Athena she was an important goddess in Greek mythology and one of the most important deities in the religion of the ancient Greeks. She was known to be the goddess of wisdom and also of manual skills, holding the title of patroness of seamstresses. In addition city of athens had Athena as her patron.
This deity was also recognized as a warrior, described as a goddess dressed in armor and bearing weapons. It was linked, however, with defensive warfare. Athena was the daughter of Zeus, and there are two versions of the myth that explains her birth. There was a 12 meter statue in her honor in Athens.
accessalso: Anubis — the god of the dead for ancient Egyptians
Summary about Athena
Athena was the goddess of wisdom, justice, arts, skills and crafts.
She was considered a patron of Athens and also of weavers.
She was the daughter of Zeus, and there are two accounts of her birth. In one of them, Athena has a mother, and in the other, she does not.
The Parthenon temple was built in her honor, as was the temple to Athena Nice.
There was a statue of Athena that measured 12 meters in Athens. The builder of the statue was Phidias.
Who was Athena?
Athena was a goddess who was part of the pantheon of the ancient Greeks, being one of the most mentioned in the tales of Greek mythology. The Greeks recognized Athena as wisdom goddess, givesjustice, ofskills and crafts, ofArts etc. The city of Athens had strong ties to this deity. It is worth noting that the Romans knew it by the name of Minerva.
Among one of the important characteristics of Athena is the fact that she was considered a goddessWarrior, and the Greeks related it to the act of wardefensive. Offensive warfare was most closely linked to Ares, god of war.
Athena was born with her armor, shield and spear. A striking detail of her description is the fact that your armor was adorned by the head ofandJellyfish, the gorgon that turned people who stared at her to stone. Another important feature of this goddess for the Greeks was the fact that she was never involved with any mortal gods or men.
Athena, as with others Greek gods, received a series of epithets, used to highlight her qualities and abilities. Some of them are:
AthenaAnemotis: in reference to her ability to delay the winds.
AthenaErgane: in reference to her ability for manual work.
AthenaPulleys: in reference to the fact of being protector of cities.
Speaking of manual work, Athena was seen as the goddess of crafts. Is it over there had a strong relationship with O craftsmanship and other jobs that required great manual skills. She was considered a patron of women who worked in spinning and weaving and of men who dealt with agriculture and navigation, for example.
Athena herself She was recognized for being a greatweaver. In a passage from Greek mythology, she was challenged by a mortal to compete for the title of best weaver. The goddess didn't like being challenged by a mortal named Arachne, and decided to turn her into a spider. There are other passages in mythology that demonstrate the goddess's fury with those who disrespected her.
This deity was also marked by help the hero Perseus on his journey to kill Medusa. Athena gave him her reflective shield, and it was essential for Perseus to approach the gorgon. After decapitating Medusa, Perseus gave her head as a gift for Athena to use as an ornament on her shield.
birth of athena
Athena was recognized as a daughter of Zeus, the god of lightning and thunder for the Greeks, being one of the most prominent heirs of this god. There are different versions about the birth of Athena, and in one of them the goddess had a mother. In the other version, she had no mother, having been generated alone by Zeus himself.
The first narrative about her birth tells that Athena would be the daughter of Zeus and Metis, known as the first wife of Zeus. He would have been warned about the offspring generated by Metis, as the child could be more powerful than him and would have the ability to dethrone him in the same way that Zeus had done with his father, Kronos. Because he was afraid, just as Kronos was, Zeus decided to devour Metis pregnant, but she gave birth to Athena inside Zeus, and she was born out of the god's head.
Another version counts that Zeus begat Athena alone and that she would have come out of him after Hephaestus had split the head of the supreme god in half, as he himself had requested. Zeus made this request because he was experiencing terrible headaches.
Lookalso: Thor — the Norse god of thunder
Athena in Greek Religiosity
We have seen that Athena was an important goddess for the ancient Greeks. This is noticeable through the strong presence of this deity in religious services. Around the 8th century BC. C., the cult of Athena was already a consistent practice throughout the Greece.
The city of Athens adopted That goddess Athena as patron, which is made explicit by the name of the city, a direct reference to the deity. In addition, in Athens there were two important buildings in her honor. The first and one of the most famous constructions in the city is the parthenon, temple built between 447 BC. Ç. and 432 a. Ç.
Inside the Pathernon, there was a gigantic statue of Athena, measuring 12 meters in height. The statue would have been built as part of the celebrations of the victory of the Greeks over the persians during the medical wars. The sculptor of the statue was named Phidias.
Another important building in Athens was the temple to Athena Nice, an epithet that referred to the status of victorious goddess. In addition, festivals were held in honor of this deity throughout Greece.
