Editing Athena (section)

=== Regional cults ===
[[File:Tetradrachm Eumenes I of Pergamon reverse CdM Paris.jpg|thumb|right|Reverse side of a [[Pergamon|Pergamene]] silver [[tetradrachm]] minted by [[Eumenes I]] (r. 263–241 BC), showing Athena seated on a throne]]

Athena was not only the patron goddess of Athens, but also other cities, including [[Pergamon]],<ref name=":0" /> [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]], [[Sparta]], [[Gortyn]], [[Lindos]], and [[Larissa|Larisa]].{{sfn|Schmitt|2000|pages=1059–1073}} The various cults of Athena were all branches of her panhellenic cult{{sfn|Schmitt|2000|pages=1059–1073}} and often proctored various initiation rites of Grecian youth, such as the passage into citizenship by young men or the passage of young women into marriage.{{sfn|Schmitt|2000|pages=1059–1073}} These cults were portals of a uniform socialization, even beyond mainland Greece.{{sfn|Schmitt|2000|pages=1059–1073}} Athena was frequently equated with [[Aphaea]], a local goddess of the island of [[Aegina]], originally from [[Crete]] and also associated with [[Artemis]] and the nymph [[Britomartis]].{{sfn|Pilafidis-Williams|1998}} In [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]], she was assimilated with the ancient goddess Alea and worshiped as [[Athena Alea]].{{sfn|Jost|1996|pages=134–135}} Sanctuaries dedicated to Athena Alea were located in the [[Laconia]]n towns of [[Mantineia]] and [[Tegea]]. The temple of Athena Alea in Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece.{{efn|"This sanctuary had been respected from early days by all the [[Peloponnesian]]s, and afforded peculiar safety to its suppliants" (Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' iii.5.6)}} The geographer [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] was informed that the ''temenos'' had been founded by [[Aleus]].<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' viii.4.8.</ref>

Athena had a major temple on the [[Sparta#Archaeology of the classical period|Spartan Acropolis]],{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=127}}{{sfn|Hurwit|1999|page=15}} where she was venerated as Poliouchos and ''Khalkíoikos'' ("of the Brazen House", often [[latin]]ized as ''Chalcioecus'').{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=127}}{{sfn|Hurwit|1999|page=15}} This epithet may refer to the fact that cult statue held there may have been made of bronze,{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=127}} that the walls of the temple itself may have been made of bronze,{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=127}} or that Athena was the patron of metal-workers.{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=127}} Bells made of terracotta and bronze were used in Sparta as part of Athena's cult.{{sfn|Deacy|2008|page=127}} An [[Ionic order|Ionic-style]] temple to Athena Polias was built at [[Priene]] in the fourth century BC.{{sfn|Burn|2004|page=10}} It was designed by [[Pythius of Priene|Pytheos of Priene]],{{sfn|Burn|2004|page=11}} the same architect who designed the [[Mausoleum at Halicarnassus]].{{sfn|Burn|2004|page=11}} The temple was dedicated by [[Alexander the Great]]{{sfn|Burn|2004|pages=10–11}} and [[Priene inscription of Alexander the Great|an inscription from the temple]] declaring his dedication is now held in the [[British Museum]].{{sfn|Burn|2004|page=10}} She was worshipped as ''Athena Asia'' in [[Colchis]] – supposedly on an account of a nearby mountain with that name – from which her worship was believed to have been brought by [[Castor and Pollux]] to [[Laconia]], where a temple was built to her at [[Las (Greece)|Las]].<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' 3.24.5</ref><ref>{{cite book
| last = Manheim
| first = Ralph
| author-link = Ralph Manheim
| title = Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence
| publisher = [[Princeton University Press]]
| date = 1963
| pages = 56
| language = English
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FdPgDwAAQBAJ
| isbn = 9780691019079
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
| last = Farnell
| first = Lewis Richard
| author-link = Lewis Richard Farnell
| title = Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality: The Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of St. Andrews in the Year 1920
| publisher = [[Clarendon Press]]
| date = 1921
| pages = 199
| language = English
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Uk4KaZk7eSkC
| isbn =978-0-19-814292-8
}}</ref>

In Pergamon, Athena was thought to have been a god of the [[cosmos]] and the aspects of it that aided Pergamon and its fate.<ref name=":0" />