Athena (Minerva)

The following is an excerpt from: Cults, Myths and Legends of Ancient Sicily (Author: Ignazio Caloggero – ISBN: 9788894321913)

Origins of the Myth

The Goddess, identified with the Roman Minerva, is the daughter of Zeus and I put. Zeus devoured poor Meti when she was pregnant with Athena, recommended by Uranus e Gaia who revealed to him that if Meti gave birth to a daughter, a son would then be born who would take away the command of heaven. Zeus took on the task of carrying out the gestation himself. When it came time for the birth, she got help from Hephaestus, who carried out what could be called a very particular caesarean section: in fact, with a well-aimed blow of the ax, he made Athena come out of Zeus's head. The goddess, who was already an adult and well armed, uttered a war cry as soon as she was born that rang out across the earth.

Athena is considered the goddess of war, but unlike the violent and bloodthirsty Ares , she demands from her protégés (including Ulysses, Hercules, Achilles, and Jason ) not brute physical strength, but action born of reflection and tactical reasoning. It is no coincidence that in the Greek world, she is also considered the goddess of reason. Her mother's name, Metis, can be translated as "wisdom." The fact that it is Athena who faces and defeats Ares underscores the fact that reflection and reason often prevail over brute force.

Athena is also the protector of weavers and embroiderers, but her role as a warrior goddess is the prevailing one. She is represented with a helmet on her head, armed with a spear and shield and dressed with the aegis (a kind of goat skin cuirass). On her shield the goddess placed the head of Medusa, the gorgon who had the power to turn into stone anyone who dared to look her in the eyes and who was killed by Perseus.

Athena's epithets were innumerable, but the most widespread was that of Pallas (she who throws the spear). With this epithet, the goddess took on characteristics similar to those of Demeter , being also considered the protector of the fields and agriculture. In Athens her cult was second only to that of Zeus, and the Parthenon was dedicated to her.

Athena is credited with the invention of olive oil and the introduction of the olive tree to Greece. Her favorite animal is the owl. It's no coincidence that the owl's distinctive feature, compared to other animals, is its large, bright eyes; and it is, in fact, the owl's blue eyes that reflect one of Athena's characteristics. She was considered the goddess of clarity and called the "blue-eyed goddess." In Greek, the words "civetta" and "azzurro" sound similar ( glaux = owl, glaucos = blue).

Athenian coin with the owl

Athena remained a virgin and, however, a son is attributed to her, which she would have had from Hephaestus in the following way: she had gone to get weapons from Hephaestus, an expert blacksmith who used volcanoes as workshops. The latter, abandoned by Aphrodite after having discovered the affair with Ares, fell in love with Athena; the goddess, however, did not want to know about the ugly Hephaestus who, by now decided to possess her, despite being lame, began to chase her, reached her and took her in his arms. But so much was his desire that, perhaps suffering from premature ejaculation, he wet one leg of the goddess with his semen. Athena, a little disgusted, dried herself with some wool which she then threw on the ground soaked in the seed of Hephaestus. From the earth, fertilized in such an unromantic way, Erichthonius was born that the goddess considered her son, locked him in a chest, under the care of a snake, and entrusted him to Aglauro, the daughter of the king of Athens.

Paris Bordone: Athena rejects Hephaestus

There were many festivals in honor of the goddess. Particularly interesting were the Panathenaia , held annually in Athens, replaced every four years by the great Panathenaia. It is said that these festivals were established by Erichthonius , son of Athena. Various athletic activities took place during the celebrations. One very particular exercise consisted of rapidly dismounting and remounting a moving chariot while wearing armor. At the end of the festival, a nocturnal ceremony took place in which, with a solemn procession to the Acropolis, a very precious female robe was offered to Athena.

Athena and Erichthonius: London, British Museum

Another festival, celebrated in Athens was called Arrephoria , dedicated to Athena Pallas. During its celebration, the priestess of Athena delivered sacred and mysterious objects to young girls from noble families called “Arrefore” (“bearers of objects of which one cannot speak”), who had the task of carrying them, late at night, to the underground of Aphrodite in the gardens [1]. 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 which took place during the Thesmophoria dedicated to Demeter and Persephone and in which only married women participated, consisted precisely in carrying in procession to the goddesses objects made of pasta in the shape of genitals, as a wish for the fertility of the fields.

Also in Athens, the Plintèria were celebrated , purification festivals in which the statue of the goddess was washed in the sea.

The Cult in Sicily 

In Sicily, the name of Athena is also linked to Enceladus . He was one of the Giants who participated in the so-called Gigantomachy, the battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods. During the battle, Enceladus attempted to escape, but the goddess Athena buried him by throwing the island of Sicily over him, a place from which he could no longer escape. Myth has it that Etna's volcanic activity originated from Enceladus' fiery breath, while the tremors of the earth during earthquakes originate from his rolling under the mountain due to his wounds (a myth similar to that of Typhoeus).

Athena and Enceladus (Louvre Museum)

Agrigento 
The cult of Athena was widespread in Sicily. In Agrigento there was a temple dedicated to her on top of the acropolis, near that of Zeus where the Christian church of Santa Maria dei Greci [2]. Indeed, the current church incorporates the remains of a Doric temple from 480-460 BC, perhaps to be identified with the Athenaion erected by Theron in 488 BC. In addition, a hill in the vicinity of the city was named Rock of Athena, as Diodorus Siculus himself remembers (lib XIII.85). It is probable that the cult of Athena in Agrigento came from Gela, where it was imported by the colonists who came from the island of Rhodes, in which the cult was quite widespread [3].

Church of Santa Maria dei Greci

 
Temple of Athena (Athens)

Camarina
The cult of Athena must also have been widespread in Camarina. In fact, in the archaeological excavations of the ancient city founded by Syracuse, the remains of a temple dedicated to the goddess, dated the 4th century, were found. BC [XNUMX].

Several coins depicting the goddess have been found in many Sicilian cities including: Agirio [5], Alunzio, Caleacte [6], Erice, Inessa [7], Lentini, Megara Iblea, Morgantina, Palermo, Solunto, Messina and Lipari.

Camarina (Rg) - Temple of Athena

Syracuse Cathedral - Remains of the Temple of Athena

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 begun at the beginning of the century near the current Cathedral.

Syracuse Cathedral

The temple, in Doric style, can be traced back to the 5th century BC. Cicero [8] speaks about it extensively in connection with the sacking carried out by the Roman governor Verres. The governor, an expert art thief, plundered all the ivory decorations and the gold studs that adorned the doors of the entrance door. He also took away a large part of the internal furnishings, including a series of painted panels portraying 27 tyrants, the king of Sicily and a cavalry battle of Agathocles [9]. 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 that sailors saw when they left with their ships. A ceremony was linked to the golden shield, during which sailors, who left from Ortigia, brought 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. [10] The ceremony described, even if it actually refers to the cult of Dionysus , would indicate that Athena, like Poseidon (the god of the sea), assumed in some way the character of protector of sailors. And in fact, in Greece, the cults of Athena and Poseidon were often related [11].

Syracuse Cathedral - Remains of the Temple of Athena

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 was also to be present in Termini Imerese, where a head of Athena was found, now preserved in the archaeological museum of Palermo [12]. In this locality, moreover, the remains of the temple dedicated to Athena and now called temple B [13] are still visible.

Gela
In Gela the remains of the Athenaion are still visible, where a clay head of an owl was found, the animal sacred to Athena, now preserved in the Syracuse museum. The temple dates back to the sixth 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 XNUMXth 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 brought the cults of the main female divinities 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" [14]), whose feast fell on August 15, the same date on which the Madonna is celebrated.

[1] Pausanias Lib. I.27,3.

[2] Sabatino Moscati: The Mediterranean civilization p.113.

[3] Diodorus Siculus lib V.58

[4] Filippo Coarelli and Mario Torelli: Sicily “Archaeological Guides Laterza” p.208.

[5] Also known as Agyrion, it was the homeland of the historian Diodorus Siculus who was born there in the early XNUMXst century BC. It is claimed that it is located under the modern town of Agira, between Leonforte and Regalbuto.

[6] 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, approximately halfway between Cefalu 'and Capo D'orlando.

[7] The Sicilian town was not to be very far from Centuripe; cited by the historians Tucidide and Diodoro, the mercenaries hunted from Catania, from the coalition formed by the Siculi of Ducezio, and from Syracuse took refuge in it. The mercenaries transformed its name into Etna, an appellation that they had previously also given to Catania when it was under their control.

[8] Cicero, Verrine, II.IV.122

[9] Agatocle (360-288 BC) came to power in Syracuse in 316 BC He dominated the political life of Syracuse for a few decades and was able to carry on that process of unification of Sicily and Greek Italy that had been initiated by Dionysus the old. He effectively countered the Carthaginian threat and died aged 72 after 28 years of reign.

[10] Ciaceri Emanuele: Cults and Myths of Ancient Sicily. p.155

[11] Diodorus Siculus book V.58

[12] Filippo Coarelli and Mario Torelli: Sicily “Archaeological Guides Laterza” p.28.

[13] Filippo Coarelli and Mario Torelli: Sicily “Laterza Archaeological Guides” p. 404.

[14] Ambrogio Donini: A brief history of religions p.138

Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero

Photo: web, Ignazio Caloggero

Informational contributions : Ignazio Caloggero, Sicily Region

Disclaimer note