Deborah Darling Gray – Artist

Painting/Tempera Paint, Collage, Writer, Teacher

Athena's Story

Athena was the daughter of Zeus , the chief of the gods. She did not have a mother. Full-grown and in full armor, Athena sprang from the head of Zeus. In the earliest account of her, the Iliad, Athena is a fierce and ruthless battle-goddess.

Athena figures prominently in several myths, one of them noted here involving Medusa. Perhaps the most famous was the Judgement of Paris, famed everywhere as the real reason why the Trojan War was fought.

Priam, the King of Troy had been warned that his son Paris would someday be the ruin of his country. So, as any astute politician would do, he sent his son off to herd sheep. Alas, Paris was asked to settle a wager between Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, Hera, the wife of Zeus, and Athena. Paris choose Aphrodite as the fairest of the three goddesses and the rest is Greek history.

In exchange for a golden apple, never mind how these apples get around, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world would be his. Paris kidnaps Helen and a very angry Athena aligns with the Greeks, who immediately go to war with Troy.

Her temple was the Parthenon in Athens and in later poetry Athena was the embodiment of wisdom, reason and purity.

Athena

Goddess of war
Goddess of wisdom
Goddess of home and hearth
Busy Gal!

What a concept
A woman without the trouble
Someone you don’t have to explain
Baseball too