Athena

Goddess of War and State

Her ancient name is "Tritogenia" meaning born of water and believe it or not she was actually originally an Amazonian Serpent  Goddess from Africa. 

Thru the trials and survivals and migrations resulting from the pillaging and sacking of the ancient serpent temple  she became amalgamated into the ancient Titan Goddess Medusa famous for her serpent hair as the amazons were forced to migrate out of their native country.  

Gradually in another shift of power, the Titans were overthrown by the Olympians  and Medusa morphed into Athena.  You can still see some traces of her serpent association on the shield of Athena which has the head of Medusa drawn upon it. 

Medusa it should be known was not originally all evil.  She was famed for the beauty of her hair but after she was forcibly raped and her temple destroyed, she showed her wrath to all mankind by the curse of her deadly gaze which turned all who looked upon her into stone.  Her hair became the tangle of deadly serpents from then on.

Legend has it that Perseus the famed rider of Pegasus cut off Medusa's head with the help of Athena's shield which he used as a mirror to see Medusa in.  This way he avoided Medusa's deadly gaze and was not turned into stone. 

Athena was the daughter of Zeus, and had no mother.  Zeus had a mighty and terrible headache one day.  In order to relieve himself of this pain he split his head open with a double headed axe (called a labrys) and Athena was born.  For this reason Athena is associated with the principles of intellect and politics and matters of state which belong to the more patriarchal side of things.  She was a counselor in matters of politics and the Guardian Goddess of Athens, Greece named after her.   The Parthenon at the Acropolis is her Temple. 

She was often referred to by Homer as "Athena of the flashing eyes"

Astrologically Athena corresponds to the sign of Aries in the zodiac.  Ares in Greek myth is also a God of war and the zodiacal sign is ruled by the planet Mars signifying masculine force and fierceness. 

Her animal totem is the owl.  Athena always had an owl that sat on her shoulder and informed her when someone was attempting to deceive her. 

For more on owl totems click here and scroll down to underworld animal totems

Of related interest as Goddesses go would be the ancient Minoan Serpent Goddess. 

Serpents were highly worshipped in the ancient world by many different cultures and were not considered evil until the onset of Christianity two thousand years ago.  They were revered for their wisdom and prophetic powers and because they shed their skin they were associated with transformation and regeneration.  The prophetic abilities of serpent priestesses were  probably due to the fact that they would inject themselves with snake venom to induce trance states of consciousness in order to deliver their oracles.  The Amazons, fierce warrior women  and equestrians of ancient Greece continued to worship snakes. 

The Delphic Oracle priestesses were referred to as Pythia's (named after Pythons)  though the source of their mind altering substances is still a matter for debate. 

Fore more on serpent lore click here and scroll down to underworld animal totems.

Persephone RC

Copywrite, 2004

References

Archetypes of the Zodiac:  Kathleen Burt