Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [99]
Artemis (Diana) With ancient origins as a mother goddess and patroness of animals, to the classical Greeks, Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and Apollo’s twin sister. She is the “virgin goddess,” the patron of the hunt, the untamed protector of wild animals. She presides over the rites of passage in which Greek women changed from “wild” parthenos (virgin) to fully “tamed” gyne (woman). She is also a merciless judge of anyone who breaks her laws, and when any woman dies suddenly, it is believed that she has been struck by the arrows of Artemis.
One of the most famous stories demonstrating Artemis’s swift and cruel justice involves Actaeon, the handsome hunter who accidentally comes upon the goddess as she is bathing naked in a spring. Offended, Artemis turns Actaeon into a stag and then sends his own hunting hounds out to tear their master to pieces. Told by Ovid, this myth has been a favorite subject of artists throughout history—proving, if nothing else, that there has always been a market for naked women and violence.
Athena (Minerva) The patron of Athens—from whom her name is taken—Athena is the virgin goddess of war and wisdom, as well as the patron of arts and crafts, including building and carpentry. The daughter of Zeus and Metis (a goddess whose name meant “cleverness”), Athena is said to be born from Zeus’s head. According to Hesiod, Zeus fears that one of his children will depose him, as he had done to his own father. To avoid this fate, Zeus swallows the pregnant Metis, hoping to absorb her cleverness and wisdom. When he complains of a severe headache, one of the other gods strikes his head with an ax, and out springs Athena, fully formed and armed, screaming a war cry. In this way, the child who might depose him is never truly “born.”
Ever virginal and masculine in behavior, Athena is almost always depicted in full armor, holding a shield and spear. As patroness of Athens, she represents everything that Greek culture later idealizes—wisdom, the power of intelligence, and reason over unbridled love or passion—making her, in many respects, the opposite of Aphrodite.
She is not perfect, however. One myth illustrates that she can be swift to anger if her supremacy is questioned—especially by a mortal. A young woman named Arachne challenges Athena to a weaving competition. Taking the guise of an old woman, Athena tries to dissuade Arachne from the contest, but the mortal Arachne dismisses the warning. As the two work at their looms, Athena sees that Arachne’s weaving has illustrations that seem to mock the gods by showing all of their deceptions and love affairs. She can also see that the mortal girl’s weaving is better than her own. Snatching the tapestry from the loom, Athena starts to beat the poor mortal girl with a shuttle. In fear, Arachne tries to hang herself with a noose made of thread. As she hangs there, Athena sprinkles the mortal girl with poison and Arachne becomes a spider, which is why, of course, spiders spin webs and are called arachnids.
On a more noble note, the great temple dedicated to Athena in Athens was the Parthenon (“Temple to the Virgin”), which stands on a hill called the Acropolis overlooking the city. Probably the greatest example of classic Greek architecture, the Parthenon was built between 447 and 432 BCE as a celebration of Athenian pride during the Golden Age of Pericles, when Athens reigned supreme.*
Demeter (Ceres) The mother goddess of crops, Demeter plays a featured role in one of the central myths of Greece, the tale of Persephone, her daughter with Zeus. When Persephone is carried off to the underworld by Hades, Demeter is enraged and prevents the crops from growing. To restore the natural order, Zeus arranges his daughter’s release by negotiating a settlement between Demeter and Hades. But Hades had already given Persephone a pomegranate seed, and since she has eaten the food of the underworld, she is compelled to spend one-third of the year there with Hades and