Athena's Greatest Goddesses

Angela Davis
7/27/2014
Humanities
Paper #2

Athena

On the top of Mt. Olympus lived one of the greatest goddesses, Athena. Athena was known as a goddess of war, wisdom and arts. She is portrayed as strong, fair and merciful. She helped many warriors on their journeys. She was greatly admired by humans for her contributions to man. Athena was also very intelligent and thoughtful; she rarely lost her temper and pushed for a solution that was beneficial. As you read on you will find that Athena was a great asset to the Olympians and had far more positive attributes than other goddesses. The birth of Athena was more than an unusual one. Her mother was Metis and her father Zeus. Zeus reigned over all the gods and goddesses of Mt. Olympus.
Aphrodite is the goddess of love, marriage and motherhood. Motherless herself, Athena usually placed Patriarchal principles above motherly bonds. Athena not only gave to the warriors but to all humans. Her responsibilities were giving wisdom, inventions, inspirations and protecting the Athens. One of her greatest gifts was her knowledge of taming horses, she taught the people of Cyrene and word soon spread. She also created the pottery wheel and made the first vase on it. She was also a great weaver and loved to decorate. She was a goddess of many talents and an expert artisan. Nobody ever came close to surpassing her work although a young mortal woman named Arachne’s put her to the test. The challenge was to see who was the better weaver. Arachne’s tapestry had offended her greatly, it depicted Zeus as adulterous. Athena ripped the tapestry to shreds and Arachne eventually hung herself. Once Athena had cooled off from what had happened, she transformed the woman into a spider out of pity. The woman was now able to weave beautiful spider webs for
To settle the argument, they each had to give a gift to the city. The one with the better gift would become leader of the city. Poseidon gave a spring of water to the city, because it was salt water it was of no use to the people. Athena gave the city an olive tree. From this tree they could eat, make oil and have wood for fire. By ruling of the city, Athena’s gift was better than Poseidons. In her honor they named the city Athens. There is also a palace dedicated to her in Athens. Her symbols are the owl and the olive tree. The olives, taming of the horse and her creation of the pottery wheel were all contributions that were greatly admired. Other women rarely took threat to Athena; the most notable exception though