Who is athenas parents

Jonah Krell Pundit. Who is Athena's daughter? Before Metis conceived Athena , Zeus received a prophecy that warned Metis would bear two children: a very wise daughter Athena , and a son that would eventually overthrow Zeus, much like Zeus had overthrown his own father Kronos. Iciar Litwor Pundit. Who is Hera's favorite child? Carrodilla Serramia Pundit. Who was Athena? Goddess of wisdom, war and the crafts, and favourite daughter of Zeus, Athena was, perhaps, the wisest, most courageous, and certainly the most resourceful of the Olympian gods.

Accordingly, when Metis was pregnant, he swallowed her and Athena was born from Zeus' head, wearing armour and fully grown. Wioleta Ces Teacher. How did Athena get her name? Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, battle, craftsmanship, and justice. Her Roman name was Minerva, and she was also called Pallas Athene.

The owl, olive tree, snake, and rooster were her symbols. Arelis Henrizi Supporter. Is Ares Athena's brother? Ares is the Greek God of War. He is the son of Zeus and Hera, and half- brother to Athena. Ares was a difficult character and unpopular with the other Gods and Humans. Renay Dzhibladze Supporter. Who did Zeus have affairs with? A number of Zeus's affairs resulted in new gods and godesses. His liaison with Metis , of course, produced the warrior goddess of wisdom and courage, Athena.

One night as Hera slumbered, Zeus made love to one of the Pleiades, Maia, who gave birth to the tricky messenger of the gods, Hermes. Rosette Karlsen Supporter.

What does Athena look like? Athena was often depicted as a warrior goddess armed with a spear, a shield, and a helmet. Sometimes she would be wearing a cloak or shield Aegis adorned with the head of the monster Medusa.

What powers and skills did she have? Like all the Olympians, Athena was an immortal goddess and could not die. Anett Huecas Beginner. Shortly after their marriage, however, Zeus was given a prophecy that he found greatly disturbing. He was told his new wife would have two children, a daughter and a son, and that his son would one day overthrow him.

Both Cronus and Uranus had been overthrown by their sons, so with this prophecy it seemed as though the cycle would continue for another generation. Gaia had told him that the son of Metis would lead to his downfall, but she also told him how he could prevent that from coming to pass.

Cronus had swallowed his children after birth, which had allowed Zeus to be hidden away and eventually free his brothers and sisters. To prevent Metis from having a son stronger than him, he could never let that son be born at all.

Zeus turned Metis into a fly and swallowed her. While Cronus had swallowed his children, Zeus believed that swallowing Metis would keep any children from being born at all. What Zeus did not know was that Metis was already pregnant with the first child Gaia had said Metis would have. After months of terrible headaches, Zeus split his head open to relieve the pain and gave birth to Athena from his own skull.

The goddess was born fully grown, dressed in armor and carrying weapons. The birth of Athena signaled the end of the succession cycle in Greek mythology. Metis, however, was usually given little credit for her role in the birth.

In fact, most writers referred to Athena as having been born without a mother at all. Instead, the attitudes toward Athena and her birth may indicate that Metis was not originally part of the story. Metis was described as the Titan goddess of wisdom because she had given Zeus the purgative that freed his siblings. That story, however, was a later addition to the legend from a time in which many writers were elaborating on more simple ancient tales..

In earlier tales, Zeus either devised the plan himself or had help from a nameless aid. Metis was added in later, perhaps to explain how she and Zeus were first connected. Hesiod made the claim that Metis was exceedingly intelligent, but he linked her wisdom and resourcefulness to that of her daughter. To prevent the prophecy from taking place, Zeus tricked Metis into taking the form of a fly and swallowed her whole.

However, Metis took the form of intelligence and gave birth to a daughter, who grew inside her father's head. Over time, Zeus began experiencing a terrible headache, so Hephaestus offered to put Zeus out of his misery by splitting open his head with an awl and hammer. While most of the other Olympians held Zeus down on his throne, Hephaestus created a fissure, thick enough for Athena to squeeze her way out, after which she grew into a full-size goddess wearing battle armor and holding a spear, much to the astonishment of the other gods.

In some sources, it is said that Helios himself stopped in the sky in astonishment. Despite the misgivings of the other gods, Zeus insisted that they welcome Athena into their ranks.

She taught the Greeks numerous skills essential for their evolution, such as mathematics, utilizing the oxen to plow their fields, and artisan activities such as weaving. Despite her being the goddess of warfare, Athena didn't actually enjoy combat, but accepted it as an inevitable necessity at times.

She was more focused on minimizing casualties and achieving victory through wise strategies. Through her actions, Athena quickly became Zeus's favorite daughter and constantly consults her for advice. When her father, Zeus, decided to create the irresistible Pandora in order to punish Epimetheus for his brother, Prometheus ', actions, Athena helped the girl by gifting her with wit and curiosity. In addition to that, she taught Pandora how to weave and make crafts of various types. This generous act helped Pandora utilize her time and get rid of boredom.

For many eons, Athena and Poseidon had a rivalry between them, which can be traced to the time when they competed for the position of patron of the city of Athens , called Attica at that time. The leader of the city asked the two gods to bestow a gift for the newly constructed city.

Poseidon created a salt-water spring, and in another version, and horses, while Athena gave them the olive tree. Seeing that the olive tree was more useful than the salt-water spring and horse for the city, its leader Kekrops made Athena their patron goddess.

A temple known as the Parthenon was dedicated to her and the new city took the name of Athens in her honor. The next time which marked a conflict between the two Olympians was when Athena responded to the prayers of Coronis, whom Poseidon was trying to seduce.

She saved the woman by transforming her into a raven. As a result, a furious Poseidon longed for revenge. Hence, he took his new lover, the priestess Medusa , into a temple of Athena. Furious with Poseidon and Medusa for doing disgusting acts in her temple, Athena turned Medusa into a hideous creature who had the additional curse of turning anyone who looked into her irresistible eyes into stone. As Medusa's sisters had helped her get inside the temple, they too were transformed.

Collectively, the three sisters became known as the "Three Gorgons. Zeus would trust the shield to his daughter from time to time. However, many sources also claim that the creation of Medusa was a blessing to her, as she had been Athena's favored priestess, and Poseidon had taken advantage of her within Athena's temple.

Unable to punish Poseidon, Athena instead gave Medusa the ability to turn any man who tried to hurt her again into stone. Another time both Athena and Poseidon were at odds was about the matter of the hero Odysseus. While Poseidon was furious with him for blinding his son Polyphemus , Athena favored Odysseus above all other mortals due to his always using cleverness instead of strength and was always willing to aid him when he needed it most.

Though it seemed unlikely that Athena and Poseidon would ever cooperate, this did happen when the chariot was invented, as she had built the chariot itself and Poseidon had created the horses needed to pull it.

Shortly after her emergence from her father's head, Zeus sent Athena to live with the nymphs of Lake Tritonis since their warlike nature appealed to her. She would get along famously with them. Under their tutelage, Athena would come to become a master of both armed and hand-to-hand combat.

Her dearest friend or often seen as girlfriend, without any sexual activities , however, was Pallas, the only nymph who could sometimes match her in combat.

One day, the two engaged in a sparring match with such speed and intensity that Zeus, who happened to be watching them at the time, mistook it for a genuine mortal duel. Worried for his daughter's safety, he appeared in the sky right behind Athena and held up his fearsome Aegis shield, which greatly unnerved and startled Pallas due to the Head of Medusa on it. Without noticing her father's presence at first, Athena proceeded to disarm her friend of her javelin and counterattacked, stabbing at Pallas's gut.

However, Pallas was too slow because she was still going over her shock, so Athena ended up accidentally fatally piercing her with her sword. A devastated Athena honored her best friend with a sacred monument, building a wooden replica of Pallas and draping a small section of her Aegis cloak over its shoulders.

This statue would eventually end up in the city of Troy, becoming known as the Palladium meaning "Place of Pallas" , where women were allowed to claim sanctuary while men were forbidden from even looking at the statue.

Since Pallas's statue greatly resembled Athena herself, people would eventually begin referring to the goddess herself as "Pallas Athena," which the goddess encouraged as it helped her keep Pallas's memory alive. Hephaestus developed strong romantic feelings for Athena because their similar interests in tools and penchant for solving mechanical problems.

Unfortunately for him, Athena became one of the Virgin Goddesses and didn't want to marry anyone. However, Hephaestus persistently followed and flirted with Athena until he finally flung himself at her, wrapping his arms around her waist and tearfully burying his face in her skirt. In the process, some of his divine sweat and tears rubbed off on her bare leg, much to her chagrin.

She kicked Hephaestus away, snatched up a piece of cloth to wipe the godly moisture off of her, hurled the cloth off Olympus, and ran away from her persistent admirer.

Containing the essence of both gods, the cloth would subsequently transform into a mortal baby boy, who Athena found and named Erikthonius. She placed her "son" into a wooden chest, along with a magically conjured serpent, with the intention of his godly qualities eventually being enhanced by the serpent and making him immortal. Athena took the chest to the Athenian Acropolis her most sacred place and gave it to the daughters of Kekrops while warning them not to open it.

While the princesses agreed, they would be overcome with curiosity after only one night and opened the chest. After seeing Erikthonius and the serpent, the princesses became insane and promptly jumped off the side of the Acropolis' cliffs to their deaths.

As the chest was opened, the spell was broken before Erikthonius could become immortal and the serpent slithered away. However, Athena would eventually take out her vengeance on Kekrops, whom a grown-up Erikthonius would banish and usurp his Athenian throne.

While she remained a virgin goddess, Athena had quite a few demigod children conceived when her divine thoughts met the mortal ingenuity of the men she favored, a love which she believed to be the of the purest kind. Her children are then born in the same way she was, quite literally making them brainchildren.

One of Athena's most famous demigod children would be Daedalus. As shown in The Battle of the Labyrinth , she blessed both her son and her grandson Perdix. She later punished the jealous Daedalus for killing Perdix by branding him with a partridge, the mark of a murderer. By doing this, Athena cursed her son to live a long and tortured life. One day while walking in the woods near Athens, Athena discovered a nest of hissing snakes, which gave her a sudden idea for a musical instrument because of its hissing.

She would fashion it from a hollowed out reed with holes, thereby creating the first flute. Proud of her achievement, Athena took the flute up to Mount Olympus , eager to perform in front of the other gods. As soon as she started playing, however, Aphrodite , Hera, and Demeter began giggling and whispering to each other.

Athena was enraged, and yelled at the goddesses. Demeter and Aphrodite eventually pointed out that Athena's facial features comically contorted while she played. An embarrassed Athena fled in humiliation and hurled the flute off of Olympus, cursing it to give the worst fortune to the next person to play it. Since the flute landed in Asia Minor, that person would end up being the satyr Marsyas, who was so stunned by the beautiful music that it created, since it had been filled with Athena's divine breath, that he actually challenged Apollo to a music competition.

Due to her curse, Marsyas lost and was subsequently flayed alive by a victorious Apollo. One night, Athena went to a swimming hole in central Greece for relaxation purposes. However, while the naked goddess stood bathing under a waterfall, she heard the cry of a mortal man named Teiresias, who had accidentally come across her.

The startled and embarrassed Athena promptly blinded Teiresias. Since he was very apologetic, the goddess sent birds and snakes to lead and protect him granting him the ability to understand their language and gave him supernatural powers of precognition, which lead to Teiresias becoming a great prophet shortly thereafter.

A long time ago, the mortal weaver Arachne challenged Athena to see who could create the best tapestry. Athena disguised herself as an old woman and tried to warn Arachne that it would be foolishness to challenge a goddess, but Arachne persisted and stated that if she lost, she would accept any punishment.

Enraged, Athena revealed herself and accepted the challenge as she herself had invented weaving. Each of them then made a tapestry: Athena's tapestry was of the gods together in glory and joy while Arachne's showed the gods making fools of themselves, though it was still beautiful.

While Athena reluctantly admitted the contest was a tie, she was so infuriated by this deliberate insult to the gods that she destroyed the tapestry in rage and mercilessly beat on Arachne. However, Athena became furious when the citizens laughed at her beating up Arachne and turned her wrath against them. Meanwhile, Arachne was filled with guilt and hung herself. After seeing Arachne's body, Athena felt responsible for her death and decided to do her a favor.

She turned Arachne into a spider so that she and all her children would be expert weavers forever. In other versions of the myth, Athena transformed Arachne into a spider directly after the contest as part of Arachne's punishment. In another version, Athena was chatting with some Ethiopian women, including Arachne, what life was on Mount Olympus, and the women were letting it just pass through their heads and forgetting it a minute later.

But Arachne was the one who sucked it all in. Soon, Arachne boasted about her great weaving. Athena, filled with rage, came down from Olympus and challenged her to a weaving competition. In the end, both were equally good, and Athena ripped Arachne's which was a weaving about how bad the gods were weaving to shreds, and Arachne, recognizing her wrongs, hung herself from the ceiling, ready to drop to her death. Be it whatever reason, ever since then, every child Athena has suffered a deep fear of spiders.

They are very paranoid that every spider they see is out to get them and avenge Arachne. Most of the time, this is true as spiders are shown to be hostile to them. Enraged at her husband's infidelities and dictatorial ways, Hera decided to start a coup d'etat and gained support from other gods, including Poseidon, Apollo , and Athena herself.

She provided unbreakable, tightening ropes to assist Hera in her plan. That evening, Apollo, Athena and Poseidon hid in the hall adjacent to the royal chambers, awaiting Hera's signal.