Mythology Mini Project

Entry #1

Athena

Athena is one of the daughters of Zeus. How she became a god was rather unique; she sprang fro m Zeus’ forehead, fully grown and clothed in amour. Zeus supposedly ate his first wife, Metis (who was pregnant with Athena), to prevent her from giving birth to a son who could possibly steal the throne away from him. But Metis gave Zeus terrible headaches as a kind of revenge. HEPHAESTUS rescued his father by chopping open his head with an axe, and then out sprang Athena! Interestingly enough, she was wearing her mother’s robe as well as her amour. Even though she was born in amour and is very fierce and brave in battle, she is actually the goddess of the city, handicrafts, and agriculture. She does however, only fight in battles that are defending the state and home from outside enemies. She also invented the bridle, which helped men greatly when it came to horses. She also invented many other useful things like the plow, the ship etc. She is Zeus’ favourite child, and is often depicted as wisdom, reason and purity. The owl is her bird, and the olive tree is her tree.
She is similar to Hercules in many ways. Zeus was Hercules’ and Athena’s dad. Hercules and Athena are also very brave and skilled in battle. They both also protect people. Hercules protected the world against many forces of evil, while Athena protected the gods. She actually even helped Hercules. But Athena and Hercules do have some differences. The big one is that Hercules is a mortal while Athena is a immortal (god). So she can live in Olympus but Hercules has to live on Earth. Also, Athena values her virginity very highly and didn’t fall in love. Hercules on the other hand, did fall in love and was attracted to the other sex. Athena had their differences and their similarities.

http://www.goddess-athena.org/Encyclopedia/Athena/index.htm
http://www.desy.de/gna/interpedia/greek_myth/olympian.html