Tales of Athena

Arachne was a young peasant girl who was well known throughout Lydia for her expertise before the loom. So beautiful were her tapestries, that one day the haughty maid foolishly boasted that she could defeat anyone in a weaving contest, even Athena herself. Athena, who among her other attributes was the goddess of handicrafts did not take these remarks lightly. Assuming the shape of an old woman, the indignant goddess flew to Lydia where she paid her unsuspecting rival a surprise visit. Standing before the young girl, the goddess cautioned her of the dangers that sometimes follow the words of a braggart.

When Arachne scoffed at the crone's warning, Athena cast aside the disguise and revealed her true idenity to the prideful maiden. She readily accepted Arachne's challenge and the two took their places before the loom.

Athena wove a tapestry depicting mortals being punished for showing arrogance before the gods. For her endeavor, Arachne chose to create a picture displaying some of the more scandalous moments in the lives of the Olympians.

Just as before Arachne's work was flawless. Seeing that the mortal's weaving was indeed equal to her own, Athena flew into a rage. She tore Arachne's tapestry to pieces and beat the poor girl with her shuttle.

Unable to cope with her feelings of disgrace and embarrassment, Arachne decided to hang herself. But instead of allowing her to die, Athena decided to spare her rival and transformed her into a spider. This allowed Arachne's talent for weaving to survive even to this very day.

Athena and Erichthonius

Another story of the goddess Athena concerns the birth of Erichthonius. Like Artemis, Athena had no interest in the company of men and preferred to remain a virgin. During the time of the Trojan War, the goddess paid a visit to the workshop of Hephaestus to see if the fire god would fashion her a new set of arms. Unbeknownst to Athena, Poseidon decided to pull a mischievous prank on the blacksmith. The sea god informed Hephaestus that Athena was on her way to visit him with the flames of love burnng in her heart.

Elated by Poseidon's news, Hephaestus forged the weapons for the goddess but refused payment. Instead, he declared that he would rather accept her love as a token of gratitude over any sum of gold. Athena, who was perplexed by the situation stood still at the forge until Hephaestus grabbed her and tried to ravish her on the spot.

She quickly pulled herself away from his grasp, but not before his seed was accidently spilled on her leg. Athena wiped her thigh clean with a piece of wool and threw it to the ground with disgust. The discarded fragment landed near the city of Athens and soon impregnated Gaia the Earth Mother.

Gaia wanted nothing to with the upbringing of the child so Athena was forced to look after him herself. The boy was named Erichthonius, and because she wanted to keep his existance a secret from Poseidon, he was hidden away inside of a scared basket. He was then given to Aglauros, the daughter of King Cecrops of Athens.

The princess was sworn to secrecy and told to guard the child with her life. Cecrops was also the son of Gaia, and like Erichthonius was born part man and part serpent. Because both shared in this deformity it was suspected that Cecrops was the true father of the child. One day after returning home from a festival in honor of Athena, Cecrops' wife and daughters grew curious as to just what it was that Aglauros was hiding.

They lifted the lid to have a peek and to their horror found a child bearing a serpent's tail in place of legs. Suddenly the air was filled with screams. In a panicked attempt to get away all met their death by mistakenly jumping over the walls of the Acropolis. You can find more about Aglauros and her sister Herse by clicking onto Hermes page. A crow who had witnessed the sad event brought the news to Athena who was busy carrying a large rock to be used as extra fortification on the Acropolis.

On hearing the unhappy news the goddess dropped the stone thus creating Mount Lycabettus. For being the bearer of bad tidings, Athena turned the once white crow to black and forever forbade crows from visiting the Acropolis. Erichthonius hid in the aegis of Athena where she raised him as if he were her own child.

He later became King of Athens and was credited for instituting the Panathenaic Festival, the use of silver and for placing the wooden statue of Athena in the Acropolis. He also introduced the four horse chariot and some believe it was he not Myrtilus who was placed among the stars as the constellation Aurgia; the charioteer.

Athena and Attica

Cecrops was the first King of Attica to recognize paternity. He also instituted the practice of offering barley cakes to the gods instead of human sacrifices. He was said to be the first to recognize Zeus as the supreme god and because of this was used by him to settle a major dissension between Athena and Poseidon. It seems that one day Poseidon decided to claim Attica for his very own.

To prove himself worthy of this action, he thrust his trident into the Acropolis at Athens causing a salt water well to form. Athena, who also desired possesion of the city offered as her gift an olive tree, which she planted beside the well. The Olympians cast their votes, the gods voting for Poseidon and the goddesses voting for Athena. Because there was a tie, Cecrops was called upon by Zeus to be the arbitrator.

He decided that Athena provided the more useful gift and gave the city of Athens to her. Poseidon was outraged and sent a huge flood to devestate the land. In order to appease the wrath of the angry god, from that day forward the right to vote was taken away from the women of Attica.

Another tiff between Athena and Poseidon brought about the unfortunate fate of the Gorgon Medusa. Once young and beautiful, Medusa made the mistake of allowing Poseidon to seduce her inside of the shrine of Athena.

Outraged, the angry goddess changed the young woman's hair into snakes and gave her a gaze so frightening that it caused anyone who looked upon her to turn to stone. After creating much havoc, Medusa was eventually slain by the hero Perseus. He later presented the goddess with the Gorgon's head which she placed in the center of her shield. You can read more about Medusa by visiting the page on Perseus.

Because she was the goddess of wisdom and war, Athena quite often found herself giving valuable advice to others as well as coming to their rescue during battle. It was Athena that gave Bellerophon the magic bridle that enabled him to tame the winged horse Pegasus. She also came to the aid of Heracles during his labors and fought on the side of the Greeks during the Trojan War. Though there are various forms of the story of the creation of man, there is one that involves the goddess Athena.

In this tale, the goddess gave Prometheus permission to create mortal men using clay and water from the town of Panopeus in Phocis. He fashioned them in the likeness of the immortals and when he was finished, Athena bestowed upon them the breath of life

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