the triumph of reason ("Minerva conquers ignorance" by B. Spranger, "The Kingdom of Minerva" by A. Elsheimer), virtue and chastity ("Pallas and the Centaur" by S. Botticelli, "The Victory of Virtue over Sin" by A. . Mantegna), the world ("Minerva and Mars" by J. Tintoretto, P. Veronese, etc.). Right there.
Athena(ancient Greek - Athenaia; Mycenaean atanapotinija - “Atana the Lady”), in Greek mythology, the goddess of wisdom and just war, military wisdom and strategy, knowledge, arts and crafts. Athena is a warrior maiden, patroness of cities, sciences, skill, intelligence, dexterity and ingenuity. One of the 12 great Olympian gods.
Family and environment
Myths
In the sources there are references to the birth of a child associated with Athena and Hephaestus. The first part of this story is contained only in later sources. According to them, Zeus vowed to fulfill any desire of Hephaestus and the Blacksmith God asked Athena as his wife. The King of the Gods could not break the oath, but advised his maiden daughter to defend herself. According to the main legend, the daughter of Zeus came to Hephaestus for weapons, and he tried to take possession of her, and she began to run away. The Blacksmith God chased after her and overtook her, but while defending herself with a weapon in her hands, Pallas wounded her pursuer with a spear. Hephaestus spilled the seed on Athena's leg, after which the goddess wiped it with wool and buried it in the ground, after which Gaia the earth gave birth to a baby. Therefore, Erichthonius was called both the son of Gaia and the son of Athena, and the name was interpreted from “erion” - wool (or “eris” - discord) and “chthon” - earth.
Athena secretly raised Erichthonius, wanting to make him immortal, she gave him in a casket for safekeeping to the daughters of Cecrops Aglavra, Gersa and Pandrosa, forbidding him to open. The sisters opened the casket and saw a child entwined with snakes, which the Warrior assigned to the baby as guard. They were either killed by snakes, or Pallas drove them mad and they threw themselves from the top of the acropolis into the abyss. After the death of his sisters, Erichthonius was raised in the temple of Athena. When he grew up, he became king, erected a xoan (statue or idol made of wood) of Athena on the acropolis, and established the Panathenaea, holding a procession in honor of Athena on the acropolis for the first time. Erichthonius was buried in the sacred site of the temple of Athena Polias.
Also, according to one version, together with Hephaestus, by the will of Zeus, she created the first woman - Pandora, who opened the ill-fated vessel called “Pandora’s box”.
A powerful, terrible, owl-eyed goddess of the archaic, the owner of an aegis, during the period of heroic mythology she directs her strength to fight titans and giants. Although, according to the early mythological scheme, the Titanomachy occurred even before the birth of Athena, later authors, starting with Euripides, often confused giants and titans. Her participation in gigantomachy is a popular plot. Hyginus cites the story that after the death of Epaphus, Zeus, together with Athena, Apollo and Artemis, threw the titans into Tartarus, prompted by Hera. Together with Hercules, Athena kills one of the giants; she drove a chariot with a pair of horses towards the giant Enceladus, and when he fled, she brought down the island of Sicily on him. Pallanta peels off his skin and covers his body with it during battle.
The goddess of war demands sacred respect. There is a well-known myth about how she deprived young Tiresias (the son of her favorite nymph Chariklo) of sight. One day Athena and Chariklo decided to swim in a spring on Helikon, Tiresias saw the goddess and she blinded him (according to another version, he became blind from the sight of Athena). Having deprived the young man of his sight, she at the same time endowed him with a prophetic gift and gave him the ability to understand the language of birds, as well as the ability to maintain reason in Hades. Ovid, in Book VI of Metamorphoses, outlined the myth of how Athena severely punished the weaver Arachne when she questioned the piety of the gods by weaving love scenes with the participation of the gods on a bedspread.
Classical Athena is endowed with ideological and organizing functions: she patronizes heroes, protects public order, etc. In the myths of ancient Greece, stories about Athena helping heroes are common. She helps Perseus by guiding his hand in decapitating Medusa. One of Athena's epithets is "gorgon killer." Perseus sacrificed a heifer to the goddess and gave Athena the head of the Gorgon, which she placed on her shield. Athena later placed Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia and Kepheus among the constellations. She inspired and gave strength to Cadmus, and also gave him a stone to fight the Theban dragon. On the advice of the wise Goddess, Cadmus sowed the dragon's teeth and threw a block at them, which caused a fight between them. Athena made Cadmus reign in Thebes, and for his wedding with Harmony she gave him a necklace, peplos and flutes.
It is believed that Asclepius received the blood of the Gorgon from Athena, with which he raised the dead. According to Euripides, at birth she gave Erichthonius two drops of the Gorgon’s blood, which he gave to Erechtheus in a golden ring, and the latter to Creuse (one drop is healing, the other is poisonous). Athena appeared in a dream to Pericles and indicated a herb to heal his slave who had fallen from the roof of the Acropolis Propylaea under construction, the herb was nicknamed parthenium, and Pericles erected a statue of Athena Hygieia. The base of a statue made by the sculptor Pyrrhus was found on the acropolis.
Pindar mentions that Bellerophon saw Athena in a dream while sleeping on her altar, and erected an altar to Athena the Rider when she handed over Pegasus to him. She also helps Nestor against Ereuthalion and in the battle with the Eleans. The goddess Menelaus protects from the arrow of Pandarus (according to Plutarch).
Repeatedly the wise Goddess helped Hercules at the request of Zeus. Athena threw a stone at the mad hero, which saved Amphitryon; this stone is called Sophronister, that is, “bringing to reason.” She gave him a cloak (according to another version, armor) before the war with Orchomen. There is a version that it was Athena who told the hero how to kill the Lernaean Hydra and gave him rattles made by Hephaestus to scare away the Stymphalian birds. With the help of Pallas, Hercules led the dog Cerberus out of Hades, and later she took the apples of the Hesperides from him and returned them to their place. Athena gave the hero the cubit of the Gorgon, which the hero gave to Sterope, daughter of Kepheus, for protection. The dying Hercules appeals to Athena with requests for an easy death (according to Seneca) and she leads him to heaven.
When Tydeus is ambushed by the Thebans, Athena warns him against returning to Thebes. During the campaign of the Seven against Thebes, the Warrior Goddess is present next to Tydeus in battle and deflects some of the arrows from him and covers him with a shield. When Tydeus was mortally wounded, she begged from her father a potion of immortality for the wounded man, but when she saw that Tydeus was devouring the brain of his enemy, she hated him and did not give him the medicine.
Athena's help to Tydeus' son Diomedes is described in detail in Homer's Iliad. The goddess gives him strength, inspires him to fight, including against Aphrodite, directs the spear of Diomedes against Pandarus, inspires Diomedes to fight with Ares, takes the peak of Ares away from the hero and directs the spear of Diomedes into the stomach of Ares, protects Diomedes during the storm. Horace says that Diomedes was elevated to gods by Athena.
The same Iliad mentions that Athena helped Achilles destroy Lyrnessos, she also tames the anger of Achilles at the request of Hera, lights a flame around Achilles’ head, frightening the Trojans. When Achilles mourns Patroclus, refusing food, she gives him nectar and ambrosia at the request of Zeus. During the fight with Hector, he protects Achilles, taking Hector’s spear away from him. It was she, in the form of Deiphobus, who advised Hector to meet Achilles, before which she appeared to Achilles and promised to help him in this battle. Achilles says to Hector: “under my spear Tritogen (i.e. Athena) will soon tame you.” After the death of Achilles, the Goddess mourns and comes to mourn him and rub ambrosia on his body.
In Homer's poems (especially the Odyssey), not a single important event takes place without the intervention of Athena. She is Odysseus's constant adviser, helps him calm the people, protects the hero from the lance of the Trojan Socus, helps him in running competitions, and supported him on the night of the capture of Troy. However, Athena never helped Odysseus during his wanderings (in the songs of the Odyssey dedicated to this period, she is not mentioned even once); assistance resumes after the crash of Odysseus’s raft. She calms the winds, helps him get ashore, and then sends him sleep. Athena often takes on the guise of mortals to advise or help Odysseus and at the same time transforms Odysseus: she elevates him in stature, gives him strength in competition, if necessary, turns Odysseus into an old beggar, and then restores his beauty again, and hides the hero on the island of Pheakov cloud, in Ithaca hides him and his companions in darkness and helps him leave the city.
She is the main defender of the Achaean Greeks and the constant enemy of the Trojans, although her cult also existed in Troy. Athena is the protector of Greek cities (Athens, Argos, Megara, Sparta, etc.), bearing the name “city defender”.
The warrior goddess promotes the capture of Troy from the very beginning of the Trojan War. She participates in the Judgment of Paris and loses the argument to Aphrodite. The Trojan horse was made by Epeus according to the plan of Athena, she appeared to him in a dream, in three days the horse was completed and Epeus asks Athena to bless his work and calls the Trojan horse an offering to the Goddess. The inhabitants of Metapontum showed in the temple of Athena the iron tools of Epeus, with which he built a horse. She took the form of a messenger and advised Odysseus to hide the Achaean heroes in his horse. Next, the Goddess brought the food of the gods to the heroes, who were about to get on the horse, so that they would not feel hungry. When the Trojans think about destroying the horse, Athena gives bad signs (an earthquake) and the Trojans do not believe Laocoon, who insisted on this. She rejoices when the Trojans drag a wooden horse into the city and sends snakes to kill the sons of Laocoon. Trifiodorus describes how Helen of Sparta came to the temple of Athena and walked around her horse three times, calling the heroes by name, but the Goddess of War, visible only to Helen, appeared and forced her to leave. And on the night of the fall of Troy, Pallas sat on the acropolis, her aegis shining, and when the beating began, she screamed and raised her aegis.
Athena is always considered in the context of artistic craft, art, craftsmanship. She helps potters, weavers, needlewomen, and working people in general; she helped Prometheus steal fire from Hephaestus’s forge; Daedalus learned his art from her. She teaches girls crafts (the daughters of Pandareus, Eurynoma and others). Her touch alone is enough to make a person beautiful - this is how Penelope acquired the amazing beauty of meeting her future husband. She personally polished Peleus' spear.
Her own products are genuine works of art, such as the cloak woven for the hero Jason. She made her own clothes and even Hera's clothes. She taught people the art of weaving. However, Plato points out that Athena's mentor in the art of weaving was Eros. The spinning wheel is another gift of the Goddess to people; weavers are called those serving “the cause of Athena.”
Athena is credited with inventing the flute and teaching Apollo how to play it. Pindar says that one of the gorgons, Medusa, moaned terribly as she died, and the other Euryale moaned while looking at her sister, and Athena invented a flute to repeat these sounds. According to another story, the Patroness of the Arts made a flute from deer bone and came to the gods' meal, but Hera and Aphrodite ridiculed her. Athena, looking at her reflection in the water, saw how ugly her cheeks were swelling, and threw the flute in the Ideal Forest. The abandoned flute was picked up by the satyr Marsyas. Later, Marsyas challenged Apollo to a competition in playing the flute, was defeated and was severely punished for his pride (Apollo flayed the satyr). Aristotle believes that the Goddess abandoned the flute for another reason: playing the flute is not associated with mental development.
One of the most important mythological stories about Athena is the trial of Attica. Athena argued with the god of the seas, Poseidon, for the possession of Attica. At the council of the gods, it was decided that Attica would go to the one whose gift on this earth would be more valuable. Poseidon struck with his trident and gushed out a spring from the rock. But the water in it turned out to be salty and undrinkable. Athena stuck her spear into the ground, and an olive tree grew from it. All the gods recognized that this gift was more valuable. Poseidon was angry and wanted to flood the earth with the sea, but Zeus forbade him. Since then, the olive has been considered a sacred tree in Greece. Varro cites a later version of the myth, where Cecrops put the question of the name of the city to a vote: men voted for Poseidon, and women for Athena, and one woman turned out to be more. Then Poseidon devastated the earth with waves, and the Athenians subjected women to triple punishment: they were deprived of the right to vote, none of the children had to take the mother’s name, and no one had to call women Athenians. The trial took place on Boedromion 2 (end of September) and the Athenians removed this day from the calendar. The dispute between Poseidon and Athena was depicted on the back of the Parthenon, and in Ovid's account, Athena depicts this scene on fabric during her competition with Arachne.
Sophocles calls the Goddess Athena the Virgin, mistress of horses, her epithet is “Parthenos”. Argive girls sacrificed hair to her before marriage. According to Nonnus, Avra, suffering in childbirth, wants Athena to give birth herself. And the wise Goddess feeds the son of Avra and Dionysus Iacchus with her milk, as Erichthonius did earlier. The women of Elis prayed to Athena to get pregnant. And she helped Penelope delay her new wedding day. When Penelope asks Athena for Odysseus, the Goddess sends the ghost of Ifthima to her to reassure her. She inspires Penelope with the idea of arranging a competition for the suitors.
Already in Homer, Athena appears as the patroness of shipbuilding and navigation. According to her instructions, the architect Argos from Thespiae created the ship Argo. On the bow, Pallas strengthened a piece of the trunk of a Dodon oak tree, which could prophesy. After completing the voyage, the ship was placed in the sky by Athena. On the advice of Athena, Danaus, the son of the Egyptian king Bel and Ankhinoe, the father of 50 daughters, built a 50-oar ship with two bows, on which he fled with his daughters. According to myth, Danaus received a prediction that he would die at the hands of his son-in-law, Danaus’ daughters took up arms and killed their husbands in one night, fleeing revenge Danai built his own ship. Perseus, whom Pallas also willingly helped, was a descendant of Danaus. The image of the Goddess was on Athenian ships; according to myths, she often sends a fair wind to ships (Telemachus, Theseus, the Achaeans returning from Lemnos).
Name, epithets and character
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| Athena. 470-465 BC. Red-figured amphora. Attica. St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum |
The etymology of the name "Athena", due to the pre-Greek origin of her image, is unclear. In modern Russian, a form close to the Byzantine pronunciation of the name, through “and”, has been established, but in the classical era the name of the goddess was pronounced approximately like “Athena”. Homer sometimes calls her Athenea, that is, "Athenian."
Athena is the goddess of wisdom, Democritus considered her “reasonableness.” Her wisdom is different from the wisdom of Hephaestus and Prometheus; she is characterized by wisdom in state affairs. For late antiquity, Athena was the principle of the indivisibility of the cosmic mind and a symbol of comprehensive world wisdom, thereby her qualities are sharply contrasted with the riot and ecstasy of Dionysus. As the legislator and patroness of Athenian statehood, she was revered as Phratria (“brotherly”), Bulaya (“councillor”), Soteira (“savior”), Pronoia (“provident”).
There is numerous information about the cosmic features of the image of Athena. She keeps the lightning bolts of Zeus. Her image or fetish, so-called. palladium, fell from the sky (perhaps hence her epithet Pallas). It is also possible that the epithet Pallas comes from the Greek “to shake (with weapons)”, that is, it means a victorious warrior, or it means “maiden”. Athena was identified with the daughters of Kekrops - Pandrosa ("all-wet") and Aglavra ("light-air"), or Agravla ("field-furrowed").
Homer calls Athena "Glavkopis" (owl-eyed), the Orphic hymn (XXXII 11) - "variegated snake." In Boeotia, she, the inventor of the flute, was revered under the name Bombileia, that is, “bee-like,” “buzzing.” The epithet Parthenos is the name of the Virgin Athena, hence the name of the Parthenon temple. Athena is called Promachos, that is, “advanced fighter,” as the patroness of war and fair battle.
The main epithets of Athena, endowed with civil functions, are Polyada ("urban", "patron of cities and states") and Poliukhos ("city ruler"). And she has the epithet Ergan (“worker”) as the patroness of artisans.
Cult and symbolism
Athena's ancient zoomorphic past is indicated by her attributes - a snake and an owl (symbols of wisdom). The chthonic wisdom of the Goddess has its origin in the image of the goddess with snakes of the Cretan-Mycenaean period. Athena's predecessor, according to Martin Nilsson's theory, was the "shield goddess" depicted on the Larnaca of Milato, as well as on other monuments, whose symbol was a figure-eight shield. According to I.M. Dyakonov, the single image of the warrior maiden was divided among the Greeks into three: the warrior and needlewoman Athena, the huntress Artemis and the goddess of sexual passion Aphrodite. The myth of the birth of Athena from Metis and Zeus belongs to the late period of Greek mythology. As Losev points out, she becomes, as it were, a direct continuation of the King of the Gods, the executor of his plans and will. In the temple dedicated to her, according to Herodotus, there lived a huge snake - the guardian of the acropolis, dedicated to the goddess. An owl and a snake guarded the palace of the Minotaur on Crete, and an image of a goddess with a shield of Mycenaean times (possibly a prototype of Olympian Athena).
Pallas is one of the most important figures not only in Olympic mythology, she is equal in importance to Zeus and sometimes even surpasses him, rooted in the most ancient period of the development of Greek mythology - matriarchy. She is equal in strength and wisdom to her father. Along with the new functions of the goddess of military power, Athena retained her matriarchal independence, manifested in her understanding as a maiden and protector of chastity.
She is easily distinguishable from others ancient greek goddesses thanks to his unusual appearance. Unlike other female deities, she uses male attributes - she is dressed in armor, holds a spear in her hands, and is accompanied by sacred animals. Among the indispensable attributes of Athena is the aegis - a shield made of goatskin with the head of the snake-haired Medusa, which has enormous magical power, frightening gods and people; helmet with a high crest. Athena appeared accompanied by the winged goddess Nike.
Athena's olive trees were considered the "trees of fate", and she herself was thought of as fate and the Great Mother Goddess, who is known in archaic mythology as the parent and destroyer of all living things. Among the Megarians, Athena is revered under the epithet Ethia (“diving duck”), according to Hesychius, since she turned into a diving duck, hid Cecrops under her wings and brought him to Megara.
She is credited with the invention of the chariot, the ship, the flute and trumpet, the ceramic pot, the rake, the plow, the yoke for oxen and the bridle for horses, as well as the invention of war in principle. She taught weaving, spinning and cooking and established laws.
Although her cult was widespread throughout mainland and island Greece (Arcadia, Argolis, Corinth, Sikyon, Thessaly, Boeotia, Crete, Rhodes), the Goddess of War was especially revered in Attica, the Greek region where the city named after her was located. A huge statue of Athena Promachos with a spear shining in the sun adorned the Acropolis in Athens, where the Erechtheion and Parthenon temples were dedicated to the goddess.
The first priestess of Athena was called Kalyfiessa, the priestesses were also Pandrosa, Theano, Phoebe (one of the daughters of Leucippus, kidnapped by the Dioscuri), Hersa, Aglavra, Iodama, the last three suffered an unenviable fate. Groves and many temples were dedicated to Athena in Athens, Argos, Delos, Rhodes and other cities.
Agricultural holidays were dedicated to her: procharisteria (in connection with the germination of bread), plintheria (the beginning of the harvest), arrephoria (giving dew for crops), callinteria (ripening of fruits), scirophoria (aversion to drought). During these celebrations, the statue of Athena was washed, and the young men took an oath of civil service to the goddess. The celebration of the great Panathenaia - state wisdom - was universal. Erichthonius was considered the founder of Panathenaia, and Theseus was the transformer. The annual Panathenaea was organized by Solon, the great ones were established by Pisistratus. Pericles introduced competitions in singing, playing the cithara and flute. At the Panathenaea, sacrifices were made to Athena and the goddess's peplos was handed over, which depicted her exploits in the gigantomachy. In Athens, the third decade of each month was dedicated to the Goddess. According to myths, when all the gods fled to Egypt, she remained in her homeland.
In Rome, Athena was identified with Minerva. Two large passages from Ovid's Fast are devoted to the Roman festivals of Minerva. Throughout antiquity, it remains evidence of the organizing and directing power of reason, which organizes cosmic and social life, glorifying the strict foundations of a state based on democratic legislation.
Influence on culture and art
The XI and XXVIII hymns of Homer, the V hymn of Callimachus, the XXXII Orphic hymn, the VII hymn of Proclus and the prose “Hymn to Athena” by Aelius Aristides are dedicated to Athena. She is the protagonist of the tragedies of Sophocles “Eantes”, Euripides “Ion”, “The Supplicators”, “The Trojan Women”, “Iphigenia in Tarvid”, Pseudo-Euripides “Res”.
She acts in the prologue of Sophocles' tragedy "Ajax", talking with Odysseus and Ajax. A monument to the glorification of the wise ruler of the Athenian state, the founder of the Areopagus, is the tragedy of Aeschylus “Eumenides”.
There are many known statues of the Goddess of War, the most famous of which are Phidias “Athena Promachos” from the 5th century. BC e., "Athena Parthenos" 438 BC, "Athena Lemnia" around 450 BC. have not survived to this day. The most accurate copy of Athena Parthenos is considered to be the statue of Athena Varvakion in the National Museum in Athens, and Athena Promachos is probably Athena Medici in the Louvre. The Vatican Museum houses "Athena Giustiniani" (a copy of the original from the 4th century BC)
The painter Famuel, who painted the Golden Palace of Nero, created a picture in which the Goddess looked at the viewer from any point. Cleanthes's painting "The Birth of Athena" was in the sanctuary of Artemis Alphionia at Olympia.
In Western European painting, the Goddess of Wisdom was less popular than, for example, Aphrodite (Venus). She was often depicted in the "Judgement of Paris" plot along with Aphrodite and Hera. Botticelli's painting "Pallas and the Centaur" of 1482 is well known. It was depicted mainly in works of an allegorical nature, multi-figure compositions ("Minerva conquers ignorance" by B. Spranger, "Victory of virtue over sin" by A. Mantegna). She was depicted together with Ares (Mars) ("Minerva and Mars" by Tintoretto, Veronese), rarely in sculpture (Sansovino).
Supposedly, Diego Velazquez's famous enigmatic painting "The Spinner" illustrates the myth of Athena and Arachne.
In modern times
An asteroid is named after Athena - one of three asteroids discovered on July 22, 1917 by German astronomer Maximilian Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl Observatory, Germany.
Athena is the name given to the American light-class launch vehicle.
The city of Athens is the capital of the state in Southern Europe Greece.
The goddess Athena (Ἀθηνᾶ) occupied a special place in Greek mythology; she was counted among the 12 main Olympian gods.
The Greeks respected and loved the goddess and believed that Athena was always with them, wanting to help. Athena was the goddess of wisdom, strategy, war, knowledge, and was the patroness of Athens, art, culture, philosophical thought and martial arts.
Birth of Athena
The appearance of Athena happened in an unusual way. The first wife of Zeus was Mytis (Μήτιδα), who was wiser than gods and people. After she became pregnant, the Moiras, the goddesses of fate, predicted to her that Mithida would first give birth to a daughter, and then a son, who would overthrow Zeus from the throne. To avoid this, Zeus swallowed his pregnant wife. After which he called Hephaestus and ordered him to cut off his head. He carried out his will and hit his skull with an ax. The beautiful Athena jumped out from there, in full uniform and with sparkling weapons.
Athena became the favorite child of Zeus. She fought alongside him in the fight against the giants, and after he drove away the giant Enceladus, Athena chased after him in her chariot, the stone she threw killed the giant and became the island of Sicily.
The cult of Athena began with the time of Cecrops (Κέκροπα) in ancient Athens and from there spread throughout Greece. Endless celebrations and holidays in all cities were dedicated to the goddess Athena, but the brightest were in Athens. Pericles dedicated the entire Citadel to Athena.
The Goddess Athena had many names; the ancient Greeks at various times added divine and sacred names to their beloved Goddess:
Pallas (Παλλάδα) was given to Athena at birth when she was born from the head of Zeus with a new sparkling spear. According to another version, Athena killed the giant Pallant (Πάλλαντα).
Promachos (Πρόμαχος) warrior, refers to the combative nature of the goddess and her status as brave in battle, her "strategic" plans are to support her heroes.
Virgin (Παρθένα) untouched, Athena was a virgin, the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis is dedicated to Athena the Virgin.
Blue-eyed (Γλαυκώπις) light-eyed. The sacred bird of the goddess Athena, the owl (γλαυξ), comes from the same root, perhaps due to its large and bright eyes.
Athena and the owl
Since ancient times, the owl has been identical to wisdom. The ancient Greeks considered it a symbol of the goddess Athena.
The owl flies, does not walk, does not crawl. The gods of Olympus also flew; they took the form of birds when they appeared among people. Owls are special birds, predators, they see very well at night. The owl has a large round head, a disk-shaped face, and large eyes that provide stereoscopic vision. This ruthless predator grabs prey with sharp claws and kills in motion, hitting the head with a hard and strong beak.
Such features of the owl seemed cult to the ancient Greeks.
The owl has the ability to see the “far side of things” where others are unable to see due to darkness, thus it symbolizes “wisdom”. Perhaps for this reason, the owl became the companion of the wisest Greek goddess, Athena.
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Pallas Athena (Παλλάς Άθηνά) - the ancient Greek goddess of war and victory, as well as wisdom, knowledge, arts and crafts, was one of the supreme deities and was revered throughout the ancient Hellenic world. Athena symbolizes the clarity of the ether, the heavenly force that controls lightning, clouds and luminaries, fertilizes the fields, gives birth to all living things and educates humanity. Subsequently, Athena became the goddess of spiritual activity, artistic thinking and science.
In ancient Greek mythology, the fifth child of Zeus, according to legend, was the daughter Athena, who was born in a very unusual way. Zeus, in secret from Hera, married the daughter of Ocean, the Nereid Thetis, but fearing that he would have a son who would surpass his father in power, Zeus swallowed his pregnant wife. The ripened fruit ended up after some time in his head, from where, with the help of Hephaestus (according to other legends, with the help of Prometheus and Hermes), who cut the head of Zeus with an ax, a warlike goddess was born in full armor in the terrible confusion of all nature. According to another version of the legend, Zeus and Hera decided to try whether it was possible to produce offspring without marital embraces: Hera gave birth to Hephaestus, Zeus gave birth to Pallas Athena. As a child, Athena amazed everyone with her intelligence, zeal for learning and gaining knowledge, so it is no coincidence that when Athena grew up, her father made her the goddess of wisdom, the patroness of sciences, crafts and inventions.
As the goddess of courage and militancy, Athena is known in the Homeric legends of the Iliad epic. Perseus, Bellerophon, Tydeus, Jason, Hercules, Achilles, Diomedes, Odysseus are her favorite heroes. In contrast to Ares, the deity of mad courage, Athena personifies conscious courage and bravery; she gives help to her favorites in moments of extreme danger and leads them to victory; therefore, the goddess Nike is her constant companion. As a goddess - a woman with traits of masculinity and courage, Athena is contrasted with Aphrodite, a purely feminine goddess.
Athena taught Erichthonius to tame and harness horses; maintained friendly relations with the wise Centaur Chiron, whom Athena herself endowed with a brilliant mind and much knowledge; taught Bellerophon to tame the winged Pegasus. She had a close relationship with horse racing and maritime affairs; So, with her help, Danaus built a fifty-oared ship for crossing to Greece, and the Argonauts built the ship Argo; The wooden horse that served to destroy Troy was built as a gift to her. Later, myths of an ethical nature were included in the legends about Athena, and new features were added to the mentioned features of her divine character. Athena became the goddess of peace and prosperity, sanctified marriages, helped during childbirth, sent health to people, averted illness and misfortune, patronized the reproduction of families and clans, and promoted the prosperity of cities.
Star atlas "Uranography" by John Hevelius, 1690
One day, Athena entered into a competition with her uncle Poseidon, the god of the seas, for the right to give her name to the capital of Hellas - a beautiful white-stone city with giant palaces, temples built in honor of the gods, and sports stadiums. The competition was judged by the city residents themselves. Poseidon promised to give them a lot of water, and Athena gave the city an olive tree sapling and said that with it they would always have food and money. The townspeople believed the goddess Athena.
Since then main city Greece is called Athens (Greek Αθήναι, Latin Athenae). In honor of the great patroness, the famous Acropolis complex, unsurpassed in beauty, was built on the highest hill in the city. This was the name in the old days for the ancient fortress city, which was always built on the highest point of the city. Its central palace was dedicated to Athena and was called the Parthenon (translated from Greek as maiden). An olive tree always grows on the territory of the Acropolis, and the expression “Appear with an olive branch in your hands” speaks of the intention of the visitor to resolve the matter peacefully. Athens is a city that in ancient times served, both in cultural, historical and political terms, as the main focus of Hellenic life and was nicknamed by ancient poets “the eye of Hellas.” The city is located on a series of rocky hills, in the most extensive plain of Attica, between the rivers Ilissos and Kefissos, at a distance of approximately five kilometers in a straight line from the sea and seven from its later harbor, Piraeus.
The initial history of the city of Athens, like ancient history the entire region, is lost in the darkness of the unknown. Tradition attributes its founding to King Kekrops. Initially, the city occupied only the upper area of a steep hill, accessible only from the western side, which served throughout antiquity as a fortress (Acropolis), a political and religious center, the core of the entire city.
According to legend, the Pelasgians leveled the top of the hill, surrounded it with walls and built on the western side to protect the entrance a strong outer fortification with nine gates located one behind the other (hence the name Enneapylon, that is, nine gates, or Pelasgikon, the so-called Pelasgian fortress) . The ancient kings of this part of Attica and their retinue lived inside the castle; here also stood the most ancient temple of the deity under whose special protection the city was located, namely Athens the City Defender (Pallas Athens), along with whom the earth-shaking god of the sea, Posseidon and Erechtheus, was also revered (as a result of which the temple itself was usually called Erechtheion).
One of the most revered goddesses of Ancient Greece. Athena is one of the twelve great Olympian gods. In addition, she is the goddess of knowledge, arts and crafts; warrior maiden, patroness of cities and states, sciences and craftsmanship, dexterity, intelligence, ingenuity.
Thanks to her unusual appearance, Athena is easily distinguishable from other ancient Greek goddesses. Unlike other female deities, she uses male attributes - she holds a spear in her hands and is dressed in armor. On the head, the helmet is usually Corinthian - with a high crest. Her shield - the aegis - is covered with goat skin and decorated with the head of the Gorgon Medusa. She is accompanied by sacred animals:
- owl (symbol of wisdom),
- snake (also symbol of wisdom)
Its plant is the olive, a sacred tree of the ancient Greeks.
She was called “grey-eyed and fair-haired,” descriptions emphasizing her large eyes.
The birth of the goddess Athena was unusual. The most common version is from Hesiod's Theogony. The king of the gods, Zeus, was predicted when his first wife Metis became pregnant that she would have two extraordinary children: a daughter equal to Zeus himself in wisdom and courage, and a son with the soul of a conqueror who would become the king of gods and men. Zeus did not want to lose his dominance over the world. On the advice of Uranus and Gaia, he tricked Metis into becoming small and swallowed her.
After some time, Zeus felt a terrible headache. To help the birth of Athena, Hephaestus hit Zeus on the head with an ax, and Prometheus took it from Zeus's head.
Athena was born adult woman in shining golden armor, with a sharp spear in one hand, while uttering a loud war cry.
An interesting myth is about how Athena gained dominion over the Greek region of Attica, whose patron, with a capital named after her, she was considered in the historical era.
According to this myth, Poseidon was the first to come to Attica, hit the ground on the Acropolis with a trident, and a spring appeared sea water, which was shown at the Erechtheion in historical time. Following him, Athena appeared, who struck the ground with a spear and grew an olive tree (olive). The judges awarded the victory to Athena, since her gift is more useful, the city was named after her. Poseidon was angry and tried to flood the earth with the sea, but Zeus forbade him.
According to mythology, Athena was the patroness and advisor of all male heroes. Unlike Artemis and Hestia, the virgin goddess Athena seeks the company of men. She likes the atmosphere of male affairs and power. She can be their companion, colleague, or confidant without having any erotic feelings for them or needing emotional intimacy.
During the Trojan War, Athena actively acted on the side of the Greeks. She took care of her favorites, especially Achilles, the most formidable and powerful Greek warrior. Athena proved herself to be the best strategist during the Trojan War. Her intervention brought the Greeks victory in the battle.
Being the goddess of crafts, Athena is also involved in the creation of works of art. She is especially known for her skill as a weaver.
In this regard, there is only one myth about Athena, which speaks of a mortal woman. Athena, as the goddess of crafts, was challenged to a competition in skill by an overconfident weaver named Arachne. Both worked with great speed and skill. When the canvases were completed, Athena was delighted with the impeccable work of her rival, but the subjects depicted on the canvas infuriated her. Arachne dared to depict the love affairs of Zeus. She wove Leda caressing a swan, under the guise of which Zeus entered the queen’s bedroom in order to take possession of her. The next scene showed Danae, who was impregnated by Zeus, turning into a shower of gold; Arachne then wove an image of the maiden Europa, whom Zeus abducted, turning into a magnificent white bull.
Athena became terribly angry, tore up Arachne's work and hit her with the shuttle. The unfortunate woman could not bear the shame and hanged herself. Taking pity on Arachne, Athena freed her from the loop and restored her life, turning her into a spider, forever condemned to weave a web.
The asteroid (881) Athena, discovered in 1917, is named after Athena.