Editing Athena (section)

===Punishment myths===
A myth told by the early third-century BC Hellenistic poet [[Callimachus]] in his ''Hymn'' 5 begins with Athena bathing in a spring on [[Mount Helicon]] at midday with one of her favorite companions, the nymph [[Chariclo]].{{sfn|Hansen|2004|page=125}}{{sfn|Morford|Lenardon|1999|page=315}} Chariclo's son [[Tiresias]] happened to be hunting on the same mountain and came to the spring searching for water.{{sfn|Hansen|2004|page=125}}{{sfn|Morford|Lenardon|1999|page=315}} He inadvertently saw Athena naked, so she struck him blind to ensure he would never again see what man was not intended to see.{{sfn|Hansen|2004|page=125}}{{sfn|Morford|Lenardon|1999|pages=315–316}}{{sfn|Kugelmann|1983|page=73}} Chariclo intervened on her son's behalf and begged Athena to have mercy.{{sfn|Hansen|2004|page=125}}{{sfn|Kugelmann|1983|page=73}}{{sfn|Morford|Lenardon|1999|page=316}} Athena replied that she could not restore Tiresias's eyesight,{{sfn|Hansen|2004|page=125}}{{sfn|Kugelmann|1983|page=73}}{{sfn|Morford|Lenardon|1999|page=316}} so, instead, she gave him the ability to understand the language of the birds and thus foretell the future.{{sfn|Edmunds|1990|page=373}}{{sfn|Morford|Lenardon|1999|page=316}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|page=125}}

[[Myrmex (Attic woman)|Myrmex]] was a clever and chaste Attic girl who became quickly a favourite of Athena. However, when Athena invented the plough, Myrmex went to the Atticans and told them that it was in fact her own invention. Hurt by the girl's betrayal, Athena transformed her into the small insect bearing her name, the [[ant]].<ref>[[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], ''Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid'' [https://topostext.org/work/548#4.402 4.402] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220101232723/https://topostext.org/work/548#4.402|date=1 January 2022}}; [[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith]] 1873, s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DM%3Aentry+group%3D32%3Aentry%3Dmyrmex-bio-1 Myrmex] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225235924/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DM%3Aentry+group%3D32%3Aentry%3Dmyrmex-bio-1|date=25 December 2022}}</ref>[[File:Gorgona pushkin.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Classical Greek depiction of [[Medusa]] from the fourth century BC]]

The [[Gorgoneion]] appears to have originated as an [[Apotropaic magic|apotropaic]] symbol intended to ward off evil.{{sfn|Phinney|1971|pages=445–447}} In a late Roman myth invented to explain the origins of the Gorgon,{{sfn|Phinney|1971|pages=445–463}} [[Medusa]] is described as having been raped by Poseidon in the temple of Athena.{{sfn|Seelig|2002|page=895}} Upon discovering the desecration of her temple, Athena transformed Medusa into a hideous monster with serpents for hair whose gaze [[Petrifaction in mythology and fiction|would turn any mortal to stone]].{{sfn|Seelig|2002|page=895-911}}

In his ''Twelfth Pythian Ode'', [[Pindar]] recounts the story of how Athena invented the ''[[aulos]]'', a kind of flute, in imitation of the lamentations of Medusa's sisters, the Gorgons, after she was beheaded by the hero [[Perseus]].{{sfn|Poehlmann|2017|page=330}} According to Pindar, Athena gave the aulos to mortals as a gift.{{sfn|Poehlmann|2017|page=330}} Later, the comic playwright [[Melanippides|Melanippides of Melos]] ({{circa}} 480–430 BC) embellished the story in his comedy ''Marsyas'',{{sfn|Poehlmann|2017|page=330}} claiming that Athena looked in the mirror while she was playing the aulos and saw how blowing into it puffed up her cheeks and made her look silly, so she threw the aulos away and cursed it so that whoever picked it up would meet an awful death.{{sfn|Poehlmann|2017|page=330}} The aulos was picked up by the satyr [[Marsyas]], who was later killed by Apollo for his [[hubris]].{{sfn|Poehlmann|2017|page=330}} Later, this version of the story became accepted as canonical{{sfn|Poehlmann|2017|page=330}} and the Athenian sculptor [[Myron]] created a group of bronze sculptures based on it, which was installed before the western front of the Parthenon in around 440 BC.{{sfn|Poehlmann|2017|page=330}}

[[File:René-Antoine Houasse - Minerve et Arachne (Versailles).jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|''[[Minerva]] and [[Arachne]]'' by [[René-Antoine Houasse]] (1706)]]

The [[fable]] of [[Arachne]] appears in the Roman poet [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' (8 AD) (vi.5–54 and 129–145),{{sfn|Powell|2012|pages=233–234}}{{sfn|Roman|Roman|2010|page=78}}{{sfn|Norton|2013|page=166}} which is nearly the only extant source for the legend.{{sfn|Roman|Roman|2010|page=78}}{{sfn|Norton|2013|page=166}} The story does not appear to have been well known prior to Ovid's rendition of it{{sfn|Roman|Roman|2010|page=78}} and the only earlier reference to it is a brief allusion in [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Georgics]]'', (29 BC) (iv, 246) that does not mention Arachne by name.{{sfn|Norton|2013|page=166}} According to Ovid, Arachne (whose name means ''spider'' in ancient Greek<ref>{{LSJ|a)ra/xnh|ἀράχνη}}, {{LSJ|a)ra/xnhs|ἀράχνης|ref}}.</ref>) was the daughter of a famous dyer in [[Tyrian purple]] in Hypaipa of [[Lydia]], and a weaving student of Athena.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=233}} She became so conceited of her skill as a weaver that she began claiming that her skill was greater than that of Athena herself and that she didn't feel grateful to the goddess for anything, despite Athena invented weaving.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=233}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}} Athena gave Arachne a chance to redeem herself by assuming the form of an old woman and warning Arachne not to offend the deities.{{sfn|Powell|2012|pages=233–234}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}} Arachne scoffed and wished for a weaving contest, so she could prove her skill.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=234}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}} Athena revelead her true form, accepted and wove the scene of her victory over [[Poseidon]] in the contest for the patronage of Athens.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=234}}{{sfn|Leach|1974|pages=102–142}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}} Her tapestry also depicted the 12 Olympian gods and defeat of mythological figures who challenged their authority.{{sfn|Roman|Roman|2010|p=92}} Arachne's tapestry featured twenty-one episodes of the deities' sexual affairs,{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=234}}{{sfn|Leach|1974|pages=102–142}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}} including [[Zeus]] being unfaithful with [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]], with [[Europa (mythical)|Europa]], and with [[Danaë]].{{sfn|Leach|1974|pages=102–142}} It represented the unjust and discrediting behavior of the gods towards mortals.{{sfn|Roman|Roman|2010|p=92}} Athena admitted that Arachne's work was flawless,{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=234}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}}{{sfn|Leach|1974|pages=102–142}} but was outraged at Arachne's choice of subject.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=234}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}}{{sfn|Leach|1974|pages=102–142}} Finally, losing her temper, Athena destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom, striking it with her shuttle.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=234}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}}{{sfn|Leach|1974|pages=102–142}} Athena then struck Arachne across the face with her staff four times.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=234}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}}{{sfn|Leach|1974|pages=102–142}} Arachne hanged herself in despair,{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=234}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}}{{sfn|Leach|1974|pages=102–142}} but Athena took pity on her and brought her back from the dead in the form of a spider.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=234}}{{sfn|Harries|1990|pages=64–82}}{{sfn|Leach|1974|pages=102–142}}

In a rarer version, surviving in the [[scholia]] of an unnamed scholiast on [[Nicander]], whose works heavily influenced Ovid, Arachne is placed in Attica instead and has a brother named [[Phalanx (mythology)|Phalanx]]. Athena taught Arachne the art of weaving and Phalanx the art of war, but when brother and sister laid together in bed, Athena was so disgusted with them that she turned them both into spiders, animals forever doomed to be eaten by their own young.<ref>{{cite book | title = A Web of Fantasies: Gaze, Image, and Gender in Ovid's Metamorphoses | first = Patricia B. | last = Salzman-Mitchell | publisher = [[Ohio State University Press]] | date = 2005 | isbn = 0-8142-0999-8 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Sfz9GZIYPcsC | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=Sfz9GZIYPcsC&pg=PA228 228]}}</ref>

According to Book VIII (236–59) of Ovid's ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', [[Daedalus]] was so proud of his achievements as an inventor that he could not bear the idea of a rival. His sister had placed her son [[Perdix (mythology)|Perdix]] under his charge to be taught the mechanical arts. While walking on the seashore, he picked up the spine of a fish or a serpent's jaw. Imitating it, he took a piece of iron and notched it on the edge, thus inventing the saw. Daedalus was so envious of his nephew's accomplishments that he took an opportunity, when they were together one day on the top of a high tower, to push him off, but Athena, who favors ingenuity, saw him falling and saved his life by changing him into a bird called after his name, the ''[[perdix]]'' ([[partridge]]). This bird does not build its nest in the trees, nor take lofty flights, but nestles in the [[hedge]]s, and mindful of his fall, avoids high places. For this crime, Daedalus was tried and banished. In some accounts, she leaves Daedalus with a scar in the shape of a partridge, to always remind him of his crime.{{clear}}