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120-428: The works of Exekias are distinguished by their innovative compositions, precise draughtsmanship, and subtle psychological characterization, all of which transcend the inherent challenges of the black-figure technique. John Boardman , the eminent historian of Greek art, described Exekias' style as follows: "The hallmark of his style is a near statuesque dignity which brings vase painting for the first time close to claiming

240-519: A backgammon or checkers variant, was played with a die . According to the words written next to the two players, Achilles proclaims he has thrown a four, while Ajax has a three. Although the two of them are pictured playing, they are clearly depicted as being on duty, accompanied by their body armor and holding their spears, suggesting that they might head back into battle at any moment. There are small details that Exekias adds to this piece that separate it from other depictions of this narrative. Achilles

360-456: A founding myth reported by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Athena competed with Poseidon for the patronage of Athens. They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and that Cecrops , the king of Athens, would determine which gift was better. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring sprang up; this gave the Athenians access to trade and water. Athens at its height

480-453: A kylix now in Munich (Antikensammlung 2044). The kylix falls into the " eye-cup " category and is decorated on the exterior with two pairs of eyes, which may be an original Exekian motif. The interior shows a depiction of the god Dionysos against a background of coral-red slip, which coats the entire picture space. Here, Exekias uses the tondo as a working surface for the main scenario: Dionysus

600-524: A "terrifying warrior goddess" and that both goddesses were closely linked with creation. Athena's birth from the head of Zeus may be derived from the earlier Sumerian myth of Inanna's descent into and return from the Underworld . Plato notes that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess known as Neith , whom he identifies with Athena. Neith was the ancient Egyptian goddess of war and hunting, who

720-453: A chaste girl who outdid all her fellow athletes in both the palaestra and the race. Out of envy, the other athletes murdered her, but Athena took pity in her and transformed her dead body into a myrtle , a plant thereafter as favoured by her as the olive was. An almost exact story was said about another girl, Elaea , who transformed into an olive, Athena's sacred tree. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus's Bibliotheca , Athena advised Argos ,

840-460: A cleansing ritual within the Erechtheion , a sanctuary devoted to Athena and Poseidon. Here Athena's statue was undressed, her clothes washed, and body purified. Athena was worshipped at festivals such as Chalceia as Athena Ergane , the patroness of various crafts, especially weaving . She was also the patron of metalworkers and was believed to aid in the forging of armor and weapons. During

960-621: A common range of subjects: the birth of Athena , Theseus fighting the Minotaur , Herakles fighting the Nemean Lion , and Herakles and the three-bodied Geryon , are among the themes most often pictured on vases by this group. Exekias does not seem to have specialized in a specific vessel type. Among the vases made or decorated by him are neck amphorae, Type A and B amphorae, calyx kraters, column kraters, Type A cups, dinoi, hydriai, and at least one Panathenaic amphora . Probably his most unusual work

1080-582: A competition over patronage of the city by creating the first olive tree. She was known as Athena Parthenos "Athena the Virgin". In one archaic Attic myth, the god Hephaestus tried and failed to rape her, resulting in Gaia giving birth to Erichthonius , an important Athenian founding hero. Athena was the patron goddess of heroic endeavor; she was believed to have aided the heroes Perseus , Heracles , Bellerophon , and Jason . Along with Aphrodite and Hera , Athena

1200-496: A connection to the Rigvedic god Trita , who was sometimes grouped in a body of three mythological poets. Michael Janda has connected the myth of Trita to the scene in the Iliad in which the "three brothers" Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divide the world between them, receiving the "broad sky", the sea, and the underworld respectively. Janda further connects the myth of Athena being born of

1320-494: A helmet and holding a spear. From her origin as an Aegean palace goddess , Athena was closely associated with the city. She was known as Polias and Poliouchos (both derived from polis , meaning "city-state"), and her temples were usually located atop the fortified acropolis in the central part of the city. The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis is dedicated to her, along with numerous other temples and monuments. As

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1440-545: A just cause and was thought to view war primarily as a means to resolve conflict. The Greeks regarded Athena with much higher esteem than Ares. Athena was especially worshipped in this role during the festivals of the Panathenaea and Pamboeotia , both of which prominently featured displays of athletic and military prowess. As the patroness of heroes and warriors, Athena was believed to favor those who used cunning and intelligence rather than brute strength. In her aspect as

1560-632: A man injured during the construction of the gateway to the Acropolis . Mechanitis (Μηχανῖτις), meaning skilled in inventing, was one of the epithets of her. At Athens there is the temple of Athena Phratria , as patron of a phratry , in the Ancient Agora of Athens . Athena's epithet Pallas – her most renowned one – is derived either from πάλλω , meaning "to brandish [as a weapon]", or, more likely, from παλλακίς and related words, meaning "youth, young woman". On this topic, Walter Burkert says "she

1680-412: A place as a major art." He was an innovative painter and potter, who experimented with new shapes and devised unusual painting techniques, such as the use of a coral-red slip, to enhance colour. Fourteen signed works by Exekias have survived, while many more have been attributed to him based on the stylistic connoisseurship method developed by John Beazley . His signed pieces provide insight not only into

1800-685: A position previously held by John Beazley , and the concomitant Fellowship of Lincoln College in 1978. He was knighted in 1989 and retired in 1994, and was thereafter Emeritus Professor. Boardman was a Fellow of the British Academy , from which he received the Kenyon Medal in 1995. He was awarded the Onassis Prize for Humanities in 2009. He was an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and of Merton and Lincoln Colleges in Oxford, as well as

1920-415: A recognition of her role as enforcer of rules of sexual modesty and ritual mystery. Even beyond recognition, the Athenians allotted the goddess value based on this pureness of virginity, which they upheld as a rudiment of female behavior. Kerényi's study and theory of Athena explains her virginal epithet as a result of her relationship to her father Zeus and a vital, cohesive piece of her character throughout

2040-531: A singular notion about her; and indeed calls her by a still higher title, "divine intelligence" [ θεοῦ νόησις , theoũ nóēsis ], as though he would say: This is she who has the mind of God [ ἁ θεονόα , a theonóa ]. Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may mean "she who knows divine things" [ τὰ θεῖα νοοῦσα , ta theia noousa ] better than others. Nor shall we be far wrong in supposing that the author of it wished to identify this Goddess with moral intelligence [ εν έθει νόεσιν , en éthei nóesin ], and therefore gave her

2160-472: A symbol of freedom and democracy. Athena is associated with the city of Athens . The name of the city in ancient Greek is Ἀθῆναι ( Athȇnai ), a plural toponym , designating the place where—according to myth—she presided over the Athenai , a sisterhood devoted to her worship. In ancient times, scholars argued whether Athena was named after Athens or Athens after Athena. Now scholars generally agree that

2280-445: A symbol of Athenian economic prosperity. Robert Graves was of the opinion that "Poseidon's attempts to take possession of certain cities are political myths", which reflect the conflict between matriarchal and patriarchal religions. Afterwards, Poseidon was so angry over his defeat that he sent one of his sons, Halirrhothius , to cut down the tree. But as he swung his axe, he missed his aim and it fell in himself, killing him. This

2400-467: A temple at Phrixa in Elis , reportedly built by Clymenus , she was known as Cydonia (Κυδωνία). Pausanias wrote that at Buporthmus there was a sanctuary of Athena Promachorma (Προμαχόρμα), meaning protector of the anchorage . The Greek biographer Plutarch describes Pericles's dedication of a statue to her as Athena Hygieia (Ὑγίεια, "Health") after she inspired, in a dream, his successful treatment of

2520-448: A temple was built to her at Las . In Pergamon, Athena was thought to have been a god of the cosmos and the aspects of it that aided Pergamon and its fate. She was the daughter of Zeus, produced without a mother, and emerged full-grown from his forehead. There was an alternate story that Zeus swallowed Metis, the goddess of counsel, while she was pregnant with Athena and when she was fully grown she emerged from Zeus' forehead. Being

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2640-552: A warrior maiden, Athena was known as Parthenos ( Παρθένος "virgin"), because, like her fellow goddesses Artemis and Hestia , she was believed to remain perpetually a virgin. Athena's most famous temple, the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis , takes its name from this title. According to Karl Kerényi , a scholar of Greek mythology, the name Parthenos is not merely an observation of Athena's virginity, but also

2760-425: Is Glaukopis ( γλαυκῶπις ), which usually is translated as, "bright-eyed" or "with gleaming eyes". The word is a combination of glaukós ( γλαυκός , meaning "gleaming, silvery", and later, "bluish-green" or "gray") and ṓps ( ὤψ , "eye, face"). The word glaúx ( γλαύξ , "little owl") is from the same root, presumably according to some, because of the bird's own distinctive eyes. Athena

2880-629: Is believed to be dead, but Odysseus lies back to her, employing skillful prevarications to protect himself. Impressed by his resolve and shrewdness, she reveals herself and tells him what he needs to know to win back his kingdom. She disguises him as an elderly beggar so that he will not be recognized by the suitors or Penelope, and helps him to defeat the suitors. Athena also appears to Odysseus's son Telemachus. Her actions lead him to travel around to Odysseus's comrades and ask about his father. He hears stories about some of Odysseus's journey. Athena's push for Telemachus's journey helps him grow into

3000-508: Is deftly executed, as are details of hands, feet, and armor, and hair is precisely drawn with a series of lines that run exactly parallel and end in curls; the facial expressions of the two heroes are likewise perfectly accomplished, so as to indicate, within the conventions of black figure, the intense concentration as shown by the gaze of both players. John Boardman (art historian) Sir John Boardman , OBE FBA ( / ˈ b ɔːr d m ə n / ; 20 August 1927 – 23 May 2024)

3120-591: Is generally agreed that the cult of Athena preserves some aspects of the Proto-Indo-European transfunctional goddess . The cult of Athena may have also been influenced by those of Near Eastern warrior goddesses such as the East Semitic Ishtar and the Ugaritic Anat , both of whom were often portrayed bearing arms. Classical scholar Charles Penglase notes that Athena resembles Inanna in her role as

3240-502: Is no extant literary source that is known to have circulated in the sixth century BC in Athens regarding a narrative involving Ajax and Achilles playing a board game. Exekias may have drawn his inspiration for this innovative composition from local oral bardic traditions regarding the Trojan War, which may have developed during his lifetime in the cultural context of sixth century Athens. Despite

3360-402: Is occasionally referred to as "Tritonia". Another possible meaning may be "triple-born" or "third-born", which may refer to a triad or to her status as the third daughter of Zeus or the fact she was born from Metis, Zeus, and herself; various legends list her as being the first child after Artemis and Apollo, though other legends identify her as Zeus' first child. Several scholars have suggested

3480-481: Is represented by two series of funerary plaques found in Athens (Berlin Antikensammlung 1811, 1814). The plaques, showing the funerary ritual for a deceased man, were probably attached to the walls of a funerary monument. In his vase paintings, Exekias does not only reinterpret the mythological traditions of his time, but at times even sets new fashions. One of his most famous works is the so-called " Dionysus Cup ",

3600-586: Is shown with his helmet still resting on his head which represents he has more power than Ajax. Also, Ajax is shown with his heel slightly lifted, suggesting that he is nervous in the presence of Achilles. Apart from the selection of this very intimate, seemingly relaxed scene as a symbol for the Trojan War , this vase-painting also showcases the talent of Exekias as an artist: the figures of both Achilles and Ajax are decorated with fine incised details, showing elaborate textile patterns and almost every hair in place. There

3720-637: Is the Pallas of Athens, Pallas Athenaie , just as Hera of Argos is Here Argeie ". In later times, after the original meaning of the name had been forgotten, the Greeks invented myths to explain its origins, such as those reported by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus and the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, which claim that Pallas was originally a separate entity, whom Athena had slain in combat. In one version of

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3840-641: The Acropolis , dying instantly, but an Attic vase painting shows them being chased by the serpent off the edge of the cliff instead. Erichthonius was one of the most important founding heroes of Athens and the legend of the daughters of Cecrops was a cult myth linked to the rituals of the Arrhephoria festival. Pausanias records that, during the Arrhephoria, two young girls known as the Arrhephoroi , who lived near

3960-641: The Laconian towns of Mantineia and Tegea . The temple of Athena Alea in Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece. The geographer Pausanias was informed that the temenos had been founded by Aleus . Athena had a major temple on the Spartan Acropolis , where she was venerated as Poliouchos and Khalkíoikos ("of the Brazen House", often latinized as Chalcioecus ). This epithet may refer to

4080-605: The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus . The temple was dedicated by Alexander the Great and an inscription from the temple declaring his dedication is now held in the British Museum . She was worshipped as Athena Asia in Colchis -- supposedly on an account of a nearby mountain with that name -- from which her worship was believed to have been brought by Castor and Pollux to Laconia , where

4200-629: The Trojan war , make Athena instead the daughter of Cronus , a king of Byblos who visited "the inhabitable world" and bequeathed Attica to Athena. In Homer's Iliad , Athena, as a war goddess, inspired and fought alongside the Greek heroes; her aid was synonymous with military prowess. Also in the Iliad, Zeus, the chief god, specifically assigned the sphere of war to Ares, the god of war, and Athena. Athena's moral and military superiority to Ares derived in part from

4320-480: The homonymous sea-deity was her parent according to some early myths. One myth relates the foster father relationship of this Triton towards the half-orphan Athena, whom he raised alongside his own daughter Pallas . Kerényi suggests that "Tritogeneia did not mean that she came into the world on any particular river or lake, but that she was born of the water itself; for the name Triton seems to be associated with water generally." In Ovid 's Metamorphoses , Athena

4440-565: The iambic trimeter inscription, Exēkías égrapse kapoíēsé me ("Exekias made and painted me"), indicating that in these cases Exekias was responsible for both the potting of the vase and its painted decoration. Fragments of a third amphora (Taranto 179196) also show the use of both terms, when the inscriptions are restored. This leads to speculation regarding the meaning of the epoíēsen signatures and why, in some instances, Exekias signed only as potter on vases that he clearly painted as well. It has been suggested that he chose to sign as painter only

4560-486: The semen off using a tuft of wool , which she tossed into the dust, impregnating Gaia and causing her to give birth to Erichthonius . Athena adopted Erichthonius as her son and raised him. The Roman mythographer Hyginus records a similar story in which Hephaestus demanded Zeus to let him marry Athena since he was the one who had smashed open Zeus's skull, allowing Athena to be born. Zeus agreed to this and Hephaestus and Athena were married, but, when Hephaestus

4680-449: The Athenians sometimes simply called Athena "the Goddess", hē theós (ἡ θεός), certainly an ancient title. After serving as the judge at the trial of Orestes in which he was acquitted of having murdered his mother Clytemnestra , Athena won the epithet Areia (Αρεία). Some have described Athena, along with the goddesses Hestia and Artemis as being asexual, this is mainly supported by

4800-647: The Berlin F 1720 amphora, and the Athenian calyx-krater which has traditionally been attributed to Exekias. The Stēsías love name, Stēsías kalós , (Stesias [is] beautiful), is inscribed on the Louvre F 53 amphora, which Beazley attributed to the Group E phase of Exekias' artistic career. In addition to the main tableau, in which figures interact physically and often with psychological import, there are often subordinate areas of interest on

4920-519: The Elder writes that Hera "rejoices" at Athena's birth "as though Athena were her daughter also". The second-century AD Christian apologist Justin Martyr takes issue with those pagans who erect at springs images of Kore , whom he interprets as Athena: "They said that Athena was the daughter of Zeus not from intercourse, but when the god had in mind the making of a world through a word ( logos ) his first thought

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5040-542: The Etruscans developed a taste for Greek vases, over 30,000 of which have been found in the region. The presence of Exekias' work in Etruria indicates that foreigners also admired his vases, and that he catered to markets both at home and abroad. In the words of Beazley, Group E is "the soil from which the art of Exekias springs, the tradition which on his way from fine craftsman to true artist he absorbs and transcends.” Based on

5160-510: The Lesser violently tore her away from it and dragged her over to the other captives. Athena was infuriated by this violation of her protection. Although Agamemnon attempted to placate her anger with sacrifices, Athena sent a storm at Cape Kaphereos to destroy almost the entire Greek fleet and scatter all of the surviving ships across the Aegean. In Homer 's epic works , Athena's most common epithet

5280-539: The Linear B Mycenaean expressions a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja and di-u-ja or di-wi-ja ( Diwia , "of Zeus" or, possibly, related to a homonymous goddess ), resulting in a translation "Athena of Zeus" or "divine Athena". Similarly, in the Greek mythology and epic tradition, Athena figures as a daughter of Zeus ( Διός θυγάτηρ ; cfr. Dyeus ). However, the inscription quoted seems to be very similar to " a-ta-nū-tī wa-ya ", quoted as SY Za 1 by Jan Best. Best translates

5400-575: The Mediterranean, in which Greek populations from the Aegean region, Greek coastal mainland and Western Turkey settled the coastal regions of Italy, North Africa, southern France, reaching as far as southern Spain. The book has now undergone four editions, as new archaeological research emerges. Athena Athena or Athene , often given the epithet Pallas , is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who

5520-628: The Mycenaeans, two rows of figures carrying vessels seem to meet in front of a central figure, which is probably the Minoan precursor to Athena. The early twentieth-century scholar Martin Persson Nilsson argued that the Minoan snake goddess figurines are early representations of Athena. Nilsson and others have claimed that, in early times, Athena was either an owl herself or a bird goddess in general. In

5640-469: The aegis as an apology. In another version of the story, Pallas was a Giant ; Athena slew him during the Gigantomachy and flayed off his skin to make her cloak, which she wore as a victory trophy. In an alternative variation of the same myth, Pallas was instead Athena's father, who attempted to assault his own daughter, causing Athena to kill him and take his skin as a trophy. The palladium

5760-458: The aegis, or breastplate, that Athena wore when she went to war: fear, strife, defense, and assault. Athena appears in Homer's Odyssey as the tutelary deity of Odysseus, and myths from later sources portray her similarly as the helper of Perseus and Heracles (Hercules). As the guardian of the welfare of kings, Athena became the goddess of good counsel, prudent restraint and practical insight, and war. In

5880-652: The age of 96. On his return to England in 1955, Boardman took up the post of Assistant Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , thus beginning his lifelong affiliation with it. In 1959 he was appointed Reader in Classical Archaeology in the University of Oxford , and in 1963 was appointed a Fellow of Merton College . There he remained until his appointment as Lincoln Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology ,

6000-436: The ages. This role is expressed in several stories about Athena. Marinus of Neapolis reports that when Christians removed the statue of the goddess from the Parthenon , a beautiful woman appeared in a dream to Proclus , a devotee of Athena, and announced that the "Athenian Lady" wished to dwell with him. Athena was also credited with creating the pebble-based form of divination. Those pebbles were called thriai , which

6120-562: The ambiguity surrounding the origin of this mythological narrative, Exekias' new depiction of Ajax and Achilles playing a board game was popular and was copied over 150 times in the ensuing fifty years. The only "kalós" name used on vases attributed to or signed by Exekias as a painter is the Onētorídēs love name. The Onētorídēs love name appears on the Vatican 344 amphora, the London B 210 amphora,

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6240-514: The arts and handicrafts. Athena was known as Atrytone ( Άτρυτώνη "the Unwearying"), Parthenos ( Παρθένος "Virgin"), and Promachos ( Πρόμαχος "she who fights in front"). The epithet Polias (Πολιάς "of the city"), refers to Athena's role as protectress of the city. The epithet Ergane (Εργάνη "the Industrious") pointed her out as the patron of craftsmen and artisans. Burkert notes that

6360-553: The blade to behead Medusa, Athena guided it, allowing the blade to cut the Gorgon's head clean off. According to Pindar's Thirteenth Olympian Ode , Athena helped the hero Bellerophon tame the winged horse Pegasus by giving him a bit . In ancient Greek art , Athena is frequently shown aiding the hero Heracles . She appears in four of the twelve metopes on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia depicting Heracles's Twelve Labors , including

6480-632: The builder of the Argo , the ship on which the hero Jason and his band of Argonauts sailed, and aided in the ship's construction. Pseudo-Apollodorus also records that Athena guided the hero Perseus in his quest to behead Medusa . She and Hermes , the god of travelers, appeared to Perseus after he set off on his quest and gifted him with tools he would need to kill the Gorgon. Athena lent Perseus her polished bronze shield to view Medusa's reflection without becoming petrified himself. Hermes lent Perseus his harpe to behead Medusa with. When Perseus swung

6600-441: The chest, but did not explain to them why or what was in it. Aglauros, and possibly one of the other sisters, opened the chest. Differing reports say that they either found that the child itself was a serpent, that it was guarded by a serpent, that it was guarded by two serpents, or that it had the legs of a serpent. In Pausanias's story, the two sisters were driven mad by the sight of the chest's contents and hurled themselves off

6720-451: The development of new, elegant vessel shapes such as the "Type A amphora ". Exekias, however, is the only member of the Group who signed his products which suggests that Exekias may have been responsible for the development of such vessel shapes as the Type A cup, the Type A belly amphora and the calyx krater . Apart from the specialization in certain vessel shapes, the Group E artists also shared

6840-591: The earliest Linear B archive anywhere. Although Athana potnia is often translated as "Mistress Athena", it could also mean "the Potnia of Athana", or the Lady of Athens . However, any connection to the city of Athens in the Knossos inscription is uncertain. A sign series a-ta-no-dju-wa-ja appears in the still undeciphered corpus of Linear A tablets, written in the unclassified Minoan language . This could be connected with

6960-582: The etymological roots of Athena's names to be aether , air , earth , and moon . Athena was originally the Aegean goddess of the palace, who presided over household crafts and protected the king. A single Mycenaean Greek inscription 𐀀𐀲𐀙𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊 a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja appears at Knossos in the Linear B tablets from the Late Minoan II-era "Room of the Chariot Tablets"; these comprise

7080-575: The eve of the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, the serpent did not eat the honey cake and the Athenians interpreted it as a sign that Athena herself had abandoned them. Another version of the myth of the Athenian maidens is told in Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD); in this late variant Hermes falls in love with Herse. Herse, Aglaulus, and Pandrosus go to

7200-484: The expanse of the interior of a cup. While many of Exekias' pieces display an image from a mythological story they are generally not the most famous moments. The "Eye-cup" that depicts Dionysus does not show the God fighting his kidnappers but instead shows him relaxing in his boat with his kidnappers turned into dolphins around him. Exekias could have chosen any moment, but this is the one he painted. Another visual adaptation of

7320-478: The fact that cult statue held there may have been made of bronze, that the walls of the temple itself may have been made of bronze, or that Athena was the patron of metal-workers. Bells made of terracotta and bronze were used in Sparta as part of Athena's cult. An Ionic-style temple to Athena Polias was built at Priene in the fourth century BC. It was designed by Pytheos of Priene , the same architect who designed

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7440-540: The fact that in the Homeric Hymns, 5, To Aphrodite , where Aphrodite is described as having "no power" over the three goddesses. Athena was sometimes given the epithet Hippia (Ἵππια "of the horses", "equestrian"), referring to her invention of the bit , bridle , chariot , and wagon . The Greek geographer Pausanias mentions in his Guide to Greece that the temple of Athena Chalinitis ("the bridler") in Corinth

7560-510: The fact that she represented the intellectual and civilized side of war and the virtues of justice and skill, whereas Ares represented mere blood lust. Her superiority also derived in part from the vastly greater variety and importance of her functions and the patriotism of Homer's predecessors, Ares being of foreign origin. In the Iliad, Athena was the divine form of the heroic, martial ideal: she personified excellence in close combat, victory, and glory. The qualities that led to victory were found on

7680-544: The favorite child of Zeus, she had great power. In the classical Olympian pantheon, Athena was regarded as the favorite child of Zeus, born fully armed from his forehead. The story of her birth comes in several versions. The earliest mention is in Book V of the Iliad , when Ares accuses Zeus of being biased in favor of Athena because " autos egeinao " (literally "you fathered her", but probably intended as "you gave birth to her"). She

7800-400: The first part of the poem, however, she largely is confined to aiding him only from afar , mainly by implanting thoughts in his head during his journey home from Troy. Her guiding actions reinforce her role as the "protectress of heroes", or, as mythologian Walter Friedrich Otto dubbed her, the "goddess of nearness", due to her mentoring and motherly probing. It is not until he washes up on

7920-512: The first spider; Ovid also describes how Athena transformed her priestess Medusa and the latter's sisters, Stheno and Euryale , into the Gorgons after witnessing the young woman being raped by Poseidon in the goddess's temple. Since the Renaissance , Athena has become an international symbol of wisdom, the arts , and classical learning . Western artists and allegorists have often used Athena as

8040-530: The first, in which she passively watches him slay the Nemean lion , and the tenth, in which she is shown actively helping him hold up the sky. She is presented as his "stern ally", but also the "gentle ... acknowledger of his achievements". Artistic depictions of Heracles's apotheosis show Athena driving him to Mount Olympus in her chariot and presenting him to Zeus for his deification. In Aeschylus 's tragedy Orestes , Athena intervenes to save Orestes from

8160-414: The forehead of her father Zeus . In some versions of the story, Athena has no mother and is born from Zeus' forehead by parthenogenesis . In others, such as Hesiod 's Theogony , Zeus swallows his consort Metis , who was pregnant with Athena; in this version, Athena is first born within Zeus and then escapes from his body through his forehead. In the founding myth of Athens, Athena bested Poseidon in

8280-450: The god of the sun, stopped his chariot in the sky. Pindar, in his "Seventh Olympian Ode", states that she "cried aloud with a mighty shout" and that "the Sky and mother Earth shuddered before her". Hesiod states that Hera was so annoyed at Zeus for having given birth to a child on his own that she conceived and bore Hephaestus by herself , but in Imagines 2. 27 (trans. Fairbanks), the third-century AD Greek rhetorician Philostratus

8400-406: The goddess takes her name from the city; the ending - ene is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names. Testimonies from different cities in ancient Greece attest that similar city goddesses were worshipped in other cities and, like Athena, took their names from the cities where they were worshipped. For example, in Mycenae there was a goddess called Mykene, whose sisterhood

8520-453: The head (i. e. the uppermost part) of Zeus, understanding Trito- (which perhaps originally meant "the third") as another word for "the sky". In Janda's analysis of Indo-European mythology, this heavenly sphere is also associated with the mythological body of water surrounding the inhabited world ( cfr. Triton's mother, Amphitrite ). Yet another possible meaning is mentioned in Diogenes Laertius ' biography of Democritus , that Athena

8640-522: The holder of many other academic distinctions. He carried out archaeological excavations at many sites, including in Smyrna , Crete, Emporio on Chios and at Tocra in Libya. His voluminous publications focus primarily on the art and architecture of ancient Greece , particularly sculpture, engraved gems and painted vases. Boardman wrote the book The Greeks Overseas , on the ancient Greek diaspora throughout

8760-406: The initial a-ta-nū-tī , which is recurrent in line beginnings, as "I have given". A Mycenean fresco depicts two women extending their hands towards a central figure, who is covered by an enormous figure-eight shield; this may depict the warrior-goddess with her palladium , or her palladium in an aniconic representation. In the " Procession Fresco " at Knossos , which was reconstructed by

8880-403: The late fifth century BC, the role of goddess of philosophy became a major aspect of Athena's cult . As Athena Promachos , she was believed to lead soldiers into battle. Athena represented the disciplined, strategic side of war, in contrast to her brother Ares , the patron of violence, bloodlust, and slaughter—"the raw force of war". Athena was believed to only support those fighting for

9000-418: The man role, that his father once held. She also plays a role in ending the resultant feud against the suitors' relatives. She instructs Laertes to throw his spear and to kill Eupeithes , the father of Antinous . The Gorgoneion appears to have originated as an apotropaic symbol intended to ward off evil. In a late myth invented to explain the origins of the Gorgon, Medusa is described as having been

9120-676: The market in which Exekias positioned himself. Fragments of column krater and a hydria attributed to Exekias were excavated on the Athenian Acropolis , suggesting that Exekias maintained a clientele in his home city. The fact that two of his vases were found on the Acropolis, an important religious sanctuary, underscores his prestige as a vase painter. Exekias not only enjoyed a thriving market in Athens; many of his extant vases were also exported to Etruria , Italy , found at sites such as Vulci and Orvieto , where they were buried in Etruscan tombs. Being admirers of Greeks and their arts and letters,

9240-433: The myth, Pallas was the daughter of the sea-god Triton , and she and Athena were childhood friends. Zeus one day watched Athena and Pallas have a friendly sparring match. Not wanting his daughter to lose, Zeus flapped his aegis to distract Pallas, whom Athena accidentally impaled. Distraught over what she had done, Athena took the name Pallas for herself as a sign of her grief and tribute to her friend and Zeus gave her

9360-413: The mythological past can be seen on the Vatican amphora 344, which is regarded by some art historians as Exekias' masterpiece. The Vatican amphora depicts Achilles and Ajax playing a board game, with both men identified by their names added in the genitive. Ajax and Achilles sit across from each other, looking down at a block situated between them. The board game they are playing, which might be compared to

9480-419: The name Etheonoe; which, however, either he or his successors have altered into what they thought a nicer form, and called her Athena. Thus, Plato believed that Athena's name was derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα , Atheonóa —which the later Greeks rationalised as from the deity's ( θεός , theós ) mind ( νοῦς , noũs ). The second-century AD orator Aelius Aristides attempted to derive natural symbols from

9600-419: The overarching stylistic similarities between the work of Group E and Exekias, Beazley hypothesized that Exekias first began his career in the workshop of the so-called Group E artists. "Group E" produced work that is not only considered closely related to the work of Exekias, but also represents a conscious break from the pottery traditions of the first half of the sixth century BC. Group E has been credited with

9720-412: The painting of Exekias, riveting the attention of the viewer, who then lingers to appreciate the finely executed forms and exquisite details. Also characteristic of Exekias is his expert use of line, both in terms of his finely drawn figures and also his carefully incised detail—to delineate hair, beards, unique facial features, aspects of armor and furniture, traits of plants and animals, and particularly

9840-452: The passage of young women into marriage. These cults were portals of a uniform socialization, even beyond mainland Greece. Athena was frequently equated with Aphaea , a local goddess of the island of Aegina , originally from Crete and also associated with Artemis and the nymph Britomartis . In Arcadia , she was assimilated with the ancient goddess Alea and worshiped as Athena Alea . Sanctuaries dedicated to Athena Alea were located in

9960-469: The patron of craft and weaving, Athena was known as Ergane . She was also a warrior goddess , and was believed to lead soldiers into battle as Athena Promachos . Her main festival in Athens was the Panathenaia , which was celebrated during the month of Hekatombaion in midsummer and was the most important festival on the Athenian calendar. In Greek mythology , Athena was believed to have been born from

10080-520: The patterns on woven or embroidered garments, which are impressively varied and spectacularly precise. This can be appreciated in the famous Vatican amphora (344), on which Achilles and Ajax are both shown wearing richly ornamented cloaks, with almost every element clearly visible and identifiable despite the small scale. Incised designs include rosettes of various types, swastikas with squared or rounded arms, stars, and loops, arranged in panels divided by bands of many types of geometric decoration. Musculature

10200-419: The pebbles useless. Apollo's words became the basis of an ancient Greek idiom. Athena was not only the patron goddess of Athens, but also other cities, including Pergamon , Argos , Sparta , Gortyn , Lindos , and Larisa . The various cults of Athena were all branches of her panhellenic cult and often proctored various initiation rites of Grecian youth, such as the passage into citizenship by young men or

10320-610: The priestess, knew what the objects were. The serpent in the story may be the same one depicted coiled at Athena's feet in Pheidias's famous statue of the Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon. Many of the surviving sculptures of Athena show this serpent. Herodotus records that a serpent lived in a crevice on the north side of the summit of the Athenian Acropolis and that the Athenians left a honey cake for it each month as an offering. On

10440-423: The remaining vases signed with epoíēsen can be attributed to the same hand as those signed " ... égrapse kapoíēsé me "—that is, to the painter Exekias. Beazley attributed one of the vases with the potter-only signature to the so-called Group E, to which Exekias is closely related. While Exekias' work itself offers a glimpse of the culture of ancient pottery, the find spots of his vases also reveal information about

10560-428: The second century AD, makes Metis Zeus's unwilling sexual partner, rather than his wife. According to this version of the story, Metis transformed into many different shapes in effort to escape Zeus, but Zeus successfully raped her and swallowed her. After swallowing Metis, Zeus took six more wives in succession until he married his seventh and present wife, Hera . Then Zeus experienced an enormous headache. He

10680-543: The shore of the island of the Phaeacians , where Nausicaa is washing her clothes that Athena arrives personally to provide more tangible assistance. She appears in Nausicaa's dreams to ensure that the princess rescues Odysseus and plays a role in his eventual escort to Ithaca. Athena appears to Odysseus upon his arrival, disguised as a herdsman; she initially lies and tells him that Penelope, his wife, has remarried and that he

10800-413: The temple of Athena Polias, would be given hidden objects by the priestess of Athena , which they would carry on their heads down a natural underground passage. They would leave the objects they had been given at the bottom of the passage and take another set of hidden objects, which they would carry on their heads back up to the temple. The ritual was performed in the dead of night and no one, not even

10920-490: The temple to offer sacrifices to Athena. Hermes demands help from Aglaulus to seduce Herse. Aglaulus demands money in exchange. Hermes gives her the money the sisters have already offered to Athena. As punishment for Aglaulus's greed, Athena asks the goddess Envy to make Aglaulus jealous of Herse. When Hermes arrives to seduce Herse, Aglaulus stands in his way instead of helping him as she had agreed. He turns her to stone. Athena gave her favour to an Attic girl named Myrsine ,

11040-474: The thematic center or lead to it as the spokes of a wheel: the spears of the warriors, the curved backs of their hunching forms, the wind-filled sails of the ship and its curved bottom, the circle of dolphins. Other scenes are crowded with figures, such that attention is drawn toward the complex composition itself, or to individual men and women in a chariot or the magnificent horses arranged in groups. A variety of compositional devices are used to brilliant effect in

11160-411: The theories of the ancient Athenians and his etymological speculations: That is a graver matter, and there, my friend, the modern interpreters of Homer may, I think, assist in explaining the view of the ancients. Most of these in their explanations of the poet, assert that he meant by Athena "mind" [ νοῦς , noũs ] and "intelligence" [ διάνοια , diánoia ], and the maker of names appears to have had

11280-429: The third and second millennia". The "Black Athena" hypothesis stirred up widespread controversy near the end of the twentieth century, but it has now been widely rejected by modern scholars. Athena was also the goddess of peace. In a similar manner to her patronage of various activities and Greek cities, Athena was thought to be a "protector of heroes" and a "patron of art" and various local traditions related to

11400-488: The third book of the Odyssey , she takes the form of a sea-eagle . Proponents of this view argue that she dropped her prophylactic owl mask before she lost her wings. "Athena, by the time she appears in art," Jane Ellen Harrison remarks, "has completely shed her animal form, has reduced the shapes she once wore of snake and bird to attributes, but occasionally in black-figure vase-paintings she still appears with wings." It

11520-486: The university in 1978, remaining in post until his retirement in 1994. Boardman's academic work focused on the art and archaeology of ancient Greece, with particular focus on Greek colonisation , jewellery and vase-painting. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy , which awarded him its Kenyon Medal in 1995. He was also awarded the Onassis Prize for Humanities in 2009. Boardman was born in Essex on 20 August 1927. He

11640-423: The vases of Exekias. Border decoration, and particularly large, beautifully constructed spirals with palmettes, frame and enliven the compositions. The central tableau is sometimes framed by areas of black, so that it appears suddenly out of the darkness, so to speak. Characteristically, Exekias uses the shape of the vessel, with its curving surface, as a terrain to which the lines and forms of the painting conform. As

11760-518: The viewer contemplates the vase, attention is drawn to the central scene: the game board (in the depiction of Achilles and Ajax Playing a Game), the face of Penthesilea (in the Death of Penthesilea), the starry robe of Dionysus, the sword implanted in the earth (in the Suicide of Ajax). On the rounded surface of the vase, this point is seen head on. All the other main lines of the composition either radiate around

11880-458: The work of Exekias himself but also into the way ancient pottery workshops operated. Twelve of the fourteen vessels bearing his name refer to him not as their painter but as their potter, by adding the word epoíēsen (ἐποίησεν) to his name. This may be translated as "Exekias made [me]", in contrast to égrapsen (ἓγραψεν), which translates as "painted [me]" (literally: "drew [me]"). On two amphorae, Berlin 1720 and Vatican 344, both terms are used in

12000-404: The works he was particularly proud of. According to a different approach, Exekias' epoíēsen signatures could be understood as functioning as a general workshop stamp, which would mean that Exekias may have simply been the master-potter who supervised the production of the vessel. Seven of the vessels signed " Exēkias epoíēsen, " however, carry too little decoration to afford comparison. Only two of

12120-469: The wrath of the Erinyes and presides over his trial for the murder of his mother Clytemnestra . When half the jury votes to acquit and the other half votes to convict , Athena casts the deciding vote to acquit Orestes and declares that, from then on, whenever a jury is tied, the defendant shall always be acquitted. In The Odyssey , Odysseus ' cunning and shrewd nature quickly wins Athena's favour. For

12240-618: Was Athena." According to a version of the story in a scholium on the Iliad (found nowhere else), when Zeus swallowed Metis , she was pregnant with Athena by the Cyclops Brontes. The Etymologicum Magnum instead deems Athena the daughter of the Daktyl Itonos . Fragments attributed by the Christian Eusebius of Caesarea to the semi-legendary Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon , which Eusebius thought had been written before

12360-561: Was a British classical archaeologist and art historian of ancient Greek art . Educated at Chigwell School in Essex and at Magdalene College, Cambridge , Boardman worked as assistant director of the British School at Athens between 1952 and 1955 before taking up a position as an assistant keeper at the Ashmolean Museum , part of the University of Oxford . He succeeded John Beazley as Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at

12480-537: Was a significant sea power, defeating the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis —but the water was salty and undrinkable. In an alternative version of the myth from Vergil 's Georgics , Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse. Athena offered the first domesticated olive tree . Cecrops accepted this gift and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens. The olive tree brought wood, oil, and food, and became

12600-491: Was a statue of Athena that was said to have stood in her temple on the Trojan Acropolis. Athena was said to have carved the statue herself in the likeness of her dead friend Pallas. The statue had special talisman-like properties and it was thought that, as long as it was in the city, Troy could never fall. When the Greeks captured Troy, Cassandra , the daughter of Priam , clung to the palladium for protection, but Ajax

12720-424: Was about to consummate the union, Athena vanished from the bridal bed, causing him to ejaculate on the floor, thus impregnating Gaia with Erichthonius. The geographer Pausanias records that Athena placed the infant Erichthonius into a small chest ( cista ), which she entrusted to the care of the three daughters of Cecrops : Herse , Pandrosos , and Aglauros of Athens. She warned the three sisters not to open

12840-719: Was also associated with weaving; her worship began during the Egyptian Pre-Dynastic period. In Greek mythology, Athena was reported to have visited mythological sites in North Africa, including Libya's Triton River and the Phlegraean plain . Based on these similarities, the Sinologist Martin Bernal created the " Black Athena " hypothesis, which claimed that Neith was brought to Greece from Egypt, along with "an enormous number of features of civilization and culture in

12960-406: Was also the collective name of a group of nymphs with prophetic powers. Her half-brother Apollo, however, angered and spiteful at the practitioners of an art rival to his own, complained to their father Zeus about it, with the pretext that many people took to casting pebbles, but few actually were true prophets. Zeus, sympathizing with Apollo's grievances, discredited the pebble divination by rendering

13080-664: Was associated with the owl from very early on; in archaic images, she is frequently depicted with an owl perched on her hand. Through its association with Athena, the owl evolved into the national mascot of the Athenians and eventually became a symbol of wisdom. In the Iliad (4.514), the Odyssey (3.378), the Homeric Hymns , and in Hesiod 's Theogony , Athena is also given the curious epithet Tritogeneia (Τριτογένεια), whose significance remains unclear. It could mean various things, including "Triton-born", perhaps indicating that

13200-546: Was called "Tritogeneia" because three things, on which all mortal life depends, come from her. In her aspect of Athena Polias , Athena was venerated as the goddess of the city and the protectress of the citadel. In Athens, the Plynteria , or "Feast of the Bath", was observed every year at the end of the month of Thargelion . The festival lasted for five days. During this period, the priestesses of Athena, or plyntrídes , performed

13320-597: Was educated at Chigwell School (1938–1945); then Magdalene College, Cambridge , where he read Classics beginning in 1945. After completing two years' national service in the Intelligence Corps he spent three years in Greece, from 1952 to 1955, as the Assistant Director of the British School at Athens . He married Sheila Stanford in 1952 (died 2005), and had two children, Julia and Mark. He died on 23 May 2024, at

13440-414: Was essentially urban and civilized, the antithesis in many respects of Artemis, goddess of the outdoors. Athena was probably a pre-Hellenic goddess and was later taken over by the Greeks. In the version recounted by Hesiod in his Theogony , Zeus married the goddess Metis , who is described as the "wisest among gods and mortal men", and engaged in sexual intercourse with her. After learning that Metis

13560-412: Was in such pain that he ordered someone (either Prometheus , Hephaestus , Hermes , Ares , or Palaemon, depending on the sources examined) to cleave his head open with the labrys , the double-headed Minoan axe . Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown and armed. The "First Homeric Hymn to Athena" states in lines 9–16 that the gods were awestruck by Athena's appearance and even Helios ,

13680-519: Was known as Mykenai , whereas at Thebes an analogous deity was called Thebe, and the city was known under the plural form Thebai (or Thebes, in English, where the 's' is the plural formation). The name Athenai is likely of Pre-Greek origin because it contains the presumably Pre-Greek morpheme *-ān- . In his dialogue Cratylus , the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428–347 BC) gives some rather imaginative etymologies of Athena's name, based on

13800-511: Was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva . Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of various cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens , from which she most likely received her name. The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is dedicated to her. Her major symbols include owls , olive trees , snakes, and the Gorgoneion . In art, she is generally depicted wearing

13920-519: Was located near the tomb of Medea 's children. Other epithets include Ageleia , Itonia and Aethyia , under which she was worshiped in Megara . She was worshipped as Assesia in Assesos . The word aíthyia ( αἴθυια ) signifies a "diver", also some diving bird species (possibly the shearwater ) and figuratively, a "ship", so the name must reference Athena teaching the art of shipbuilding or navigation. In

14040-461: Was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War . She plays an active role in the Iliad , in which she assists the Achaeans and, in the Odyssey , she is the divine counselor to Odysseus . In the later writings of the Roman poet Ovid , Athena was said to have competed against the mortal Arachne in a weaving competition, afterward transforming Arachne into

14160-471: Was pregnant, however, he became afraid that the unborn offspring would try to overthrow him, because Gaia and Ouranos had prophesied that Metis would bear children wiser than their father. In order to prevent this, Zeus tricked Metis into letting him swallow her, but it was too late because Metis had already conceived. A later account of the story from the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, written in

14280-617: Was supposedly the origin of calling Athena's sacred olive tree moria , for Halirrhotius's attempt at revenge proved fatal ( moros in Greek). Poseidon in fury accused Ares of murder, and the matter was eventually settled on the Areopagus ("hill of Ares") in favour of Ares, which was thereafter named after the event. Pseudo-Apollodorus records an archaic legend, which claims that Hephaestus once attempted to rape Athena, but she pushed him away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh. Athena wiped

14400-431: Was the god of inspiration, and the painting depicts his initial journey to Athens by ship. Pirates had seized the ship and were planning, perhaps, to sell Dionysus into slavery. Instead, the god caused vines to grow from the mast, frightening the pirates so much that they jumped overboard and were changed into dolphins, here seen swimming around the ship. Exekias is the first Athenian vase painter to depict Dionysus sailing in

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