Athena.
Daughter of Zeus and Metis, Athena (Athene) is the warrior-goddess of wisdom and reason. She is also called “Pallas” (“brandisher of arms”); among her many other epithets are “goddess of the city,” “counselor,” “worker,” “nurturer of children,” “maiden,” “champion,” “mighty,” and “warlike.” She is identified with Minerva, the Roman goddess of handicrafts, with whom she shares common attributes as protector of intellectual and manual skills and as patron of warlike gods and heroes.
    A virgin goddess, Athena stands against licence and vice; she is a stern exemplar of control and the pursuit of excellence. As protectress of the arts, she is often in the Parnassian company of Apollo and the Muses. She invented the flute and is particularly allied to the handicrafts of spinning and weaving as well as to skills such as the taming of horses and the building of chariots and ships. Of all the Olympians she is the chief proponent of nous and sophia (“mind” and “wisdom”).
    Athena’s mastery of women’s domestic arts is reflected in the myth of Arachne, whom she bested in a weaving and spinning competition. The goddess also plays a part in many other myths, including the Judgment of Paris, the birth of Erichthonius, and the labors of Heracles. She is associated not only with other gods, but also with mortal heroes.
    In the Trojan War, Athena was the protectress of the Achaians, particularly of Achilles, Diomedes, and Odysseus. She was ill-disposed toward Paris and the Trojans, for having been passed over by Paris in his judgment in favor of Aphrodite. However, when the lesser Ajax raped Cassandra at Athena’s own shrine, the goddess joined Poseidon in destroying much of the Greek fleet in punishment for this double blasphemy.
    The Palladium, a small wooden statue of Athena that late commentators say commemorated a childhood playmate of hers called Pallas, was worshiped by the Trojans as a divine protector of Troy. To make the city vulnerable, Odysseus and Diomedes stole it by night. Later, the Romans claimed that only a copy had been stolen and that Aeneas had brought the real object across the seas, later to be enshrined in Rome’s Temple of Vesta.
    Athena is also the patron of Athens, giving her name to the city when she won the contest with Poseidon for control of Attica. It was in Athena’s honor that the fifth-century Athenians built the Parthenon, in which a great gold and ivory cult statue of Athena Parthenos stood. Athenian coinage of the period bore a helmeted Athena on the obverse and an owl, one of her emblems as goddess of wisdom, on *the reverse—attributes that also appear in the postclassical arts. She is usually depicted with the aegis on her breast and a Gorgon’s head on her shield. She is present in allegories of the triumph of knowledge over ignorance or war, or of virtue combatting vice, and is often paired with Heracles as wisdom crowning might.
    
     Listings are arranged under the following headings:
    Contest with Poseidon
    Palladium
     Further Reference—— Wittkower, Rudolf. 1938. "Transformations of Minerva in Renaissance Imagery," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 2.