~Athena~

Athena is the Greek Goddess of War, Wisdom, Reason, and Purity. She is normally seen with her spear, armor, and her owl. Like Artemis she is also a virgin goddess and she also protects her virgin state with vigor. She is sometimes called the "Maiden" or "Athena Parthenos" meaning "Virgin Athena".

Unlike most gods and goddesses there is only one story of Athena's birth and who her parents are. Her father is Zeus and her mother was said the be Metis (no idea what goddess she is. Completly unfaimilar). But is was said that while Metis was pregnant with Athena, Zeus trick her with cunning words and assimilated her into his body. This made it so that Athena was not born from Metis, but from her father. She was born from her father's head, a fully grown adult, wearing Armor and screaming a war cry. Athena is said to be Zeus' favorite child for he lets her use the terrible shield, the aegis and his devastating weapon, the ray.

Many Cities wanted Athena for their patron in their city. One of the stories about a city wanting Athena to become their patron was about the City of Athens. The city of Athens was not always called that. It was orginally called something else, but no one knows for sure what the name was. But the City of Athens original god was Poseidon, but Poseidon, who was known for his bad temper, would cause the sea to be turbulent. So after years of being at the mercy of a bad tempered god the Athenians finally beged Athena to become their goddess. Athena heard their plees and came to them.

Poseidon was furious at Athena for meddling with with his affairs. He casued windstorms, bad tides, turbulent seas, and hurricans. Athena put a stop to this behavior and made this city her own, thus the City of Athens.

Another version says that when Athena came to them that he offered the people a river to go through the city so they could have unlimited water. Athena Offered the olive tree to the people. The olive tree offered food, wood, and oil. The water from the river poseidon created was as salty as his ocean and sea, thus unable to be dranken. So the people chose Athena to be their goddess.

I said earlier that Athena was a virgin goddess and protected that state of innocence. Sometimes a god would try to force his will on her, for she was beautiful. One of these gods was Hephaestus. Was said to have tried forcing her, but being the goddess of war she fought back. So his semen fell to the ground and Erichthonius was born from the earth, Gaia.

Athena took Erichthonius and put her in a small box (the child became Athena's foster child) and took the box to Athens. There she gave the box to three sisters of Athens and told them not to open the box until she gets back. Of course you tell anyone that they are going to open the box. Anyway the one or two of the sisters (the sister's names are Herse, Pandrosus, and Aglaulus)opened the box. It was said that Herse and Pandrosus opened the box and saw the child in the form of the snake or in the embrace of a snake. The serpent, or insanity induced by the sight of the snake, drove Herse and Pandrosus to throw themselves of the cliff.

The small box was called cista. It is said that this story was told to all young people to keep them from opening the cista without proper context. I don't think it discouraged them at all, but then thats just me.

So Athena is the Greek Goddes of War, Wisdom, Reason, and Purity. Born from Zeus' head and raised by the king of gods himself, she is his adviser. In Rome Athena's name was Minerva where she was worshipped for the same as she was in Greece. Some places in Greese still worship her. The spear and Sheld are her symbols and the Snake and the Owl are her animals. Like Artemis she is also a favorite of mine.

Greek Gods

Demeter

Aphrodite

Hestia

Aphrodite

Hera

Psyche

Persephone