Athena and her Various Names
Oltos. Plate: Athena Seated with Owl [Attischer Teller; Athena Mit Der Eule in Der Hand]. last quarter 6th century BCE. Terracotta, red-figure; gebrannter Ton / rotfigurige Maltechnik, 2.6 x 23.5 x 23.5 cm. Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; http://www.smb.museum/smb/home/index.php?lang=de. https://jstor.org/stable/community.15720532 .
Joanna Pollner
Athena’s fluid role interplay correlates to her synonyms' names, evoking a multifaceted Goddess for she personifies the duality and oneness of the Greek pantheon; the paradox of the myth like woven peplos garment with many threads forming one material, for the interdependence of such structure is reminiscent of greek cosmic order. The goddess interplays the broad range of characterizations in accordance or the need of a given time and circumstance. Athena morphs with wishes or needs of her subjects and their time constricted course of events. She is not one but all, within the framework of Her names as shall be presented in this study. Name is what asserts Athena’s presence, defines her attributes but it never is the ultimate truth of who She is, its as if augmented reality of a persona manifesting illustory perception of what reality is. Her names are a wide array of reflections postulating images mirroring her earthbound subjects, who perhaps wish to personify Athena likewise. The relationship of “as below so above” embodies cycles and courses of events embellished within generational successions. Thus Athena seeks her counterparts and they seek Her out through invocation of Her name, it's a ritual of an offering. Robert Luyster in “ Symbolic Elements in the Cult of Athena “ compares and contrasts Athena’s dualistic characteristics, for as Luyster suggests She is both the Goddess of war and the Goddess of fertility and agriculture. 1 She is associated with two distinct images, one of her sitting which would attribute her as Meter (mother) Goddess of fertility and agriculture, the other image is of her standing; a warrior pose thus asserting Her position as the Goddess of
strategic war. 2 Athena probably derived her name from Athens the city for she is the Pallas of Athens, Pallas Athenaie ; Pallas could be interpreted as either Maiden or weapon bearing. 3 Her association with two polar opposite like features seem to pave a significant course of who and how her persona develops over the course of time and history within the Greek mythological and religious belief system. Polias Poliouchos features Athena as the main presiding Deity protecting the city, her presence encompassing the citadel of Greece. 4 As Athena Ergane , she is the overseer and inventor of the domestic craft of weaving, first and foremost esteemed quality a greek woman should possess was the ability to weave peplos garment in dedication to Panathenaia festival, asserted Athena's concurrent blessings. 5 She can personify and establish her presence not only in the city scapes, crafts or war strategies but in nature and its presiding creatures, that seem to embody her wisdom and skill transgressing within the stories, mastering hymns and poetic renditions imitating cosmic landscape of Olympus through this active interaction of name invocations is to enhance that Goddesses presence in everyday life. The mundane now is permeated with God like supernatural qualities of Athena. Those supernatural qualities are there to remind the Greeks of their fate and destiny of this relationship with Heavens, for the cosmic order is a replica of the very foundations Athens is built on. Athena's
myriad names materialize Her presence into the human time frame. She descends upon the earthly realm here and now thus weaving our reality and destiny. 6
Sravani Panuganti
Athena and her Various Names presents a multifaceted exploration of the goddess, Athena, revealing different personas and "names" through a diverse set of pieces that together define her character as one of the 12 major Greek gods.
A powerful introduction to Athena is the piece “Arise, Athena!” a concert piece directed by Bridget Caldwell and produced by Helen Mansfield ("Arise, Athena!" ). The piece strongly connects to her role as a virgin goddess, described often as impeccable; she was considered for the most part unapproachable by those with sexual intentions and was described as almost cold in that sense (Morford et al.). However, along with this she was often described as having touching moments with her father, Zeus, as well as maintaining a strong sense of loyalty to heroes she favored. The grand notes also relate to how along with Apollo, she was considered a representative of a “new order of divinity”. This pertained to the younger generation of gods who were standing for the enlightenment and progress of civilization. Along with this, the swelling of the music and major notes capture the role of Athena as the triumph of the Greek, which can be seen in the sculpture of the Parthenon displaying Greek prowess over the Persians.
On the other hand, the poem titled “Athena'', written by s.g.t. Grasmuck, a military officer, describes a vastly different role of Athena’s than the previous piece, connecting to her role in influencing the tides of the battle in terrifying ways. One particular line in this poem is the following: “men make marionette puppets strings tied to rifle barrels” (Grasmuck). The word choice with phrases such as “make” or “tied” describe how Athena is controlling the role of these men and pulling them into war. This strongly correlates to the role of Athena as the goddess of weaving and how this represented the way in which life itself was considered a thread and that thread was controlled by the feminine (Morford et al.). To men in war Athena, similarly, is one of the main strategists and so their lives in many cases were balanced in her whims and her support.
The following piece, however, "Intaglio with Cassandra kneeling at the image of Athena", an image from around the year 300 B.C. depicts the brutality of Athena, as shortly following this image Cassandra is violated at the altar of Athena and as punishment for desecrating her altar Athena destroys most of the Greek fleet (Intaglio with Cassandra kneeling at the image of Athena). It describes how while the previous characterizations of Athena as just and moral are true, Athena also remains a goddess with brutal punishments. One example depicting the anger of the goddess is the story of Arachne where, due to Arachne’s refusal to submit and her depictions of the gods as unjust and deplorable, Athena punished her as “the golden-haired goddess tore up the embroidered tapestry with its stories of the gods’ shameful deeds. With the boxwood shuttle she beat Arachnes’s face repeatedly” as stated in Metamorphoses (129-138) (Morford et al.). Then, following that Arachne hung herself in grief. While Athena can be a fair goddess, she like many other goddesses can be brought to extreme cruelty, which depicts the way in which the Greeks viewed the power of the gods as an undeniable force. Another very pertinent quote in this case is the following from CALLIMACHUS, On the Bath of Athena 95-102 :
“And Athena pitied her companion and said to her: ‘It was not I who blinded you child Tiresias. It is not sweet for Athena to steal away the eyes of children. But the laws of Cronus decree Thus: Whoever sees any of the immortals, when the god himself does not so choose, let him pay a great price for the seeing’” (Morford et al.)
In our next piece, the “Plate: Athena Seated with Owl" depicted by Oltos in the late 16th century BCE, the image of Athena as violent is in a sense turned on its head, in that here she is a warlike goddess and exudes terror yet also majesty (Oltos). Athena, standing with her helmet, spear and shield depicts her as a true warlike goddess whose presence alone represents achievement in war and victory to the Greeks. This piece truly shows her power as a goddess of war and how vital she is due to it. In fact, her image in this piece draw back from her image in the myth of her birth from the Homeric Hymn , which described how as she was born “great Olympus shook terribly at the might of the bright-eyed goddess, and the earth round about gave a dread groan and the dark waves of the deep seethed” (Morford, Mark, et al.). The presence of the owl adds to the symbolism of the piece as an owl is an animal that is often present with Athena.
Now, the article "Symbolic Elements in the Cult of Athena” puts together many of the previous images and characterizations of Athena together to contrast her different traits and symbols and then describe how her characterizations greatly differ from one another, making her an extremely intriguing character. One of the main themes of this article is the description of the many names that Athena takes, ranging from “Queen”, “Lady Mistress”, “Queen Mother” and so on (Luyster). Similarly the novel, “Athena” by Susan Deacy, that is featured provides a great summary of Athena’s role from a contemporary perspective as well as ancient times, making it an essential exploration for those further intrigued by her power and allure. One interesting exploration the novel undertakes is that of Athena’s characterization with respect to Christian authorities following the fall of the Greek empire. In fact, the Christians in the beginning viewed Athena as a “pagan abomination” who was “dressed in the paternal skin just like a fleece”, there were many descriptions of her similar to this with the intent to demonize paganism (Deacy). However, as virgin Mary gained a more prominent role in Christianity, her likeness and description began being fashioned after Athena with temples of Athena being remodeled into shrines for the virgin Mary. This novel was a fascinating look at the role of Athena from the lens of a different religion and the novel excels at providing such interesting perspectives including the ones we have covered above.
Works Cited
"Arise, Athena!" , directed by Bridget Caldwell. , produced by Helen Mansfield. , BBC Worldwide, 2015. Alexander Street, https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/arise-athena .
Deacy, Susan. Athena. Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, 2008.
grasmuck, s. g. t. “Athena.” War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities, vol. 30, Jan. 2018, p. 144. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mth&AN=131832437&site=ehost-live.
Intaglio with Cassandra Kneeling at the Image of Athena.
Luyster, Robert. “Symbolic Elements in the Cult of Athena.” History of Religions 5, no. 1 (1965): 133–63. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1061807 .
Morford, Mark, et al. Classical Mythology . 12th ed., Longman Publishing Group, 1985, www.redshelf.com/app/ecom/book/2237258/classical-mythology-2237258-9780197653951-mark-morford-robert-j-lenardon-michael-sham. Accessed 31 July 2023.
Oltos. Plate: Athena Seated with Owl [Attischer Teller; Athena Mit Der Eule in Der Hand]. last quarter 6th century BCE. Terracotta, red-figure; gebrannter Ton / rotfigurige Maltechnik, 2.6 x 23.5 x 23.5 cm. Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; http://www.smb.museum/smb/home/index.php?lang=de. https://jstor.org/stable/community.15720532.