Athena (Ἀθήνη)

ATHENA (Ἀθήνη). - Goddess of Greece. The name, probably pre-Hellenic, must perhaps be connected with that of the Greek city that venerated her most, Athens: for some the goddess would have taken her name from the city, for others the name of the city would be formed from that of the goddess. The original aspect of A. is uncertain — whether a divinity of celestial phenomena, or a lunar goddess: she would belong to the common heritage of the Greek tribes and her cult would be equally original everywhere. For others she is a meteorological divinity with features taken from the goddess Ishtar of Asia Minor, or an imported Oriental divinity. Recently she has been made into the Minoan household goddess, who later became the protectress of princely palaces and was armed for the needs of the Mycenaean age. She would be depicted on a slab from Mycenae, where, between two worshippers, there is a shield with female arms, legs and head. According to others she would derive from the fusion of a virgin and warrior goddess existing among the Greeks — Παλλάς, Pallas, "the virgin" — with the Cretan goddess of the palaces, whose name she would have taken. None of these hypotheses is satisfactory. What is certain is that the primitive nature of A. and her origin elude us. The Minoan origin is not certain because the goddess of the princely palaces is only a hypothesis and the cult of A. in Greece is little diffused and late. In Homer A. already has the characteristics of the following ages: sprung from the head of Zeus, she is the interpreter of the will of her father, who has granted her an attribute of his own, the aegis: she is the protectress of heroes, mistress of every art, goddess of war and battles, she who teaches the best arts for achieving victory. She is the poliadic goddess, protectress of the city and pledge of its fate: it is strange, however, to find her as protectress of Ilium and not of the Greek cities.

Subsequently the warrior nature of A. remained only in certain epithets (A. Prômachos). She was instead the goddess of the city in its broadest expression: the temple was often on the acropolis, and she was frequently called after the place where she was venerated: A. Alalcomena at Alalcomenae in Boeotia, A. Itona at Itonia in Thessaly, A. Alea at Alea and in other localities of Arcadia, etc., but many times she is simply A. Polias (Athens, Pergamon, Troezen, Sparta, etc.). The protection is incarnated in the Palladium, the pledge of the city's existence. Anthesa, Argos, Alalcomenae and other cities claimed to possess the original Palladium brought from Troy. She is the goddess of arts and crafts, especially of female activity, she protects potters and metallurgy, and she would have taught Attica the cultivation of the olive. She watches over public health, over good government and over the laws.

A. had a very widespread cult throughout Greece, but the principal center was Athens. The most ancient seat of the cult was the Erechtheum, at the northern edge of the acropolis, where she was honored together with Poseidon and Erechtheus. There were the proofs of the disputes with Poseidon for the possession of Attica, that is, the salt spring that gushed from the rock at the stroke of the god's trident and the olive tree, the gift of A. In 447 the Parthenon was begun, decorated by the genius of Phidias. The festivals were numerous; the principal ones were the Panathenaea, with a procession from the Ceramicus to the Acropolis for the offering of the peplos to the goddess. Pergamon was a rival of Athens in the cult of A.: from the 3rd century B.C. onwards A. was there the sole and powerful protectress of the city, celebrated in the Panathenaea and the Nicephoria. At Corinth A. had festivals and torch races, perhaps of a purificatory character; at Tegea A. Alea was venerated together with Asclepius and Hygieia; the priestess was a young girl, but the inscriptions also record a priest, and the temple had the right of asylum. Also at Tegea, in the temple of A. Poliatis, were the hairs of the Gorgon, which gave the city the assurance of not being conquered. At Argos, the principal seat of the Peloponnesian cult, there was as a votive offering in the sanctuary on the acropolis an ancient image of Zeus with three eyes that had already belonged to Priam; the principal festival of the goddess consisted of a bath prepared by young girls with the water of the Inachus, a bath that men could not attend. In Elis A. is called Μέγερ "mother": the women who prayed to her immediately bore children: on this those who see in A. a mother goddess base their view. The cults of Boeotia and Thessaly seem ancient; in that of A. Lindia at Rhodes, fire was not used in the sacrifice.

Numerous are the myths to which A. is connected; the best known are her birth and the struggle with Poseidon for Attica. In art she is present in the Gigantomachy and in the exploits of the heroes, Theseus, Heracles, Odysseus. In this protection some have wrongly seen a remnant of an ancient matriarchy. In Etruria and at Rome A. was identified with Minerva.

In Greek art the archaic statues of A. go back to two types: the palladia, that is, A. standing, menacing, with shield on arm and spear, in the act of attacking, and A. seated with polos and aegis. The latter type seems to be more ancient than the former. Subsequently the seated A. disappears: A. is represented standing, armed, always calm and dignified.

Luisa Banti