3rd February: Athena

The 3rd day of the month is sacred to the Goddess Athena. So 10 Athena facts for the third of February.

1. Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, mathematics, strength, war strategy, the arts, crafts - especially weaving, and skill. She represents intelligence, humility, consciousness, cosmic knowledge, creativity, education, enlightenment, the arts, eloquence and power.
2. Her Roman equivalent is Minerva.
3. Athena is the daughter of Zeus and Metis, the goddess of crafty thought and wisdom. According to the legend, Athena was not exactly a wanted child, at first. When Zeus had sex with Metis, he immediately regretted it, because of a prophecy that she would give birth to a deity more powerful than him. So he ate her. Later, Zeus found himself suffering from a headache so bad that he could only find relief by getting one of his warriors to cut his head open with an axe; whereupon Athena leapt out of his head, fully grown and fully armed. Despite this, she is later cited as being his favourite daughter.
4. One of her nicknames is Athena the Virgin, because she never married nor took a lover. The nearest she came was when Hephaestus tried to rape her, but she fought him off and his semen fell on the ground, impregnating the earth instead. The result was Erichthonius, who was born to the Earth goddess, Gaia. She gave the child to Athena who adopted him.
5. Another nickname is Pallas Athena. Pallas, according to myth, was a sister or companion and sparring partner of Athena. In most versions of the myth, Athena accidentally kills Pallas and is so distraught at what she has done that she takes her name.
6. Athena is closely linked with Athens, the capital of Greece. Nobody really knows whether the city was named after her or if she was named after the city. The legends relate that she and Poseidon competed for patronage of the city, and Athena won, because the people preferred her gift of an Olive tree to Poseidon's spring of Salt Water. The olive tree, therefore, is one of her symbols.
7. Another symbol is the owl. This may be because of the bird's reputation for wisdom and seeing in the dark, or possibly because of its eyes. Glaukopis is another common name for Athena and it means bright-eyed or with gleaming eyes. The Greek word for owl comes from the same root. Descriptions of Athena usually state that she has "piercing eyes".
8. She is said to have disliked fighting, unlike her brother, Ares, and saw war as a last resort once wisdom had failed. She is said to be of calm demeanour and slow to anger, unless, like Arachne, someone claims to be better at weaving than she is. Despite warnings not to anger the gods, Arachne asked for a weaving contest. Arachne produced a flawless work, but its theme was Athena's father Zeus being unfaithful with numerous women, so Athena lost it with her and hit her with a loom, turning Arachne into a spider.
9. In art, Athena is usually shown in armour and wearing a helmet with the image of Nike, and carrying a shield with a gorgon's head on it.
10. Athena is the patron of several universities, including Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany, and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania has a statue of her in the Great Hall. At exam time, students make offerings to her, hoping for good luck, and that she will forgive them for breaking any college rules or traditions.