Athena (Minerva)
by Ignazio Caloggero
Reference page: Repertory of Cults and Myths
Origins of the Myth
The Goddess, identified with the Roman Minerva, is the daughter of Zeus need I put. Zeus devoured poor Metis when she was pregnant with Athena, advised by Uranus e Gaia who revealed to him that if Metis had given birth to a daughter, a son would then be born from her who would have taken away his command of heaven. Zeus "took on" the task of completing the gestation himself. When it was time to give birth, he asked for help from Hephaestus, who carried out what could be called a very special caesarean section: in fact, with a well-aimed blow of an axe, he brought Athena out of Zeus's head. The goddess, who was already an adult and well armed, as soon as she was born she let out a war cry that resounded over the whole earth.
Athena is considered the goddess of war but, unlike Ares, violent and bloodthirsty, it demands from its proteges (including Ulysses, Hercules, Achilles and Jason) not brute physical strength but actions, the result of reflections and tactical reasoning. It is no coincidence that she is also considered the goddess of reason in the Greek world. The name of her mother, Meti, in fact, can be translated with the word "sense". The fact that it is Athena herself who faces and beats Ares underlines that, often, reflection and reason have the upper hand over brute force.
Athena is also the protector of weavers and embroiderers, but her role as warrior goddess is the prevailing one. She is represented with a helmet on her head, armed with a spear and shield and dressed in an aegis (a kind of goatskin armor). On her shield the goddess placed the head of Medusa, the Gorgona who had the power to turn to stone anyone who dared to look into her eyes and who was killed by Perseus.
The epithets of Athena were innumerable, but the most widespread was that of Pallas (the one who throws the auction). With this epithet, the goddess assumed characteristics similar to those of Demeter, being also considered the protector of fields and agriculture. In Athens her cult was second only to that of Zeus, and to her the Parthenon.
Athena is credited with the invention of olive oil and also with the introduction of the olive tree in Greece. His favorite animal is the owl. It is no coincidence that what characterizes the owl, compared to other animals, is precisely the large and shining eye; and it is, in fact, in the blue eyes of the owl that one of the characteristics of Athena is reflected, considered the goddess of clarity and called "green-eyed goddess" that is "goddess with blue eyes". In the Greek language, the words owl and blue have a similar sound (glaux = owl, glaucos = blue).
Athenian coin with the owl
Athena remained a virgin and, however, a son is attributed to her, who she would have had from Hephaestus in the following way: she had gone to obtain weapons from Hephaestus, an expert blacksmith who used volcanoes as workshops. The latter, abandoned by Aphrodite after discovering the affair with Ares, fell in love with Athena; the goddess, however, did not want to hear of her ugly Hephaestus of her who, now determined to possess her, despite being lame of her, began to chase her, reached her and took her in her arms. But his desire for her was so great that, perhaps suffering from premature ejaculation, he wet a leg of the goddess with her semen. Athena, a little disgusted, dried herself with wool which she then threw on the ground soaked in Hephaestus' seed. From the earth, fertilized in such an unromantic way, he was born Erichthonius whom the goddess considered her own son, locked him up in a chest, under the custody of a snake, and entrusted him to Aglaurus, the daughter of the king of Athens.
There were many celebrations in honor of the goddess. Particularly interesting were the Panathenae which took place in Athens every year, replaced every four years by the great Panathenaea. It is said that these parties were established by Erichthonius, the son of Athena. Various sporting activities took place during the celebrations. A very special exercise consisted of getting off and on quickly on a moving chariot wearing armor. At the end of the feast there was a night ceremony in which, with a solemn procession towards the Acropolis, a very precious female dress was offered to Athena.
Paris Bordone: Athena rejects Hephaestus
Another festival, celebrated in Athens was called Arrephoria, dedicated to Athena Pallas. During its development, the priestess of Athena delivered sacred and mysterious objects to girls of noble families called "Arrefore" ("carriers of objects of which one cannot speak"), who had the task of carrying them, late at night, in the basement of Aphrodite of the gardens [Pausanias Lib. I.27,3]. Perhaps the sacred objects were symbols of fertility in the shape of genitals. This could be deduced from the fact that one of the ceremonies that took place during the Thesmophoria dedicated to Demeter and Persephone and in which only married women participated, consisted precisely in bringing pasta objects in the shape of genitals in procession to the goddesses, as an omen for fertility of the fields.
Also in Athens the Plintèrie, purification festivals in which the simulacrum of the goddess was washed in the sea.
The Cult in Sicily
In Sicily the name of Athena is also linked to Enceladus. This was one of the Giants who participated in the so-called Gigantomachy, the battle between the Giants and the Olympians. During the battle Enceladus tried to escape but the goddess Athena buried him by throwing him over the island of Sicily, a place from which he can no longer escape, the myth tells that the volcanic activity of Etna originated from the fiery breath of Enceladus, while the tremors of the earth during earthquakes, from its rolling under the mountain due to wounds (myth similar to that of Typhon).
Agrigento
In Agrigento there was a temple dedicated to her at the top of the acropolis, near that of Zeus where the Christian church of Santa Maria dei Greci. Indeed, the current church incorporates the remains of a Doric temple from 480-460 BC, perhaps to be identified with the Athenaion built by Theron in 488 BC Also, a hill in the vicinity of the city was denominated Rock of Athena, as Diodorus Siculus himself recalls (lib XIII 85). It is probable that the cult of Athena in Agrigento came from Gela, where it was imported by colonists who came from the island of Rhodes, in which the cult was quite widespread [Diodorus Siculus lib V.58].
Camarina
The cult of Athena must also have spread in Camarina. Indeed, in the archaeological excavations of the ancient city founded by Syracuse, the remains of a temple dedicated to the goddess were found, dating back to the XNUMXth century. BC Several coins depicting the goddess have been found in many Sicilian cities including: Agirio, Alunzio, Caleacte, Erice, Inessa, Lentini, Megara Iblea, Morgantina, Palermo, Solunto, Messina and Lipari.
Note:
Caleacte: It would be the city founded by Ducezio returned from Corinth, where he had been in exile after his defeat in 451 BC by the Syracusans. The site should correspond to that of the current town of Caronia, in the province of Messina, about halfway between Cefalù and Capo D'Orlando.
Inessa: The Sicilian town could not have been very far from Centuripe; mentioned by the historians Thucydides and Diodorus, the mercenaries expelled from Catania, by the coalition formed by the Siculi of Ducezio, and from Syracuse took refuge in it. The mercenaries transformed its name into Etna, a name they had previously given to Catania when it was under their control.
Cathedral of Syracuse – Remains of the Temple of Athena (Photo: Ignazio Caloggero)
SIRACUSA
A very famous temple existed in Syracuse. Its remains are still visible because they are incorporated in the cathedral of S. Maria delle Colonne. The temple area was discovered following excavations that began at the beginning of the century near the current Cathedral. The temple, in Doric style, can be traced back to the fifth century. BC Cicero speaks amply of it [Verrine, II.IV 122] regarding the looting carried out by the Roman governor Verres. The governor, an expert art thief, looted all the ivory decorations and gold studs that adorned the doors of the front door. He also took away most of the internal furnishings, including a series of painted panels depicting 27 tyrants, the king of Sicily and a cavalry battle of Agathocles. The temple was transformed into a mosque and later into a place of worship for the Christians who erected the current cathedral there. On the pediment of this temple there was a golden shield, the last thing sailors saw when they set off in their ships. A ceremony was linked to the golden shield, during which the sailors, who departed from Ortigia, carried with them a chalice full of flowers and aromatic substances which they threw into the sea when, moving away, they saw the shield placed in the temple disappear [Ciaceri Emanuele: Cults and Myths of Ancient Sicily. p. 155].
The described ceremony, although it actually refers to the cult of Dionysus, would indicate that Athena, as well as Poseidon (the god of the sea), somehow assumed the character of protector of sailors. And indeed, in Greece, the cults of Athena and Poseidon were often related [Diodoro Siculo lib. V.58].
Cathedral of Syracuse (Photo: Ignazio Caloggero)
Selinunte
The presence of the cult in Selinunte would be demonstrated by more than one element: by the “large Selinuntina table”, in which the name of the goddess is also mentioned; from a metope now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Palermo, depicting Athena; from the fact that the temple of Selinunte, currently referred to simply as temple D, was probably dedicated to Athena.
Termini Imerese
The cult must also have been present in Termini Imerese, where a head of Athena was found now conserved in the archaeological museum of Palermo. Furthermore, in this locality the remains of the temple dedicated to Athena and now called temple B are still visible.
Gela
In Gela the remains of the Athenaion are still visible, where the clay head of an owl was found, the animal sacred to Athena, now kept in the Syracuse museum. The temple dates back to the XNUMXth century. BC but it was built on another older temple, probably from the XNUMXth century. BC, and the clay head belongs to the latter. This would show that the latter too must have been dedicated to Athena. It was destroyed towards the end of the seventh century. BC and then replaced by the Doric temple of which large traces remain.
Religious syncretism
The advent of the Christian religion meant that the cult of Athena became part, together with the cults of Demeter, Aphrodite and Isis, of that syncretic team that made the cults of the main female divinities flow into that of the Madonna. In Agrigento, the church of S. Maria dei Greci and in Syracuse that of S. Maria delle Colonne, were built on the places that housed the temples dedicated to the goddess. In Greece, Athena was identified with the Iranian Anahita (which in Iranian means "the immaculate"), whose feast fell on August 15, the same date on which the Madonna is celebrated [Ambrogio Donini: Brief history of religions p. 138].
Extract from the Book ” Cults of Ancient Sicily” by Ignazio Caloggero ISBN: 9788832060102 © 2022 Centro Studi Helios srl
