Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Athena ¸. * ● ¸. ° ° ☾ ¸. ● ¸. ★ °. . • °. *. . ¸. ● ¸ ★ ★ ☾ ° ★. ● ¸ ★ ★ ☾ ° ★.

ATHENA




In Greek Mythology, the Goddess Athena was Another quite Powerful Goddess, in the Days of the Greek Gods and Goddesses. The Goddess Athena also referred as Pallas was a Greek name. She was the Goddess of Wisdom, Courage, Inspiration, Civilization, Law and Justice, Mathematics, Strength, Strategy, The Arts, Warfare and Highly Skilled. In other-wards Athena was one of the most Powerful Goddesses of her day. She was given many different names that were attached to her because of her heroic endeavors. One of these is that of the Goddess Minerva who is related to the Owl and the moon. She is also one the only known virgins; that I can remember reading about-[but please don't quote me on that one!]there are so many different versions of the different Gods and Goddesses you never known!... She does seem to have a role as protector of the cities, in ancient times throughout Greece. And the people worshiped Goddess Athena, naming a city after her ' Athena of the City' or ' Athena Polias'. The city of Athens in Greece and the Goddess Athena essentially bear the same name; Example Athenai which means many Athenas. So they probably shorten it to Athens is my best guess.
Before I mentioned that Athena was given many names do to her many heroic endeavors and one was the Goddess Minerva of the sacred Owl. Well It seem that the Greek Goddess attended an owl for a time in her life, she was often accompanied by one during the victory of warfare. She was often seen waring goatskin breastplate called the Aegis which was given to by her by her father, Zeus. Interesting Eh! We will get to that a bit later. Athena is also shown wearing a helmeted and with a shield bearing the Gorgon of Medusa's Head, a gift from Perseus. It was so true to see, that Athena is the Goddess of Warfare with these items, but also in her Greek history too. She was a warrior besides being a Goddess of Warfare and a good one. Well her father was Zeus! Besides being a warrior and protector she also was a great helper too. Athena in the Greek Mythology appear as helpers to many hero's in the Greek Mythological world. Some of these Hero's were Hercules, Jason, and Odysseus. How if you don't know all of these hero's I do understand, the Greek mythology isn't to understand. I myself only know Hercules.
There are many stories to her Patroness, I will put the three different views that I have found and you the reader can make your own decision on what you think what happened those centuries ago.
Throughout Athena was always a goddess of warfare, strategy, but she always disliked fighting without a purpose and preferred to use wisdom, strategy, skills and inspiration to settle predicaments. The Great Greek Goddess would not only encourage fighting for a good reasonable cause or to resolve a conflict with another. Finally as an patron of Athens the Goddess fought in the Trojan War on the side of the Achaeans.
Now in Traditional Greek Mythology, Athena was never SEEN or HEARD of with a lover, nor did she ever MARRY! THIS IS HOW THE GODDESS ATHENA EARNED HER TITLE ATHENA PARTHENOS.
The third story to the Athena Parthenon's was that- The Goddess as a philosophy became part of a cult in the Classical Greece during the late 5th century B.C. She was very good in such things as metal work for weapon's. Athena led many battles as either the disciplinary, strategy, strength -type of war In contrast to her brother Ares 'The Patron of Violence' 'bloodlust and slaughter' the raw force of war'.
Now you can choose which you think truly Athena the Goddess Was?












THE PARTHENON'S AT THE ATHENS IS HER MOST FAMOUS SHRIRE


Mythology
Birthplace of Athena, Daughter of Zeus
~Athena is 'Born' from Zeus forehead~


Athena was remade as the favorite daughter of Zeus, born fully armed from his forehead after he swallowed her mother, Metis. Now from doing this post on the Goddess Athena I have found that there are several versions to many parts of her life and it doesn't stop with her birth either. So I will try to get through most of them for you in a easy manner.
The first and most commonly told is; When Zeus lay with Metis, the goddess of crafty thought and wisdom, but immediately feared the consequences of his actions, as I'm sure has crossed his mind many time before- being the God Zeus. It had been prophesied that Metis would bear children more powerful than the sire, even Zeus himself. Well of course the powerful God of all Mount Olympus could not have this ~ So in order for the prophesy to not foretold and these dire consequences to come true after lying with Metis, Zeus, decided “To have her put away, inside his own belly”. He swallowed her down of of a sudden,but he was too late; Metis had already conceived a child. Well when the time came for the child to be born, Zeus was in great pain; There are many sources of what really happened, but the main part was that Athena leaped from Zeus' head fully grown and armed, 'shouting 'and pealed to the broad sky clarion cry of war.” They are other stories that Athena had weapons too, but that's all up to you the readers to decide. How there was a matter of Zeus's Wife Hera that we haven't talked about and she was very annoyed with Zeus as probably this wasn't the only time, anyway she was so annoyed with the great Zeus Supreme ruler of Mount Olympus for producing a child apparently on his own that she caused herself to conceive and bear Hephaestus by herself. Metis never bore any more children. I don't know about you all out there but these Greek Gods are a bit crazy on their thinking through things...


Athena and Poseidon



Athena in the Greek mythology competed with Poseidon's to be the patron deity of Athens, which was yet unnamed... In on version myth. In another, the two agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and that the Athenian's would choose the gift they preferred.
Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and salt water spring sprang up; this gave them a means of trading of water-
Athenas at its height was a significant sea power , defeating the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis, but the water was salty and not very good for drinking. So Athena offered them the first domesticated olive tree.
The Athenians accepted the olive tree and with it the patronage of Athena for the Olive tree brought wood, oil, and food.



Erichthonius
In the story of Hephaestus/Athena where Hephaestus attempts to rape Athena, but fails,because she eluded him – His semen falls to the earth and impregnates the the soil of the earth. This is how Erichthonius was born from the Earth, Gaia. Athena then raised the baby as a foster mother. Athena put the infant into a small box which she entrusts to the care of three sisters > Herse, Pandrosus and Aglaulus of Athens. The goddesses doesn't tell them what the box contains, but does warn them not to open it until she returns. My guess is at least one sister can't wait til Athena gets back Eh... Well the story continues ~ One or two sisters open the box to reveal Erichthonius, in the form of a serpent. The serpent, or insanity induced by the sight , drives the two sisters Herse and Aglaulus to throw themselves off the Acropolises. Harrison the last sister finds to be a simply cautionary tale directed at young girls carried to the Thesmophoria rituals, to discourage them from opening it the box. There are other versions to this myth which one could check-out about the story of Hephaestus but I choose this one...
Wendy..






 




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