Athena Shrine

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The key to Kerenyi's understanding and interpretation of Pallas Athena lies in his explanation of the paradox that she is at once both divine Virgin and divine Mother. Other scholarly interpreters of Greek religion and mythology could not have missed this peculiar self-contradiction within the image, but they have chosen to pass over it in favor of highlighting other characteristics of the Goddess. For Otto, whom Kerenyi quotes with appreciation, the distillate of all the facts about Pallas Athena is clear-eyed sagacity, intelligence directed toward practical, concrete goals, the "Metis" aspect of her being. Kerenyi, however, fixes on the paradoxical, conflicted qualities in Athena's nature and on the implications of these inner contradictions for our understanding of this image. On the one hand, Athena is divine Protectress and Mother; on the other hand, she is divine Virgin and Martial Maid (cf. Carol Rupprecht, "The Martial Maid,...

The name Erichthonius (the "very chthonic one"), a playful interpretation of the name Erechtheus, and used in further playful interpretations, remained the name of the mysterious child [Image: The Birth of Erichthonius by Codrus ]. It would perhaps be incorrect to say that this added the aspect "son" to the earlier aspects of the masculine partner of the Goddess, i.e., "father" and "husband." The reason for this is that in the mother-son mythologem, which preceded the father-daughter mythologem also on the Acropolis of Athens, the "son" became the husband: the father was in no way yet present at the beginning of a divine genealogy that began with the mother. Without father or brother, virginity would have been meaningless, since it is a form of the most intimate connection with either one or the other of them, even when it appears as absolute independence. At some point the third aspect, "father," was ...

Easier to sketch are the outlines of the Goddess's relationship with Hephaestus, the masculine principle in the image of fire. The fire God not only had his altar, in the Erechtheum but was present there in the eternally burning lamp which, like the fire of Vesta in Rome, had to be cared for by a priestess. The difference between these two cults -- the priestess of Athena was not a virgin but a married woman -- is small in comparison to the similarity of their relationship to fire. In Rome this relationship was more abstract than it was in Athens. The cultic legend of Athena Hellotis in Corinth gives us an idea of the original concreteness of this fire worship. This legend comes down to us in a somewhat confused form, but it shows a remarkable correspondence to the fate of the Locrian maidens who were sacrificed to Athena and then cremated. Sometimes two sisters are mentioned, sometimes four. Among their names are Hellotis (an epithet of both Athena and ...

To understand why the hero Butes had his cult in the Erechtheum [Text and Views: The Erechtheum ] it would be sufficient to know that he was honored as the founding ancestor of the family which served as priestesses of Athena and as priests of the God associated with her, i.e., Poseidon Erechtheus in historical times. He was the ancestor of the Butadai, or more strongly accentuated, of the Eteobutadai, the "true Butadai." Besides this it is noteworthy that Butes, whom the old genealogies made into a son of Poseidon, expresses a special relationship to cattle. Most likely it was the same relationship as the one which necessitated the very ancient and intricately executed cattle offerings to Zeus Polieus, which was also a name in the fortress for the masculine partner of Athena Polias. This relationship was certainly different from that to plow oxen, which was represented in the area of Pallas Athena's cult by another hero, Buzyges, the "ca...

The scenes of the attacks on Agraulus and Alcippe lay outside the fortress, one on the north slope, the other on the south slope; meanwhile the serpent had its home and Cecrops his grave on the Acropolis, in the sacred location which was named after Erechtheus. The Erechtheum [Text and Views: The Erechtheum ] included other manifestations of the masculine as well. In front of the entrance stood an altar to Zeus Hypatus. In the west wall of the building, which differed from the standard type of Greek temple, was an altar to Poseidon, on which were offered sacrifices to Erechtheus as well. Further in, there was an altar to the hero Butes, and finally a third altar, to Hephaestus. One of the chambers contained a wooden Hermes (i.e., a wooden phallus) which was concealed among myrtle branches and considered to be a votive offering of Cecrops. This would have been a middle area of the temple, since Herse, the beloved of Hermes, according to the story of their hi...

The image of Athena is conditioned by bondedness to the father. She has the contradictory task of providing progeny for the father while yet remaining the father's daughter and refraining from completing herself with a man, unlike Hera, whose history with Zeus presents another conjunction-mythologem, that of brother-and-sister. Ares, who enters into a relationship with Aglaurus, is hardly to be conceived of as theriomorphic in this connection, but rather as the mythological model and representative of those young men who swore an oath of arms in the Aglaureum and became thereby bearers and defenders of the patriarchal order. The God of warfare himself appears as father and defender of the same order, not as father and husband of his own daughter, however, but rather as the model of the earthly father because he kills the attacker of his daughter, Halirrothius, son of Poseidon. For this he is called by Poseidon before a divine tribunal of justice on the Ar...

Four Athenian maidens were chosen for the service of the Goddess and lived on the Acropolis. Between the ages of seven and eleven, they were selected from among the noble families. All were called Arrephoroi. Only two, however, are mentioned as executors of the secret rite of the Arrephoria. It was also said in connection with the choice of the four Arrephoroi that two persons were chosen to direct the work on the peplos of the Goddess. Not only maidens but also mature women helped in the weaving of it, just as the priestess of Athena was herself not a virgin. We do not know if the two directors of the work on the peplos were chosen from the four Arrephoroi. The question which concerns us relates only to the appropriateness of the four (or two) Arrephoroi on the one hand, and the three daughters of Cecrops, who functioned as examples for the conduct of the later Arrephoroi, on the other. The story was told to these girls when, at about the age of seven, t...

Often the duality exists also in the number of chosen maidservants of the Goddess. On the oldest representation, the Mycenean painted plate, one sees two devotees or priestesses. Nothing has been handed down regarding martial priestesses of Pallas, but we do know of two maidens who were designated for sacrifice and -- provided they escaped -- were consecrated to Athena. So it was with the two virgins who, in archaic times, were sent from Locri to Troy as atonement for the crime which Aias had committed against the Palladium. The Trojan men, meanwhile, waited and lay in ambush, and spying the maidens killed them, burned their corpses on the wood of barren trees -- a feature which characterizes the dealing with sacrifices to Deities (presumably the Goddess) of the underworld -- and scattered the ashes from Mount Traron into the sea. The Locrians then had to send two other virgins to replace the ones sacrificed. If the Locrian maidens remained unrecognized and r...

The duality of aspects appeared also in the attributes of certain cultic images of the Goddess. According to one description, even the Palladium [Image: Diomedes with the Palladium ], that ancient sacred image of Pallas which, as one version has it, fell from heaven, already showed two aspects. In the right hand the statue carried a raised lance, in the left a distaff and spindle, tools of feminine handiwork and of the household. It was not merely novel invention that attributed them to the mysterious statue; coins from Troy show the statue equipped in this way in accordance with ancient tradition. The statuette of an owl holding the distaff -- a symbolic representation of the Goddess -- has been preserved for us. Of an archaic cultic image of Athena Nike, it is attested that the simple statue held a pomegranate in the right hand and a helmet in the left. The helmet undoubtedly refers to the "palladium" aspect. The pomegranate belongs to her as an...

Can the name "Athena" or "Athenais, Athene" be referred to the motherly "Metis" aspect of the Goddess as the name "Pallas" was to the father-bound, almost masculine, martial aspect? Of the two names, "Athena" (with its variations) is the more essential, the one which was established earlier as the exclusive proper name of the Goddess. Even Homer never says "Pallas" alone instead of "Pallas Athena" or "Pallas Athenaie," but he does use the second name without the first. A scrupulous, sacred language expands the simple appellation of the Athenian city Goddess with a formula which leaves no room for doubt that this and no other "Athena" is intended: Athena e Athenon medeousa (Athena, the Guardian of Athens). The old question, whether the town was named "Athenai" after Athena, or vice versa, must be adjudicated in favor of the first alternative: if "Athena...

As the theme of our further reflections we elect to pursue this established duality of aspects. Its appearance is not an accidental product of history. It is so characteristic of this Goddess that we could hardly even speak of Pallas Athena if only one or the other side stood before us without the tension and polarity of both. This is what differentiates a Goddess who is able to exercise power over human beings, from a mere personification. The duality finds expression in the name of Pallas Athena itself, and at least this much is certain: one of the two names portrays the martial and virginal aspect. The meaning of Pallas ( pallas , of which the plural is pallades ) is handed down to us, as is also its precise differentiation from other words deriving from the same stem: it was once the name for robust maidens and implied the meaning of the masculine word pallas ( pallantes in the plural) "robust young man." A distinct masculinity seems to adhere...