Athena, goddess of wisdom, sciences and arts, protector of Athenians; she corresponds to Minerva of the Romans.
Myth.- Daughter of Zeus, she emerged armed from his brain, the personifying according to the mythographs, the flash that symbolizes the intelligent power and the vivacity of creative spirit.
Warrior goddess, she was represented standing, wearing a helmet, her breast covered with a breastplate of goat skin, armed with a spear, holding sometimes in her hand a winged victory.
The owl is her symbolic bird and the olive tree that she gave to Attica is her plant. Her eyes are greenish-blue. Goddess of creative intelligence, Athena protects literature, sciences and arts and rules over all manifestations of the human genius and inspires the orators, poets, and philosophers.
Virginal goddess, eternally young, she is the "Parthene" (In Greek Virgin) in honor of which the Parthenon was build. Under her other name of Pallas, she protects with her statue or Palladium, a very old idol in wood, brought from Troy, her dear city Athens, named after her and honored by magical festivalsand small and big Pantheons. She fought for the Greeks against Troy in the Iliad and helped Ulysses in the Odyssey.
Fine arts- the most famous statue of Athena is the one of Phidias, known as Chryselephantine, made of ivory and gold and exhibited at the Parthenon.
In the north-west of the Acropolis there was a colossal statue of Athena Promachos, also from Phidias--- An old statue of Athena made of olive wood is kept as a national treasure, on the Erechtheion on the Acropolis--- Several statues (Napoli, Louvre, Munich, London, Roma and Athens, etc.
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