Greetings, Greek mythology fans! I now turn my thoughts to Athena, the Greek goddess most notably associated with wisdom, but also with war and crafts. Athena, of all the Olympian divinities except maybe for Dionysus, had the most interesting of births. Zeus had fallen in love with Metis, the Titaness of wisdom and knowledge, who soon announced her pregnancy. Zeus, like his father Cronus before him, feared that this child would be more powerful than he was; recalling that his father in that situation had simply swallowed most of his children (except for him, Zeus), Zeus decided to try a similar but even more effective trick--he simply swallowed the pregnant Metis herself whole!
Problem solved!
Awhile after this rather unusual solution he developed a splitting headache. Has your head ever hurt SO MUCH that you just wanted to split it wide open? This is exactly how even Zeus himself felt. So he, unlike the rest of us who just have to suffer or hope that one's Advil works, went to his son Hephaestus and asked him to take his very biggest and sharpest axe and ... you guessed it, split open his head. Since gods don't have to worry about dying Zeus really wasn't too concerned about the whole "surgical" procedure. Hephaestus hit Zeus so hard that he split him completely in two. Out of Zeus's head was born Athena, fully grown, and in full battle armor. No wonder he had had such a huge headache! That would be the "mother" of all migraines. And yes, Athena therefore had two mothers, both Metis who gave birth to her inside of Zeus, and Zeus himself, who birthed her to the outside world via the aid of the midwife (midhusband?) son Hephaestus. Family relationships in mythology were just a tad on the strange side!
Athena (Roman name Minerva) was a highly powerful goddess. As goddess of war she was formidable; in fact, she was easily able to defeat her half-brother Ares. One day when Ares threw his mighty spear at her she simply glanced at it and it swerved out of the way. Now that's power! Her symbols are the owl (for wisdom) and the olive tree (see below). She wielded the aegis, a great shield, on which resided the fearsome head of Medusa. Imagine fighting an opponent that you could not gaze upon because you would be turned to stone. Athena also had great skill to craft those things she needed for battle, which were of the highest quality, and also those more utilitarian crafts needed for everyday life.
Athena was often referred to as Pallas Athena. She once had a mortal best friend named Pallas (much like Apollo had a mortal best friend Hyacinthus). She and her friend often liked to cast the spear about, and one day, with a little too much enthusiasm, Athena cast her spear and accidentally killed her friend. Ever after, she put her name, Pallas, before her own. The great palladium, or wooden statue of Athena that resided in the city of Troy, was named after Pallas Athena--it was said that if the palladium remained there safely, Troy would never fall. A palladium today is anything that is protective.
The great city-state of Athens was named after Athena. In those days, gods often vied to be patrons or tutelary (protective) deities of cities. For instance, Jupiter was the patron of the great city of Rome, and Venus of Pompeii. When the Athenians were deciding to whom to offer their city, both Poseidon and Athena contested for the honor. Poseidon offered the Athenians the horse, whereas Athena offered the olive tree. The Athenians obviously chose the latter ... can you see why? They named their city after her, Athens; hence the city of Athens is an eponym, or a place named after a name. The Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens was probably the most noteworthy of ancient temples, a building dedicated to the great Athena. You can either go to Greece to see this, or Nashville, Tennessee, which has a wonderful replica not only of the temple itself, but also the effigy of the goddess within the temple. It's truly amazing!!
One other noteworthy story concerning Athena is in her guise as the goddess of craft, in particular weaving. Arachne was a young girl whose skill at weaving was simply unmatched. She began to get a big head about this, and soon was bragging all about the land that her skill rivaled that of Athena's herself. One day an old woman approached Arachne who questioned her about her skill, and she boastfully repeated that she was the best weaver that had ever lived, either mortal or immortal. The old woman at once turned into Athena, and the contest began. Arachne wove an incredible tapestry depicting all the passionate loves and terrible deeds of the gods. Although Athena also wove a beautiful tapestry, Arachne had clearly won. Athena, in a fit of anger at being outmatched, destroyed the cheeky girl's loom and transformed her into a spider. Considers the words arachnid, arachnoid, and arachnophobia, all of which concern spiders, and all of which are, therefore, eponyms.
There are many myths which concerns transformations of humans into things not human. Check out my book nook below which gives an incredible book to read that concerns all these strange, shape-changing tales.
*Interesting Fact* Other mythological eponyms include Europe, Hellespont, Pillars of Hercules, Scylla, and all of the planets. Can you think of others?
**Book Corner**
The great Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (he of the big nose), more popularly known as Ovid, wrote a book entitled the Metamorphoses, which are all about transformations of humans and gods into animals and plants. This is a truly amazing read!
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