Athena

The Erinyes pursued Orestes from Delphi as he travelled to Athens. He sought Athena’s protection after killing his mother, Clytemnestra, to avenge the murder of his father, Agamemnon. Apollo had ordered the act. The Erinyes demanded punishment for matricide, while Orestes maintained that Apollo had commanded him and that he had been cleansed of his guilt.

Athena listened to Orestes’ plea. Apollo stood beside him and accepted responsibility for the killing, saying that Orestes had acted on his command. The Erinyes opposed him and called for vengeance. Athena decided that the case required a trial. She established the court on the Areopagus hill and selected jurors from the citizens of Athens to represent the city.

At the trial, the Erinyes questioned and accused Orestes. Apollo defended him. He argued that Orestes had acted in revenge for his father’s murder and spoke of the authority of Zeus. Orestes admitted that he had killed his mother, but repeated that Apollo had ordered the deed and that he had been cleansed. The jurors cast their votes. They were evenly divided, so Athena gave the deciding vote for acquittal.

Athena then persuaded the Erinyes to accept the verdict. Their anger had threatened Athens, but they agreed to receive honours and a home in Attica. They were changed from frightful Furies into the Eumenides, the Benignant Ones, who protected suppliants. Athena’s court settled Orestes’ case and established a lawful place where future blood feuds could be judged instead of answered by further revenge.

Poseidon struck the Acropolis, the highest point in Athens, with his trident. A miraculous spring of salt water burst from the rock. The judges found this impressive. The spring represented the sea and naval power, and Poseidon sought patronage of the city and the surrounding land of Attica.

Athena then made an olive tree grow on the dry, rocky hill. The judges decided that her gift was better, so they declared her the winner. Athena became the patron deity of Athens. In one account, the contest took place during the reign of Cecrops. Athena planted the first olive tree beside Poseidon’s salt-water spring, taking possession of the land in a gentler manner.

Poseidon was angered by her claim and challenged Athena to single combat. Athena would have accepted, but Zeus intervened and ordered them to submit the dispute to arbitration. The two deities appeared before a divine court made up of their fellow gods and goddesses. The court called on Cecrops to give evidence. Zeus expressed no opinion. All the other gods supported Poseidon, while all the goddesses supported Athena. Athena therefore won by a majority of one, because the court judged that she had given the land the better gift.

Other accounts present the contest more briefly. Zeus and several divine judges decide which deity performs the most spectacular feat. Poseidon produces the salt-water spring by touching the Acropolis with his trident, then Athena causes the olive tree to grow. The judges declare Athena the victor. The accounts agree that her olive tree wins the contest and that she becomes Athens’ patron.

Zeus swallowed Metis while she was pregnant. Metis, a Titaness, had changed into many forms to escape Zeus, but he eventually caught her and she conceived a child. Gaia had warned Zeus that Metis would first bear a wise and powerful daughter, then a son who would become ruler of heaven. Zeus swallowed Metis to prevent this future from taking place.

When the time came for the child to be born, Zeus developed a terrible headache. He called for help, and Hephaestus split his head with an axe. From the opening in Zeus’s skull, Athena sprang out fully grown and fully armed. She gave a mighty shout. One account places her emergence near the River Triton.

The story presents Athena as the daughter of Zeus and Metis, although Zeus alone gives birth to her after swallowing Metis. The Iliad also refers to Zeus as the one who gave birth to Athena. In another version, Zeus produces Athena without a mother. The person who opened Zeus’s skull also varies. Hephaestus is named in one account, while another says that Prometheus struck Zeus with the axe.

Other traditions give Athena a different father. Some name Pallas, a winged, goat-like giant. Others name Itonus, king of Iton in Phthiotis. A further version makes Poseidon her father, but says that Athena rejected him and asked Zeus to adopt her. These accounts differ from the birth told by her own priests, in which Zeus swallows the pregnant Metis and Athena emerges from his head.

Athena placed the infant Erichthonius in a chest and entrusted it to the daughters of Cecrops. She ordered them not to open it. In one account, she wished to make the child immortal and concealed him with a serpent. The daughters were to keep the chest safe without discovering what it contained. The prohibition applied to each of them, and the chest remained in their care.

Erichthonius had been born from the earth after Athena wiped Hephaestus’s semen from her thigh with wool and cast it onto the ground. Hephaestus had pursued Athena when she visited him to request new armour. She resisted him, but his semen fell upon her. From it Erichthonius came into being. He was therefore described as autochthonous, or sprung from the earth.

The daughters of Cecrops disobeyed Athena. They opened the chest and saw the serpent-like creature within it. Athena punished them by driving them mad. In their madness, they leapt from the Acropolis and killed themselves.

When Erichthonius grew up, he became king of Athens. A grandson of Erichthonius was also called Erichthonius. That descendant became the father of the second Cecrops, Procris, Creiisa, and Orithyia.

Heracles sent an arrow at Alkyoneus, one of the Giants. When Alkyoneus fell to the earth, he recovered his strength. Athena advised Heracles to drag him beyond Pallene. Heracles did so, and Alkyoneus died there. The gods had an oracle that they could not destroy the Giants without mortal help, so Zeus called Heracles to fight beside them.

Athena also fought Enceladus during the battle between the gods and the Giants. Euripides describes her carrying the Gorgon shield, or aegis, against him. As Enceladus fled, Athena threw the island of Sicily at him. Apollodorus says that the island crushed him beneath it.

Other accounts connect Athena with the giant Pallas. The Suidas explains that Pallas is an epithet of Athena because she brandished the spear, or because she had killed Pallas, one of the Giants. The name therefore preserves two different explanations of her title. Athena’s place in the war also appears in artistic accounts of the battle, including scenes of her fighting Enceladus.

The Gigantomachy included other divine attacks. Pindar calls Porphyrion the king of the Giants and says that Apollo’s bow overcame him. Euripides describes Zeus burning Mimas with his thunderbolt and Dionysus killing an unnamed Giant with his ivy staff. Athena’s recorded victories were joined to the mortal aid that Zeus required, and to the defeat of Enceladus beneath Sicily.

Athena flew from her mountain in a chariot drawn by eight large white owls and searched the sea for Medusa. She made herself invisible and watched from above a rock as Medusa wound a necklace through her hair. Medusa had once been exceptionally beautiful. One account says that she was considered beautiful enough to rival Athena. The necklace was a gift from Poseidon, who had chosen it for his bride in another tale. One account says that Poseidon violated Medusa in Athena’s sanctuary. Another says that Medusa had slept with him there. Athena punished her after the encounter.

Athena took Medusa’s comb and forced her to look into the sea. Medusa saw her appearance change. Her hair became live snakes, and her gaze gained the power to turn anyone who met it to stone. She became the most monstrous of her sisters, the Gorgons. In one passage, she believed that a boy who had returned to her had looked upon the change, turned to marble, and sunk beneath the sea. She then resolved to hide at the end of the Ocean Stream, beyond the North Wind, in an icy swamp avoided by fish and birds.

Medusa was later killed by Perseus. Athena and Hermes aided him, giving him winged sandals, a cap of invisibility, and a mirrored shield. He approached without looking directly at Medusa and cut off her head. He later used it as a weapon against Polydectes, turning him to stone. Athena placed Medusa’s transformed head on her shield, where the serpent hair and deadly gaze remained associated with the goddess.