1. Hesiod, Theogony 886-900
Zeus, king of gods, made Metis his first wife,/she
who knows most of gods and mortal men./But when she was about to bear the
owl-eyed (glaukôpin)/goddess Athena, then he deceived her
mind with a trick of wily words, and put her down in his belly,/by the
advice of Gaia (Earth) and starry Ouranos (Sky). Thus they advised
him, so that no other of the eternal/gods would hold the office of king
but Zeus. For from her wise children were fated to be born:/first
a daughter, owl-eyed Tritogeneia, like her father in strength and wise
counsel,/but then she was going to bear a son proud of heart, king of gods
and men;/but first Zeus put her into his own belly, so that the goddess
might advise him on good and evil.
2. The Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library
3.6
Zeus had intercourse with Metis, although she
changed into many shapes to avoid making love with him. While she
was pregnant Zeus swallowed her up, for Earth said that after she bore
the daughter she was now carrying she would produce a son who would be
ruler over heaven. Fearing this, he swallowed her. Prometheus
or as some say, Hephaestus struck Zeus’ head with an axe when the time
came for her to give birth and Athena leaped from it in full armor at the
river Triton.
3. The Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library 5.6-6.2
Angry because of the Titans, Earth bore the Giants
to Sky. They had enormous bodies, were invincible in their power
and of fearful appearance…Athena hurled Sicily at Enceladus. She
then skinned Pallas and covered her own body with his skin for protection
in battle.
4. Euripides, Iphigeneia in Tauris,
218-224
But now, as a stranger I live in an unfertile
home on this sea that is hostile to strangers, without marriage, or children,
or city, or friends, not…embroidering with my shuttle, in the singing loom,
the likeness of Athenian Pallas and the Titans…
5. The Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library 3.14
In his time [of Cecrops], they say, the gods
resolved to take possession of cities in which each of them should receive
his own peculiar worship. So Poseidon was the first that came to Attica,
and with a blow of his trident on the middle of the Acropolis, … After
him came Athena, and she planted an olive tree…But when the two strove
for possession of the country, Zeus parted them and appointed as arbiters
the twelve gods. And in accordance with their verdict the country was adjudged
to Athena, because Cecrops bore witness that she had been the first to
plant the olive. Athena, therefore, called the city Athens after herself,
and Poseidon in hot anger flooded the Thriasian plain and laid Attica under
the sea.
6. The Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library
3.14.6
Some say that this Erichthonius was a son of
… Hephaestus and Athena, as follows: Athena came to Hephaestus, desirous
of fashioning arms. But he, being forsaken by Aphrodite, fell in love with
Athena, and began to pursue her; but she fled. When he got near her
with much ado (for he was lame), he attempted to embrace her; but she,
being a chaste virgin, would not submit to him, and he dropped his seed
on the leg of the goddess. In disgust, she wiped off the seed with wool
and threw it on the ground; and as she fled and the seed fell on the ground,
Erichthonius was produced…Having been brought up by Athena herself in the
precinct, Erichthonius expelled Amphictyon and became king of Athens; and
he set up the wooden image of Athena in the Acropolis, and instituted the
festival of the Panathenaea…
7. Homer, Iliad, 2.546-551
And they that held Athens, the well-built citadel,
the land of great-hearted Erechtheus, whom of old Athene, daughter of Zeus,
fostered, when the earth, the giver of grain, had borne him; and she made
him to dwell in Athens, in her own rich sanctuary, [550] and there the
youths of the Athenians, as the years roll on in their courses, seek to
win his favour with sacrifices of bulls and rams…
8. Pausanias, Description of Greece
1.17.1
And they [the Athenians] are conspicuous not
only for their humanity (philanthrôpian) but also for their
devotion to religion. They were the first to surname Athena Erganê
(‘Worker’).
9. Homer, Iliad 18.215-218
He (Achilles) went from the wall and stood by
the ditch, nor mixed with the other/Achaians, since he followed the close
command of his mother./There he stood, and shouted, and from her place
Pallas Athene/gave cry, and drove an endless terror upon the Trojans.
10. Homer, Odyssey 13.296-301
But come, let us talk no more of this, for you
and I both know/sharp practice, since you are far the best of all mortal/men
for counsel and stories, and I among all the divinities/am famous for wit
(mêtis) and sharpness; and yet you never recognized/Pallas
Athene, daughter of Zeus, the one who is always/standing beside you and
guarding you in every endeavor.
11. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library, 3.75-77
Melanippos, the only surviving child of Astakos
wounded Tydeus in the stomach. Since Tydeus was already a demi-god, Athena,
asked by Zeus, brought a drug by which she was going to make him immortal.
But Amphiaraus, perceiving this and hating Tydeus because against his advice
persuaded the Argives to attack Thebes, cut off the head of Melanippus
(Tydeus although wounded killed him) and gave it Tydeus, who cutting it
open ate the brain. When Athena saw this, she in her disgust [for
this act], begrudged and withheld the good deed [of making him immortal].
12. Homer, Iliad 1.206-210
Then in answer the goddess grey-eyed (glaukôpis)
Athene spoke to him (Achilles):/I have come down to stay your anger – but
will you obey me? – /from the sky; and the goddess of the white arms sent
me,/who loves both of you [Agamemnon and Achilles] equally in her heart
and cares for you./Come then, do not take your sword in your hand, keep
clear of fighting,/though indeed with words you may abuse him, and it will
be that way.
13. Homer, Odyssey 24.528-332
Now they [Odysseus and his comrades] would have
killed them all, and given none of them homecoming,/had not Athene, daughter
of Zeus of the aegis/cried out in a great voice and held back all the company:/Hold
back, men of Ithaka, from the wearisome fighting,/so that most soon and
without blood, you can settle everything.
14. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.78-82 (Weaving
Contest with Arachne)
And [Minerva (= Athena) weaving a depiction of
herself on a tapestry] gives herself a shield and a spear/and a helmet
for her head; the aegis guards her breast;/from earth struck by her spear’s
point/upsprings a pale-green olive tree hanging thick with fruit;/and the
gods look on in wonder. Victory crowns her work.
15. Pausanias, Description of Greece
7.5.9
There is also in Erythrae [on coast of Asia Minor
opposite island of Chios] a temple of Athena Polias and a huge wooden image
of her sitting on a throne; she holds a distaff in either hand.
16. Homer, Iliad 6.297-304
When these [Hekabe and Trojan noble women] had
come to Athene’s temple on the peak of the citadel,/Theano of the fair
cheeds opened the door for them, daughter/of Kisseus, and wife of
Antenor, breaker of horses,/she whom the Trojans had established to be
Athene’s priestess./With a wailing cry all lifted up their hands to Athene,/and
Theano of the fair cheeks taking up the robe laid it/along the knees of
Athene the lovely haired, and praying/she supplicated the daughter of powerful
Zeus.
17. Pausanias, Description of Greece
2.4.1
…and [in Corinth] not far is the temple of Athena
Chalinitis (Bridler). For Athena, they say, was the divinity who gave most
help to Bellerophontes, and she delivered to him Pegasus, having herself
broken in and bridled him.
18. Homer, Odyssey, 8.492-95
But come now, change thy theme, and sing of the
building of the horse/of wood, which Epeius made with Athena's help,/the
horse which once Odysseus led up into the citadel as a thing of guile,/
when he had filled it with the men who sacked Ilios.
19. Pindar, Pythian Odes, 12.18-23
When the virgin Athena had delivered the hero
(Perseus) dear to her these labors, she made the music of the auloi with
its many notes, so that she might imitate the…lamentation [of the
Gorgon] Euryale [for her sister Medusa].
20. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library, 1.9.16
Sent to fetch the fleece, Jason called in the
help of Argus, son of Phrixus; and Argus, by Athena's
advice, built a ship of fifty oars named Argo after its builder; and at
the prow Athena fitted in a speaking timber from the oak of Dodona.