A is for Athena (and more snakes) - by Nan Brooks

Statue of Athena in Nashville, Tennessee

Just as in the story about how Eve Ruined It all, snakes appear in many myths and usually are related somehow to the presence of women. It makes sense in a way. The snake sheds her skin and emerges alive, which mere humans cannot do. The snake, in fact, is even bigger than she was before. A woman bleeds for days and does not die, which would be miraculous to us if it weren’t such common everyday thing. What’s more, she bleeds during the fertile time of her life. Amazing. And terrifying to some.

If we think about how women have to hide their sanitary napkins, tampons, etc. from the eyes and delicate sensibilities of the people (which is to say men) around them – well, clearly there is something forbidden, even mysterious, going on with all that bleeding. Menstruating women are considered unclean in some religious traditions.  

It seems to me there is a common theme with women and snakes having to do with transformation, growing, becoming more powerful, and with renewing oneself independently of outside influences.

But about Athena. We know the great city of Athens is named for the Goddess Athena, but how it got that way is a long and sometimes brutal stories. Also, there are snakes. The name Athena comes from a language so ancient that it cannot be translated; no one knows what the name means. She was probably a deity in the pantheon of Minoan or Mycenaen civilization and likely a household goddess.  From that we can extrapolate that Athena was guardian of palaces. (See Patricia Monaghan -info below.) Although the Minoan civilization disappeared, Athena did not. . It is posited that the ancient Athena survives in Crete, where statues depict priestesses and goddesses holding snakes high over their heads.

So we’re back to snakes again. They were important to households, modest or royal, urban or rural, because they rid the grain storage of rodents and enabled people to survive through the winter months until crops could grow again. Communicating and dancing with snakes like the priestesses of Crete is still a sacred act in some religions, including Christian sects.

So, why then do we find snakes so terrifying and associate them with evil. (See Adam and Eve, for example). How the myth of Athena changed over time can tell us the answer to that question. As Greek culture emerged in all its patriarchal glory, goddesses who had been quite powerful in previous cultures were reduced to victims, harridans, bloodthirsty rampaging killers, and more. They were no longer associated with the earth and fertility, by and large. The Greek myth, which changed over time, eventually stated as truth that Athena was born from the forehead of the all-powerful Zeus. A product of the male mind, not the earth. Her legend was recreated to support the ruling order, as often happens. She became associated with a maiden goddess named Pallas, who was a warrior and protector of the tribe. The protector role is probably the link between them.

The story goes that the sea god, Poseidon, disputed Athena’s prominence in the city we now know by her name. It came to a vote and because the men voted for Poseidon and the women for Athena, and because there were more women than men in the population, Athena won the vote. Eventually, the men decided to concede. But not without a few caveats. They declared Athena to be born from Zeus’ head and therefore subservient and beholden to the god. There is always a consequence when women use their power and it usually is not pretty for the women. In Athens, women could no longer be called citizens, could not vote, and their children would be called by their father’s name rather than their mother’s. If you see any parallels to current politics, voter suppression, demonizing of women who lead, that is up to you.

Athena, who is still depicted as Pallas Athena, the warrior is most famously depicted in the giant statue in the Parthenon in Athens. It was 38 feet tall, was dedicated in about 438 c.e., and made of gold and ivory. She is shown standing (rather than sitting or reclining as most goddesses were), wearing a crown, tunic and aegis*, holding a statue of Nike, goddess of victory in one hand and a spear in the other. Beside her are a massive rising serpent and a shield. This statue was created by the great sculpture Phidias, who was said to be given the exact image of each god and goddess so that he could reveal them to humankind. It is the image by which Athena is known even now.

That original statue was lost in 336, when it was moved from Athens. But the image lives on. A duplicate Athena statue exists in a replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. Originally a plain white and 45 feet tall, it was gilded in gold in 2002 when details were also painted on Her face, clothing, and shield. www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2020/05/20/athena-statue-parthenon-nashville-unveiled-30-years-ago-today/5217437002/

*The aegis on the Athena statue’s head contains a representation of the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa, a gift to Athena from Medusa’s killer, Perseus. The Encyclopedia  Britannica says that other gods, such as Apollo, used it now and then to invoke terror. So now Medusa enters the story.

Medusa probably was an early goddess, perhaps similar to the grain goddess, Demeter, and believed to derive from a sun goddess in Anatolian culture. She is depicted surrounded by snakes, which may be a reference to her priestesses who, like those in Crete, danced with snakes. One version of her myth, which was created by the Greeks, says that Medusa mated with the sea god Poseidon in the temple of Athena, who punished her by decapitating her. Further, when her head left her body, it flew onto Athena’s shoulders and then settled onto the front of her robe.

We could explore the details of the violent mythology further, but for now let’s just ponder how these goddesses of fertility, earth, home, and protection have changed in human understanding as cultures faded, emerged, faded, and emerged. How does it serve us as a civilization to keep alive the myths of jealous, bloodthirsty, ugly Goddesses, surrounded by snakes?  And who gets to decide what is true and what is fiction in these great myths? They serve us, myths do, as ways to learn about human behavior, about the cosmos and how the world works. What shall we keep from the Athena myth and what shall we allow to fade away as we work for a just and peaceful world?