Editing Athena Areia

{{Short description|Ancient Greek mythological epithet}}
'''Areia''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀρεία}}) was a cultic epithet of the [[Greek mythology|Greek goddess]] [[Athena]], under which she was worshipped at [[Athens]].

Athena's statue, together with those of [[Ares]], [[Aphrodite Areia]], and [[Enyo]], stood in the temple of Ares at Athens.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' 1.8.4</ref> There was also a colossal [[acrolith]]ic statue of her, at a temple at [[Plataea]], built with the spoils given to that city by the Athenians after the [[Battle of Marathon]].<ref name="pheidias">{{cite book | last =Harrison | first =Evelyn B. | editor-last1=Palagia | editor-first1=Olga | editor-last2=Pollitt | editor-first2=J. J. | title =Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture | chapter=Pheidias | publisher =[[Cambridge University Press]] | series =Yale Classical Studies | volume =30 | date =1999 | pages =16–65 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=7qSsh7agZxEC | isbn = 9780521657389 | issn = 0084-330X | access-date=2017-12-09}}</ref> This was supposedly created by the artist [[Pheidias]], though there is some disagreement among modern scholars whether this was indeed created by that artist.<ref>{{cite book | last =Lapatin | first = Kenneth D. S. | title =Chryselephantine Statuary in the Ancient Mediterranean World | publisher =[[Oxford University Press]] | series =Oxford monographs on classical archaeology | date =2001 | pages =198 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=HB6Q-lr8WH4C | isbn = 9780198153115 | access-date=2017-12-09}}</ref> [[Plutarch]] mentions a gilded statue in this temple, but does not specify the name of the deity it honors.<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Aristeides'' XX, 1-3</ref><ref>{{cite book | last =Mikalson | first =Jon D. | title =Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars | publisher =[[University of North Carolina Press]] | date =2004 | pages =102 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=nM9FAwAAQBAJ | isbn = 9780807862018 | access-date=2017-12-09}}</ref>

Athena's worship under this name was said to have been instituted by [[Orestes]] after he had been acquitted by the [[Areopagus]] of the murder of his mother.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' 1.28.5</ref> It was Athena Areia who gave her casting vote in cases where the [[Areopagites]] were equally divided.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''[[Oresteia#The_Eumenides|The Eumenides]]'' 753</ref> There is some epigraphic evidence of a distinct priesthood for this aspect of Athena, but all we have are incomplete fragments, primarily of an oath from this priesthood at [[Acharnae]].<ref>''[[Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum]]'' 21.519</ref><ref>{{cite book | last =Kellogg | first =Danielle L. | title =Marathon Fighters and Men of Maple: Ancient Acharnai | publisher =[[Oxford University Press]] | date =2013 | pages =94–95 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=aXl4AAAAQBAJ| isbn = 9780199645794 | access-date=2017-12-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last =Parker | first =Robert | title =Polytheism and Society at Athens | publisher =[[Oxford University Press]] | date =2005 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ff51JeXhHXUC | isbn = 9780191534522 | access-date=2017-12-09}}</ref>

From these circumstances, it has been surmised by some scholars (primarily in the 19th century) that the name "Areia" ought not to be derived from Ares, but from "ara" (ἀρά), a prayer, or from "areo" (ἀρέω) or "aresko" (ἀρέσκω), to propitiate or atone for. This is not considered likely by modern scholars.

==Notes==
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{{DGRBM|author=LS|title= Areia |volume=1|page=275|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/acl3129.0001.001/290}}
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[[Category:Epithets of Athena]]


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