Pallas Athena, Tritogeneia, was one of the great deities worshipped by the ancient Greeks and she was also worshipped by the Romans under the name of Minerva. Archaeological evidence suggests that her worship predates the arrival of Hellenes and she was considered by the pre-Hellenic Minoan and Mycenaean rulers as patroness of their fortress-palaces and her association with the snake and the olive tree date back to this period. in fact, the Acropolis in Athens is built on the site of an earlier Mycenaean palace or temple, and it is probable that the invading Hellenes appropriated the goddess of the citadel along with the citadel identifying her with a virgin warlike goddess of their own and it seems that it was at this time that Pallas was added to her name.

Now that we have the more or less academic stuff behind us, let’s get down to the true origins of the great goddess whom, I admit, is my favorite ancient Greek deity, as she is of so many others.

As it has come down to us, Athena, like Aphrodite, did not have a childhood certainly not in the way that childhood is normally thought of, because she came into existence fully grown and ready to take her rightful position in the Greek pantheon. The favourite child of Zeus, Athena was the daughter of the Titaness Mtis, the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Mtis was Zeus’ first consort, but Zeus was desperately afraid of the consequences of their relationship, for it had been prophesied that Mtis first child, a goddess, would be the greatest of all the goddesses and that her second child, a god, would grow to be even more powerful than Zeus and who would overthrow Zeus. Considering that Zeus himself had overthrown his father, Coronos, who, himself, had overthrown his own father, Uranus, it is fair to say that Zeus felt concerned. Zeus therefore tricked Mtis to change herself into a fly and promptly swallowed her! But Mtis had already conceived Athena, and the goddess grew to adulthood inside her father. In due course, Zeus developed a terrible headache for which there seemed no cure, although the reason for the headache was fairly straightforward. Athena was ready to come out into the world, and her mother had made her a robe and a helmet; it was the hammering of the helmet by Mtis that had resulted in Zeus’ headache. Hermes, the ever youthful messenger of the gods, was able to decipher the cause of Zeus headache and, on the banks of the River Triton, split open Zeus’ head with an axe and out sprang Athena, fully grown, armoured and armed ready, able and willing to take her rightful place in the congregation of the gods. The goddess’ nickname, Tritogeneia, is derived from the River Triton, on the banks of which Hermes performed that superlative piece of obstetric surgery. As for Mtis, whose name means wise counsel, she continued to reside inside Zeus from where she continually gave him wise counsel.

Like her aunt, Hestia, and her half sister, Artemis, Athena was a virgin goddess, disdaining love, romance and marriage, yet she was undoubtedly, in my view at least, the most charming of all the many gods and goddesses that the ancient Greeks worshipped; although, like all the deities of the Greeks, she could act in the most unreasonable manner at times, as shown by her treatment of the Gorgon, Medusa.

Athena was the patroness of weaving and she was the inventor or provider of many useful items, such as the ship, the flute, the earthenware pot, the chariot and the olive tree. She was the defender of civilized life in general, and in particular she was the patroness and protectress of her city, Athens. Because she had sprung from Zeus’ head, she was the personification of wisdom, and, although she was a virgin goddess, as guardian of Athens
she had a keen interest in the fertility of plant, animal and human life.

Finally, and not least, she was the goddess of war but, unlike her half brother, Ares, the god of war, Athena derived no pleasure from fighting for the sake of fighting, and she supported only the most honourable of causes (although her support of the Hellenic host of Agamemnon in their war against Troy, because Paris, who had been disowned and thrown out of Troy at birth, had offended her by favouring Aphrodite over her, an action that could hardly be blamed on the city and its rulers, does seem to stretch the definition of what constitutes an honourable cause). In any case, once she took up a cause, she was as fearless as Ares and infinitely more just. Her principal festival, the Panathenea, was second only to the Olympics in prestige and her temple, the Parthenon, was the most famous in all of Greece.