Athena Compare And Contrast

Does the ancient Greek’s ideation of the goddess Athena compare to modern day portrayals of her? First, how did the ancient Greeks imagine Athena? And now, how does that compare to her portrayals now? Does she compare extremely alike or does she differ tremendously? To begin, in ancient Greek’s times, Pallas Athena embodies the Greek goddess of wisdom, crafts, and war. The name Pallas translates to mean “girl.” Her other epithets, Parthenos, Ergane, Promachos, and Nike, translates to “virgin,” “of the crafts,” “of war,” and “victory” respectfully. Both Homer and Hesiod, authors who wrote about her, have given her nicknames, such as gray-eyed, bright-eyed, flashing-eyed, goddess of spoil, lovely-haired goddess, Tritogenia (meaning: from the head), and Alalkomenia Athena (derived from the word Alkomena). The ancient Greeks mentioned her eyes so many times because Athena is known as an “Eye Goddess,” because her eyes see all as well as know all. In the same
She still remains widely renowned. Today, she portrays herself in a variety of media and other outlets, such as: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Marvel Comics, playing card decks, international awards, and many, many more. First, in The Raven, when Poe describes the bird, the narrator announces that “But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—/ Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door—/ Perched, and sat, and nothing more” (2). Here where the narrator mentions the “bust of Pallas,” he directly references Pallas Athena. The raven, perched atop Pallas, threatens the narrator’s rationality and thought-processing because here Pallas symbolizes wisdom, so that when the raven perches on her, he symbolically blocks the narrator’s