Born in armour
Why does a goddess wear a helmet? The answer starts with her birth. In Hesiod’s Theogony, Zeus himself gives birth to Athena from his own head, and the poet greets her as the “host-leader” who delights in tumults, wars and battles. In Athens the scene was carved on the east pediment of the Parthenon, the front of her temple, where all the sculptures over the entrance told the story of her birth.
But war was only part of her. The same goddess was the patron of Athens and the protector of weaving and carpentry, the crafts that need intelligence and skill.
Helmet, spear and the aegis
In Greek art Athena typically appears in full armour: a helmet, a spear and the aegis, a goatskin with a fringe of snakes. On the prize amphorae of the Panathenaic games in Athens she always appears on one side, armed, and on the most famous of her statues the aegis carried a terrifying face. Pausanias describes the gold and ivory Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon with the head of Medusa worked in ivory on her breast, a Victory in one hand and a spear in the other, a shield at her feet and a serpent beside her. Her helmet carried a sphinx in the middle and a griffin on either side.
The Parthenos herself, about 12 metres tall, is lost. The best idea of her comes from a small Roman marble copy of 200-250 CE in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the Varvakeion Athena, which gathers almost every sign in a single figure.
The owl: wisdom, or Athens?
We tend to read the owl as a symbol of wisdom. In Greek art it is first of all Athena’s bird and the emblem of her city. Owls of the kind that still flit about the Acropolis were associated with the goddess whose sanctuary stood on top of the rock. For centuries the main coinage of Athens, the silver tetradrachm, showed the head of Athena on one side and an owl on the other, so her symbols passed through every Athenian’s hands.
A small bronze in the Metropolitan Museum, made around 460 BCE and only 15 cm high, shows the bond in a single gesture: the goddess stands relaxed, with the owl on her outstretched hand, ready to let it fly. When you see an owl in Greek art, then, read it as Athena and Athens before you read it as wisdom.
The olive tree of the Acropolis
Her plant was the olive. According to the Athenian story, Athena and Poseidon contended for the land of Attica, and each left a token on the Acropolis: Poseidon a pool of salt water, Athena an olive tree. Both were kept in the shrine of Erechtheus, and the contest itself filled the west pediment of the Parthenon. The olive also had a story of survival: when the Persians burned the Acropolis in 480 BCE the sacred tree burned too, and the next day, the Athenians said, a new shoot about a cubit long, some 45 cm, had sprouted from the stump.
The olive also paid her honours in kind. The winners of the Panathenaic games received amphorae of oil pressed from groves sacred to Athena, and a wreath of olive leaves was the crown associated with her.
A quick checklist
Faced with a damaged statue or a crowded vase, these questions usually settle it:
- Helmet on a woman, with an aegis? Athena.
- A spear and a shield, or a small winged Victory in her hand? Probably Athena, especially in Athens.
- An owl, an olive branch or an olive wreath nearby? Athena, or at least Athens.
Not every young woman on the Acropolis is Athena, though. Most marble maidens found there were offerings to her, and one of them, the Peplos Kore, may even be another goddess, Artemis. Attributes are what turn a figure into a goddess.
Where to see her
On the Acropolis of Athens, the Parthenon and the Erechtheion stand where her temple and her olive tree stood; the Acropolis Museum keeps the sculptures that survive in Athens. The National Archaeological Museum has the Varvakeion Athena, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York the bronze Athena with her owl, Athenian coins and Panathenaic amphorae. Check opening times before you go.
Sources
- C. Hemingway and S. Hemingway, “Greek Gods and Religious Practices”, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2003); H. Koda, “The Greek Key and Divine Attributes in Modern Dress” (2003).
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection records 50.11.1, 52.127.6, 07.286.79, 14.130.12.
- Hesiod, Theogony 924-926; Herodotus, Histories 8.55; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.24.5-7 (Perseus Digital Library).
- National Archaeological Museum, Athens, “Classical Period” (Varvakeion Athena, no. 129).
