Who is Athena?

Athena
Athenian Red figure on Amphora,
C6 BC, Antikenmuseen, Berlin

 Athena is well known for her role as the goddess of war. She is motherless and born ready to fight; ‘Zeus gave her birth, arrayed in arms of war.’[1] She is predominantly depicted in the warrior attire she emerged in, wearing her helmet and carrying spear and shield. Alongside this warlike exterior, she is also known for her weaving and crafts ability –Athena Ergane (worker) - and her status as a virgin deity- Athena Parthenos (maiden) – among other things.  Her numerous epithets reflect that she, along with many other deities, had a variety of roles and responsibilities.

In our modern version of religion, we think of gods as omnipotent, superior. Christianity has one God; the divine creator and guide to humanity who embodies all the personalities and duties of the Greek pantheon- war, love, crafts, power, fertility. However, the Greek deities are external to the world; ‘they did not create the cosmos or mankind but were themselves created.’[2] Scholars impress the importance of distancing our preconceptions of religion when studying ancient Greek religion as they simply do not apply. During a lecture we considered this and listed what we associated with religion. Faith, rules, conversion, redemption and fear of eternal damnation were suggested, none of which were aspects of ancient Greek religion.

Zaidman wrote that the gods ‘were not omnipotent (…) but possessed limited powers and areas of knowledge, they were themselves subject to fate.’[3] Myths show Athena boasting about her superior expertise at weaving and punishing those who dare challenge this fact,  Arachne [4] for example, but she is by no means omnipotent, and in fact succumbs to fate when Hephaistos’ attempted rape forces her to mother a child against her will.

I have chosen to focus this blog on Athena because she encompasses so many roles, but links to and shares these roles with other gods. Through her I hope to learn more about the changeable nature of deities in Greek mythology and gain a greater understanding of the ‘religion’ or ‘ta theia'-the things to do with the gods.

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[1] Hesiod, translated by White-Evelyn, Hugh G, (2008) Theogony, USA: Digireads.com, 33.

[2] Zaidman. B, (1992) Religion in the Ancient Greek City, UK: Cambridge University Press, 3.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ovid, (c. 1^st century AD) Arachne and Minerva, from Metamorphoses, Available from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ov.+Met.+6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028 (accessed 19.10.11)