Editing Athena (section)

===Birth===
[[File:Amphora birth Athena Louvre F32.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Athena is "born" from Zeus's forehead parthenogenetically as he grasps the clothing of [[Eileithyia]] on the right; [[black-figure pottery|black-figured]] [[amphora]], 550–525 BC, Louvre.]]
[[File:Varvakeion Athena.jpg|left|thumb|The [[Varvakeion Athena]], the most faithful copy of the Athena Parthenos, as displayed in the [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]].]]
In the classical Olympian pantheon, Athena was regarded as the favorite child of Zeus, the king of the gods, born fully armed from his forehead. Since her birth, she possessed great power.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|pages=118–120}}{{sfn|Deacy|2008|pages=17–32}}{{sfn|Penglase|1994|pages=230–231}}{{efn|[[Jane Ellen Harrison]]'s famous characterization of this myth-element as, "a desperate theological expedient to rid an earth-born Kore of her matriarchal conditions" (Harrison 1922:302) has never been refuted nor confirmed.}} The story of her birth comes in several versions.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|pages=118–122}}{{sfn|Deacy|2008|pages=17–19}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=121–123}} The earliest mention is in Book V of the ''Iliad'', when [[Ares]] accused Zeus of being biased in favor of Athena because "''autos egeinao''" (literally "you fathered her", but probably intended as "you gave birth to her").<ref>''Iliad'' Book V, line 880</ref>{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=18}} She usually is the daughter of Zeus, produced without a mother, and often emerged full-grown from his forehead; but there is an uncommon alternate story in which Zeus swallowed [[Metis (mythology)|Metis]], the goddess of counsel, while she was pregnant with Athena and when she was fully grown she emerged from his forehead.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|pages=118–120}}{{sfn|Deacy|2008|pages=17–32}}{{sfn|Penglase|1994|pages=230–231}}{{efn|[[Jane Ellen Harrison]]'s famous characterization of this myth-element as, "a desperate theological expedient to rid an earth-born Kore of her matriarchal conditions" (Harrison 1922:302) has never been refuted nor confirmed.}}

In the version recounted by [[Hesiod]] in his ''[[Theogony]]'', Zeus married Metis, who is described as the "wisest among gods and mortal men", and engaged in sexual intercourse with her.<ref name="HesiodTheogony929e929t">Hesiod, ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D886 885–900] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224172406/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D886 |date=24 February 2021 }}, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D901 929e-929t] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028114913/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0130:card=901 |date=28 October 2021 }}</ref>{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|pages=118–119}}{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=18}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=121–122}} After learning that Metis was pregnant, however, he became afraid that the unborn offspring would try to overthrow him, because Gaia and [[Ouranos]] had prophesied that Metis would bear a son wiser and more powerful than his father who would overthrow him.<ref name="HesiodTheogony929e929t" />{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|pages=118–119}}{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=18}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=121–122}} In order to prevent this, Zeus tricked Metis into letting him swallow her, but it was too late because she had already conceived and soon gave birth to their daughter Athena, whom Metis raised inside of his mind, where she continues to give him advice as a ruler. When Athena grew up, Metis forged robes, armor, a shield and a spear for her daughter.<ref name="HesiodTheogony929e929t" />{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=119}}{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=18}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=121–122}} A later account of the story from the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus, written in the second century AD, makes Metis Zeus's unwilling sexual partner, rather than his wife.<ref name="Pseudo-Apollodorus136">Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D3%3Asection%3D6 1.3.6] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224174038/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D3%3Asection%3D6 |date=24 February 2021 }}</ref>{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=122–123}} According to this version of the story, Metis transformed into many different shapes in effort to escape Zeus,<ref name="Pseudo-Apollodorus136" />{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=122–123}} but Zeus successfully raped her and swallowed her.<ref name="Pseudo-Apollodorus136" />{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=122–123}}

After swallowing Metis, according to Hesiod, Zeus took six more wives in succession until he married his seventh and present wife, [[Hera]].{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=121–122}} Then Zeus experienced an enormous headache.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|pages=119–120}}{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=18}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=121–122}} He was in such pain that he ordered someone (either [[Prometheus]], [[Hephaestus]], [[Hermes]], [[Ares]], or Palaemon, depending on the sources examined) to cleave his head open with the ''[[labrys]]'', the double-headed [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] [[axe]].{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=120}}{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=18}}{{sfn|Penglase|1994|page=231}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=122–123}} Athena leaped from Zeus's head, often fully grown and armed.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=120}}{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=18}}{{sfn|Penglase|1994|pages=230–231}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=122–124}} The "First Homeric Hymn to Athena" states in lines 9–16 that the gods were awestruck by Athena's appearance{{sfn|Penglase|1994|page=233}} and even [[Helios]], the god of the sun, stopped his chariot in the sky.{{sfn|Penglase|1994|page=233}} Pindar, in his "Seventh Olympian Ode", states that she "cried aloud with a mighty shout" and that "the Sky and mother Earth shuddered before her".<ref>[[Pindar]], "[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DO.%3Apoem%3D7 Seventh Olympian Ode] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225043956/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DO.%3Apoem%3D7 |date=25 February 2021 }}" lines 37–38</ref>{{sfn|Penglase|1994|page=233}}

Hesiod states that Hera was so annoyed at Zeus for having given birth to a child on his own that she conceived and bore [[Hephaestus]] by [[parthenogenesis|herself]],{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=121–122}} but in ''Imagines'' [https://archive.org/stream/imagines00philuoft#page/246/mode/2up 2. 27] (trans. Fairbanks), the third-century AD Greek rhetorician [[Philostratus the Elder]] writes that Hera "rejoices" at Athena's birth "as though Athena were her daughter also". The second-century AD Christian apologist [[Justin Martyr]] takes issue with those pagans who erect at springs images of [[Persephone|Kore]], whom he interprets as Athena: "They said that Athena was the daughter of Zeus not from intercourse, but when the god had in mind the making of a world through a word (''[[logos]]'') his first thought was Athena."<ref>Justin, ''Apology'' 64.5, quoted in Robert McQueen Grant, ''Gods and the One God'', vol. 1:155, who observes that it is [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]] "who similarly identifies Athena with 'forethought'{{-"}}.</ref> According to a rare account of the story in a scholium on the ''Iliad'', when Zeus swallowed Metis, she was pregnant with Athena by the [[Cyclopes|Cyclops]] Brontes.<ref>Gantz, p. 51; Yasumura, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7cXUAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 p. 89] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227092613/https://books.google.com/books?id=7cXUAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |date=27 December 2022 }}; scholia bT to ''Iliad'' 8.39.</ref> The ''[[Etymologicum Magnum]]''{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=281}} instead deems Athena the daughter of the [[Dactyl (mythology)|Daktyl]] [[Itonus|Itonos]].{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=122}} Fragments attributed by the Christian [[Eusebius of Caesarea]] to the semi-legendary [[Phoenicia]]n historian [[Sanchuniathon]], which Eusebius thought had been written before the [[Trojan War]], make Athena instead the daughter of [[Cronus]], a king of [[Byblos]] who visited "the inhabitable world" and bequeathed [[Attica]] to Athena.{{sfn|Oldenburg|1969|page=86}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/af/af01.htm |title=Ancient Fragments |editor-first=Cory |editor-last=I. P. |translator=Cory |date=1832 |chapter=The Theology of the Phœnicians from Sanchoniatho |via=Internet Sacred Text Archive |access-date=25 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100905172619/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/af/af01.htm |archive-date=5 September 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Athena, born a daughter instead of the son of the prophecy Hesiod described, never successfully overthrew her father Zeus as the ruler of the cosmos; but [[Homer]]' ''[[Illiad]]'' tells of an attempted overthrow, in which she, Hera and [[Poseidon]] conspired to overpower Zeus and tie him in bonds. It is only because of the [[Nereid]] [[Thetis]], who summoned Briareus, one of the [[Hecatoncheires]], to [[Mount Olympus]], that the other gods abandon their plans (out of fear for Briareus).<ref>Gantz, p. 59; Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA82 p. 82]; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.386-1.427 1.395–410].</ref>