The birth of the goddess Athena.

She came forth from the head of Zeus, after Hephaistos had split open the skull of the Father of gods with an axe: full grown and in a full set of armour she sprang forward! What does this mean?

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Much has been written about Athena and about the birth of this goddess: not only because she played an enormous role in the lives of the residents of the city of Athens. Long after the world had passed away which created one of the most intriguing phantasies of Man, Athena's miraculous birth lingered on in the mind of following generations, in the continually widening world in which the spiritual conceptions of Greek culture proved a constant challenge for testing the contemporary world of thought. There have been suggested cosmic, historical, psycological, political and philosophical explanations of the birth-story.

To find a key to the doorway leading to an understanding of the myth is not easy: one has to collect all the archeological and literary material in regard to the myth and to analyse it carefully. And even then it will not be a garantee for understanding and it will be difficult to go beyond descriptive studies. We also do not pretend to be able to solve the enigma. What we try is to collect all resources for further study of the Greek goddess of Wisdom and different views on Athena, based on the available materials.

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© KOINONIA A.E.J. Kaal, 2004.