A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

398 ATHENA.
she used as her aegis, and whose wings she fastened to her own feet. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 1. c.; Cic.
de Nat. Deor. iii. 23.) A third tradition carries us
to Libya, and calls Athena a daughter of Poseidon
and Tritonis. Athena, says Herodotus (iv. 180),
on one occasion became angry with her father and
went to Zeus, who made her his own daughter.
This passage shews more clearly than any other
the manner in which genuine and ancient Hellenic
myths were transplanted to Libya, where they
were afterwards regarded as the sources of Hellenic ones. Respecting this Libyan Athena, it is
farther related, that she was educated by the rivergod Triton, together with his own daughter Pallas.
(Apollod. iii. 12. ~ 3.) In Libya she was also
said to have invented the flute; for when Perseus
had cut off the head of Medusa, and Stheno and
Euryale, the sisters of Medusa, lamented her death,
while plaintive sounds issued from the mouths of
the serpents which surrounded their heads, Athena
is said to have imitated these sounds on a reed.
(Pind. Pyth. xii. 19, &c.; compare the other accounts in Hygin. Fab. 165; Apollod. i. 4. ~ 2;
Paus. i. 24. ~ 1.) The connexion of Athena with
Triton and Tritonis caused afterwards the various
traditions about her birth-place, so that wherever
there was a river or a well of that name, as in
Crete, Thessaly, Boeotia, Arcadia, and Egypt, the
inhabitants of those districts asserted that Athena
was born there. It is from such birth-places on a
river Triton that she seems to have been called
Tritonis or Tritogeneia (Paus. ix. 33. ~ 5), though
it should be observed that this surname is also explained in other ways; for some derive it from an
ancient Cretan, Aeolic, or Boeotian word,,rpTrc',
signifying " head," so that it would mean " the
goddess born from the head," and others think
that it was intended to commemorate the circumstance of her being born on the third day of the
month. (Tztez. ad Lycoph. 519.) The connexion
of Athena with Triton naturally suggests, that we
have to look for the most ancient seat of her worship in Greece to the banks of the river Triton in
Boeotia, which emptied itself into lake Copais, and
on which there were two ancient Pelasgian towns,
Athenae and Eleusis, which were according to
tradition swallowed up by the lake. From thence
her worship was carried by the Minyans into
Attica, Libya, and other countries. (Miiller,
Orchom. p. 355.) We must lastly notice one
tradition, which made Athena a daughter of Itonius and sister of Iodama, who was killed by
Athena (Paus. ix. 34. ~ 1; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 355),
and another according to which she was the
daughter of Hephaestus.
These various traditions about Athena arose, as
in most other cases, from local legends and from
identifications of the Greek Athena with other
divinities. The common notion which the Greeks
entertained about her, and which was most widely
spread in the ancient world, is, that she was the
daughter of Zeus, and if we take Metis to have
been her mother, we have at once the clue to the
character which she bears in the religion of Greece;
for, as her father was the most powerful and her
mother the wisest among the gods, so Athena was
a combination of the two, that is, a goddess in
whom power and wisdom were harmoniously
blended. From this fundamental idea may be derived the various aspects under which she appears
in the ancient writers. She seems to have been

ATHENA.
a divinity of a purely ethical character, and not
the representative of any particular physical power
manifested in nature; her power and wisdom appear in her being the protectress and preserver of
the state and of social institutions. Everything,
therefore, which gives to the state strength and
prosperity, such as agriculture, inventions, and industry, as well as everything which preserves and
protects it from injurious influence from without,
such as the defence of the walls, fortresses, and
harbours, is under her immediate care.
As the protectress 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,
her own invention. Allusions to this feature of
her character are contained in the epithets /3oSeia,
Soapjla, dypirpa, Tmnria, or Xae'xiris. (Eustath.
ad Homr. p. 1076; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 520; Hesych.
s. v. 'ITrTia; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 402; Pind. 01. xiii.
79.) At the beginning of spring thanks were
offered to her in advance (7rpoxapia-rspta, Suid. s.v.)
for the protection she was to afford to the fields.
Besides the inventions relating to agriculture,
others also connected with various kinds of science,
industry, and art, are ascribed to her, and all her
inventions are not of the kind which men make by
chance or accident, but such as require thought
and meditation. We may notice the invention of
numbers (Liv. vii. 3), of the trumpet (Bockh, ad
Pind. p. 344), the chariot, and navigation. [AETHYIA.] 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 practising them, such as the art of producing
fire. She was further believed to have invented
nearly every kind of work in which women were
employed, and she herself was skilled in such
work: in short Athena and Hephaestus were the
great patrons both of the useful and elegant arts.
Hence she is called Epydcv? (Paus. i. 24. ~ 3), 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, and supporting him with her counsel. (Horn. Od. xxiii,
160, xviii. 190; Hymn. in Ven. 4, 7, &c.; Plut.
Cim. 10; Ovid, Fast. iii. 833; Orph. Hymn. xxxi.
8; Spanh. ad Callim. p. 643; Horat. Carm. i.
12. 19; comp. Diet. of Ant. under 'AO4'mua and
Xaskcea.) 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 drT-LA Es,
6)p6aAmJrus, dovepK s, y'AV W7riS,,rOe\V~OVOS,
7roAv'turts, and u/TXav'rsis.
As the patron divinity of the state, she was at
Athens the protectress of the phratries and houses
which formed the basis of the state. The festival
of the Apaturia had a direct reference to this particular point in the character of the goddess. (Diet.
of Ant. s. v. Apaturia.) She also maintained the
authority of the law, and justice, and order, in the
courts and the assembly of the people. This notion
was as ancient as the Homeric poems, in which she
is described as assisting Odysseus against the lawless conduct of the suitors. (Od. xiii. 394.) She
was believed to have instituted the ancient court
of the Areiopagus, and in cases where the votes of