ATHENA PAGE FOUR
continued from page three

Athena's father Zeus was the most powerful and influential of the Olympian gods, and her mother Metis was the wisest. It can hence be argued that Athena was a combination of the two, making her a goddess in whom power and wisdom were harmoniously blended.

This fundamental idea helps to explain the lofty regard in which various ancient writers held Athena. They painted her as a deity of a purely ethical character, rather than representative of any particular physical power manifested in nature, such as storms or volcanoes.

Athena's power and wisdom shine brightest in her role as the protector and preserver of the State and of social institutions. Endeavors such as agriculture, industry and inventions further gave the state strength and prosperity, and thus were also under Athena's stewardship.

She also was responsible for the protection and preservation of the State; items such as the fortification and defense of city walls, harbors and fortresses were under her immediate care.

As the protector of agriculture, Athena is represented as the inventor of the plough and rake; she created the olive tree, the greatest blessing of Attica; taught the people to yoke oxen to the plough; took care of the breeding of horses; and instructed men how to tame them by the bridle, which was her own invention.

At the beginning of spring in many places thanks were offered to her in advance for the protection she was to afford to the fields.

Besides the inventions relating to agriculture, many others connected with science, industry, and art, are ascribed to her. None of her contributions were frivolous or accidental, but rather the result of careful thought and meditation.

Of particular note is the invention of numbers, of the trumpet, the chariot, and the skill of navigation.

In regard to all kinds of useful arts, she was believed to have made men acquainted with the means and instruments which are necessary for practicing them, such as the art of producing fire.

She was further believed to have invented nearly every kind of work in which women in particular were employed, and she herself was highly proficient in such work, practicing what she preached.

In short Athena and the god of the smiths and forge, Hephaestus, were the great patrons both of the useful and elegant arts. Hence she is called erganê (or ergatis, the worker), and later writers make her the goddess of all wisdom, knowledge and art, and represent her as sitting on the right hand side of her father Zeus, the seat of honor, and supporting him with her sage counsel.

As the goddess who made so many inventions necessary and useful in civilized life, she is characterized by various epithets and surnames, expressing the keenness of her sight or the power of her intellect, such as optiletis, ophthalmitis, oxuderkês, glaukôpis, poluboulos, polumêtis, and mêchanitis. These honorifics were bestowed upon Athena by the grateful and adoring Greeks.

As the patron divinity of the state, she was at Athens the protector of the houses which formed the basis of the state. She also maintained the authority of the law, justice and order, not only in the courts but also wherever people congregated or assembled.

This notion was as ancient as the Homeric poems, in which Athena is described, for example, as assisting Odysseus against the lawless conduct of the suitors of his wife Penelope, bringing divine justice and balance to his home that they had profaned.

Athena presided over the first court which tried a case of homicide, the murder of Clytaemnestra by her son Orestes, establishing a permanent tribunal in Athens. The goddess, who generally prefers to see most things from a manly point of view, acquitted Orestes, for she judged Clytaemnestra's crime, that of killing her husband, to be greater than that of Orestes.

Thus was Athena believed to have instituted the ancient court of the Areiopagus, where often the life of men and women lay in the balance, and in cases where the votes of the judges were equally divided, she cast the deciding one in favor of the accused. This helped solidify her reputation as Athena the merciful.

ATHENA CONCLUDES ON PAGE FIVE
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