DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0279
CHARACTERISTICS OF ATHENE.
243
It requires a strong effort of the imagination to grasp the multi-
plex and at first sight incongruous elements which make up the
character of Athene as represented to us in Greek literature and art.
The wide range of her different qualities and functions is strikingly-
brought before us in the Iliad,1 where in company with Here she
rushes to the battle before Troy, and emboldens Diomed to face the
God of War in arms. Throwing away the veil of airy texture, whidl
slie liersclf liad made,"1 she
The cuirass donn'd of cloud-compelling force
And stood accoutred for the bloody fray.
Her tasselled ;cgis round her shoulders next
She threw, with terror circled all around,
And on its face were figured deeds of arms
And Strife and Courage high, and panic Rout.
There too a Gorgon's head of monstrous size
Frown'd terrible, portent of angry Jove.
In her hand
A spear she bore, long, weighty, tough, wherewith
The mighty daughter of a mighty sire
Sweeps down the ranks of those her hate pursues.
(Lord Derby's Translation.)
And yet this same terrible Goddess, who raves and storms in the
midst of din and carnage, appears as the prudent friend of her
favourite Achilles, and restrains him from avenging a very real insult
and wrong:
From Heaven' I came to curb, if thou wilt hear,
Thy fury ....
She springs forth fully armed from the head of Zeus with a mighty
shout, ' at which Heaven and mother Earth shivered,'4 and yet her
greatest and most precious gift to her darling people is not the war-
horse but the olive, the emblem of peace, which was planted in her
honour on the sacred ' olive-bearing' hill* She stands in full armour,
1 v. 733. 1 I lac. lurctts, 1178 :—
■ *4 «*«* ironic™ koI Ki^i x<paiv. ttrirffrn 5x«ot.
3 Iliad, 1. 207.
« Pindar, 01. vii. 37:— i4So:—
vntpfLaKti 00^. . , .
Ovpai'iic 6' «4>pi{» r.r «ai l'oco Mart?* irayot.
R 2
243
It requires a strong effort of the imagination to grasp the multi-
plex and at first sight incongruous elements which make up the
character of Athene as represented to us in Greek literature and art.
The wide range of her different qualities and functions is strikingly-
brought before us in the Iliad,1 where in company with Here she
rushes to the battle before Troy, and emboldens Diomed to face the
God of War in arms. Throwing away the veil of airy texture, whidl
slie liersclf liad made,"1 she
The cuirass donn'd of cloud-compelling force
And stood accoutred for the bloody fray.
Her tasselled ;cgis round her shoulders next
She threw, with terror circled all around,
And on its face were figured deeds of arms
And Strife and Courage high, and panic Rout.
There too a Gorgon's head of monstrous size
Frown'd terrible, portent of angry Jove.
In her hand
A spear she bore, long, weighty, tough, wherewith
The mighty daughter of a mighty sire
Sweeps down the ranks of those her hate pursues.
(Lord Derby's Translation.)
And yet this same terrible Goddess, who raves and storms in the
midst of din and carnage, appears as the prudent friend of her
favourite Achilles, and restrains him from avenging a very real insult
and wrong:
From Heaven' I came to curb, if thou wilt hear,
Thy fury ....
She springs forth fully armed from the head of Zeus with a mighty
shout, ' at which Heaven and mother Earth shivered,'4 and yet her
greatest and most precious gift to her darling people is not the war-
horse but the olive, the emblem of peace, which was planted in her
honour on the sacred ' olive-bearing' hill* She stands in full armour,
1 v. 733. 1 I lac. lurctts, 1178 :—
■ *4 «*«* ironic™ koI Ki^i x<paiv. ttrirffrn 5x«ot.
3 Iliad, 1. 207.
« Pindar, 01. vii. 37:— i4So:—
vntpfLaKti 00^. . , .
Ovpai'iic 6' «4>pi{» r.r «ai l'oco Mart?* irayot.
R 2