3/19 Athens and Athena

Lecture story

what is the story of Troy and the Trojan Horse?

• war is 10 years between the Greeks and Trojans

• after ten years, both sides are exhausted

• Athenians’ favorite of the Greek warriors is Odysseus

• Athena inspired Odysseus to end the war by offering Athena a shape of a giant horse, and give this wooden horse to the Trojans as a gift from Athena

• so they constructed the horse and bring it to Troy as a thank you gift from Athena

• once the Trojans let the people into Troy, the Greek warriors exit the belly of the wooden horse at night and go on a rampage of Troy by destroying and killing

• this was the last night of the war

• mythic variant: Athena straight up gave them the wooden horse to use

Hymn to Athena

define “pallas athena”

• could mean spear-throwing Athena

Hymn to Athena

define “brilliantly inventive”

• polymetis → when she was born out of Zeus’ head, she became a super genius

Hymn to Athena

define “courageous Tritogeneia”

• means third-born, but makes no sense

• maybe when Athena was born from Zeus’ head, it was at Tritogeneia

Hymn to Athena

define “relentless,” “formidable,” and “courageous”

• adjectives that the Greeks usually use to describe men, but Greeks used this on Athena because she is confounded as gender binary (mixing gender)

Hymn to Athena

hymn transitioned from what to what?

• threat of emerging chaos to calmness

  • she came out with a spear with '“gleaming eyes,” but then she took her “heavenly armor” off and Zeus is “delighted” because she is loyal to him

• thus, she has a strong identification with Zeus, and is a strong force of order and not disturbance

Athens, city of Athena

what is Athena’s area of responsibility?

• goddess of

  • soldiers and military skill

  • crafts (including weaving/embroidering and making weapons/ships)

  • patron of heroes and cities

    • cannot be a hero in ancient Greece without having Athena on your side

Athens, city of Athena

who is Athena compared to and what are their differences?

• Ares

  • both Ares and Athena are associated with war but

  • Ares if the god of war violence

  • Athena is the goddess of strategy and winning the war

• Hephaestus

  • Hephaestus is associated with the invention with medal

  • Athena is associated with skill with wooden crafts and artistry

• Poseidon

Athens, city of Athena

what did Athena and Poseidon both want? what is the story?

• both of them went to Athens and claimed that was their territory

• to show their power, they each did their own thing

  • Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and sea water bubbled up

  • Athena had the first olive tree to grow → symbolized civilization and usefulness

• trial on Olympus

  • since olives are so much more useful than sea water, it was decided that Athena was the goddess of Athens

Athens, city of Athena

what are the other variations of Athena vs Poseidon?

• horse

  • Poseidon strikes his trident on the ground and came the world’s first horse

  • variation exists probably because it makes them more equal to Athena’s olive tree in terms of usefulness

• election in Athens

  • rather than a trial in Olympus, the humans in Athens voted

  • all the men voted for Poseidon, while all the women voted for Athena

  • since there was one more woman then men, Athena won

  • in retaliation, the men declared women would never be able to vote again

The daughters of Cecrops

who was the first king of Athens? who were his parents? what is that called?

• Cecrops (human/snake) was the first king of Athens

• he had not parents and was simply born from the Earth

• he was so organic, so not perfectly human → part human and snake

• he was called an autokton (earth-born)

The daughters of Cecrops

what did Hephaestus and Athena create?

• after Hephaestus chose to marry Athena as a reward for freeing Hera from the throne, he tried to sleep with her but didn’t work

• his semen landed on Gaia and created Erichthonius

  • part human/snake

  • Athena is the least motherly goddess so she had no interest in raising him, so she puts him in a box

  • Athena gives the box to Cecrops for safe keeping, and told him not to open the box

  • the daughters of Cecrops open the box and when they open the box, they see a baby that is part-snake with other snakes crawling

    • in shock, they immediately go mad and they throw themselves off and die

  • Erichthonius becomes the second king of Athens later on

The daughters of Cecrops

what is the temple for Athena in Athens called?

• Parthenon

  • stories of Athena engraved

  • in the middle was a big statue of Athena

Who was the Roman association of Athena? what are their similarities and differences?

Minerva

• very similar responsibilities but she is less associated with warfare because Mars is a god of both good and bads of wars

• different because they obviously did not want a goddess to be related to a greek city. so they made her related to Rome

Who is Arachne?

• poor upbringing

  • she grew up poor, but she is very talented in weaving

  • she was able to get out of poverty bc of fame

what is the story of Arachne and Minerva?

• she did not like it when people said Minerva blessed Arachne with her talents because she worked for it herself

• Minerva did not like this and came to visit Arachne disguised as an old woman

  • old woman warns Arachne that she can be good at weaving, but to not insult Minerva

  • Arachne said if Minerva was here right now, she could beat her in a weaving competition

  • they both weave different things

    • Minerva weaves a tapestry of her own story about being born out of Jupiter’s head

    • Arachne’s tapestry is about how women are wronged by the gods and all those Zeus got with

  • Minerva got mad, destroys Arachne’s tapestry, and transforms Arachne into a spider