Scarcely less important than Hera herself, and of greater importance in Athens, where she was worshipped as the city’s patron goddess, was Pallas Athene (Athena, Athenaia, Athenaie, Athana), whom Nilsson has shown pretty conclusively to be a pre-Hellenic goddess.
Read about the god Zeus for important information concerning the parentage of Athene. After Zeus had swallowed Metis, there came the time when the immortal child was ready to come forth into the light. She emerged therefore from her father’s head, which according to a tradition as old as Pindar, one of the lesser gods (Prometheus, Hermes, or Hephaistos, generally the last, as being the most appropriate for this piece of exalted smith’s work) clove with an axe. At this, all creation shook with awe, and the very sun stood still; for she was in full armour, shouting her war-cry and brandishing her spear, most terrible to behold. When she laid aside her armour, the terror passed; and the first of mankind to do her honour were the children of the Sun, Ochimos and Kerkaphos, who made sacrifice, being forewarned by their father. In their haste, however, they brought no fire, whence ever after the Rhodians, in whose island this primeval rite took place, offered fireless sacrifice to Athena. The goddess was well pleased, it would appear, with their good intentions, and granted them skill in all manner of craftsmanship, so that the statues they made seemed alive.
This is an ordinary story of the birth of Athena; but it is not the only one. An ancient title of the goddess is Tritogeneia; whatever that may mean—and Homer seems already to have forgotten—it certainly does not mean ‘daughter of Zeus.’ The syllable gen, if it is Greek, would most naturally mean ‘born,’ and trito suggests the sea-gods Amphitrite and Triton. It is therefore by no means impossible that it refers to her birth or origin from water of some sort; and as Preller justly remarks, her cult is commonly found connected with a stream or body of water of some kind, from the little river Triton near Aliphera in Arkadia, which worshipped her and told the ordinary story of her birth from the head of Zeus, to Lake Tritonis in Africa, in which continent she was identified with native goddesses. If we knew to what language the names of Triton and his etymological kin belonged, and what they originally meant, it would doubtless throw some light on the origin of Athena and her mythology in prehellenic times; but unfortunately we do not.
As might be expected in the case of so important and popular a goddess, a clear idea of her personal appearance was early formed. She is represented in art and in literature as a stately virgin with a beautiful but severe face, grey eyes, and powerful yet graceful build. She normally wears a full suit of armour, with an elaborately crested helmet, and carries a long spear and a shield, on which, or on her cuirass, is the traditional Gorgon’s head (see the file about the Gorgones). In representations of the battle with the Giants she is always prominent and shown or described as striking down some of the most formidable of the enemy. Her titles continually bear witness to her warlike character; in various places she is called Promachos (Champion), Sthenias (Mighty), Areia (Warlike, or Companion of Ares), and so forth. The other side of her character, as the peaceful protectress of her worshippers and their leader in all manner of skilled occupations, is brought out likewise by a series of titles. She is Polias (Goddess of the City), Boulaia (She of Counsel), Ergane (Worker), Kourotrophos (Nurturer of Children, a title shared with several other goddesses). From Macedonia to Sparta, her importance was second only to that of Zeus himself, whose favourite daughter she was (in Homer he has his special pet-name for her, ‘dear grey-eyes’), and whose aigis and thunderbolt she frequently carries.
Regarding her rivalry with Poseidon at Athens and elsewhere, read the file about the god Poseidon. Another very old legend, or rather pair of legends, deals with her relations to certain shadowy ancient kings who were said to have actually and literally sprung, not from the womb of any mortal mother, but from the land over which they ruled. In Athens these legends centered for the most part about Erichthonios, who was sometimes identified with, but more usually distinguished from, Erechtheus. The tale runs as follows; Hephaistos desired to wed Athena, who preferred to remain virgin, and hid from him. Finally he caught her and struggled with her, she defending herself with her spear. In the struggle, Hephaistos’ seed fell on the earth, which was thus fertilized. In due time Erichthonios was born, and Ge handed him over to Athena to be cared for. She put him in a covered chest, and gave it into the care of the three daughters of Kekrops, Aglauros, Herse and Pandrosos, bidding them not open it. But two of the three could not restrain their curiosity, and so were driven mad and leaped from the Akropolis. Athena then herself took charge again of the child, who henceforth lived in her temple. What exactly the over-curious daughters of Kekrops saw is a matter on which our authorities differ; the earlier ones say the child was guarded by one or two serpents, the later, that he was himself snake-footed (like Kekrops). Also, the earliest tradition now surviving does not make Hephaistos his father, but rather his brother, both being sons of Ge.
This raises a curious question, namely whether Athena was always considered a virgin. There is nothing astonishing in the suggestion that she was not, for we have seen that she was pre-Hellenic, and pre-Hellenic goddesses were often mothers (though we have no right to say they were always such), and therefore Athena may have been. Indeed, at Elis she was worshipped as Mother (meter); this, however, proves little or nothing, for we may very naturally explain it as meaning that the mothers of Elis worshipped her. That she was rather a maternal than a virginal goddess at Athens has been held by so excellent a scholar as Fehrle, and more recently by E. Kalinka. But the evidence is not convincing. As already mentioned, the tale of Hephaistos’ attempt to ‘marry’ the goddess is not in the earliest version of the story of Erichthonios; the other arguments are, that she is connected with certain fertility-rites, namely that such rites were not infrequently carried out at festivals of hers, and that she is connected in mythology with several personages who are not virginal in character. Thus, in one or two lateish accounts, the union of Poseidon and Medusa is said to have taken place in her temple; at Athens she is connected with, and may not improbably be supposed largely to have absorbed the cult of, the three daughters of Kekrops, whose names (Bright, Dew, and All-Dewy) seem to mark them as spirits of the dew which refreshes and fertilizes the land, and the union of Herse and Hermes suggests maternal characteristics in that triad. But all this is quite as reasonably explained by saying that so great a goddess would tend to absorb the cult of smaller ones, whether their functions exactly fitted hers or not.
The story of Hermes and Herse, mentioned above, runs as follows. The god saw and loved Herse, thereby provoking the jealousy of her sister Aglauros. The latter, when Hermes visited Herse, barred his way and declared she would not move. ‘Agreed!’ said Hermes, and turned her into stone with a touch of his wand.
It is but natural that a war-goddess should be interested in warlike implements, and therefore we find Athena credited with having invented the taming of horses, or the use of chariots. In this connexion there is a very interesting myth concerning her assistance of the hero Bellerophon. His endeavours to catch and tame the immortal and winged horse Pegasos which sprang from the body of Medusa were of no avail for a while, since no earthly bridle could control him. But one night as he slept, Athena stood before him and placed in his hand a celestial bridle, bidding him use it to tame his divine mount. When he awoke, the bridle was veritably in his hand, and he used it successfully. Warships were also interesting to Athena (this may well be the reason why the sports at her great festival, the Panathenaia, included a regatta, which is somewhat unusual in ancient games), and she taught Argos to build the Argo (read the file about the Argosy). Then, on the borderline between her peaceful and her warlike occupations, we may put her connexion with music. She was actually worshipped as Salpinx (Trumpet) in Argos, and the aulos (Latin tibia was her invention (read about it in the file about the god Apollo).
Patroness of all peaceful arts, Athena is especially the mistress of the characterstically feminine accomplishments of spinning and weaving, which in a Greek household were regularly done by the house-wife and her daughters and serving-maids. In this connexion she was extensively worshipped, and representations of her unarmed and with a spindle are less common, indeed, than those which show her in armour, but not unknown.
In this capacity she came into conflict with a mortal artist of weaving, Arachne, and if Ovid is to be believed, behaved in a most unfair way towards her. Arachne was the most skilful weaver m Lydia, and boasted that she could outdo Athena herself. The goddess appeared to her in the form of an old woman, and warned her against presumption; but as Arachne would not hear reason, she took her own shape and accepted her challenge to a contest. Athena wove into her web the stories of sundry persons who had aroused the wrath of the gods and been signally punished; Arachne’s subject was a collection of scandalous tales of the loves of the gods.
This was too much for Athena’s temper, and she tore the insulting web to pieces and beat Arachne with her batten. In rage at this treatment, Arachne hanged herself; Athena saved her life, but turned her into a spider, in which shape she still weaves and has incidentally provided modern zoologists with a name for the spider-kind.
An obscure story connects Athena’s best known title with her quick temper; while Athena was young and living with Triton, she used to practice warlike exercises with the latter’s daughter, Pallas. One day they quarrelled, and as Pallas was about to strike Athena with the weapon she held, Zeus intervened on behalf of his daughter and stretched forth his aigis. Pallas’ attention being thus averted, Athena killed her, but was afterwards sorry for her playfellow’s death, and so made an image of her, which she clad in the aigis. This was the famous Palladion, which fell from heaven into the land of Troy and was the talisman or ‘luck’ of the city until Odysseus and Diomedes stole it during the Trojan War. The real meaning of the name Pallas, and how it came to be attached to Athena, are however quite obscure; it is never a cult-title, but purely a poetical appellation of the goddess, from Homer down.
Cecrops, a son of the soil, with a body compounded of man and serpent, was the first king of Attica, and the country which was formerly called Acte he named Cecropia after himself. In his time, they say, the gods resolved to take possession of cities in which each of them should receive his own peculiar worship. So Poseidon was the first that came to Attica, and with a blow of his trident on the middle of the acropolis, he produced a sea which they now call Erechtheis. After him came Athena, and, having called on Cecrops to witness her act of taking possession, she planted an olive-tree, which is still shown in the Pandrosium. But when the two strove for possession of the country, Zeus parted them and appointed arbiters, not, as some have affirmed, Cecrops and Cranaus, nor yet Erysichthon, but the twelve gods. And in accordance with their verdict the country was adjudged to Athena, because Cecrops bore witness that she had been the first to plant the olive. Athena, therefore, called the city Athens after herself, and Poseidon in hot anger flooded the Thriasian plain and laid Attica under the sea.
