Athena — the Modern Woman? Goddess of Wisdom, War and Craftsmen in Greek Mythology
Modern woman: She - we are still finding our way. Be sexy? Be alluring? Be professional? Be highly educated? Be nice only, at all times? Have children? Or not? All at once? How?
There’s the urge we all feel as human beings, to be close to others. By thoughts, passion, or sympathetic feelings, or love.
Love was defined by Fromm as the human urge ‘to overcome the feeling of being unconnected’.
To me the most tragic crux in all this is the following: For thousands of years the idea in patriarchy was to make men ‘’hard’ and ‘cool’ and ‘superior’ at all times. In turn, women were supposed to be weak and emotional. In psychology this assignation of character traits is even defined as a method to keep certain power relations in place, not just between men and women.
Constantly telling someone they are weak will make them believe it at some point. A modern, fine version of that story can be found in the movie Pat and Mike, starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
It’s been a while now that more independence was achieved: Independence in material and in intellectual matters. For women. Still, that urge I mentioned on the one hand, the obvious advantages a powerful position in society provides (to men) on the other hand — how can we be at the end of that struggle, yet?
Achieve a balance of power between the sexes as well as in the world…
In her influential essay A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf at the beginning of the 20th century put it strikingly clear: How can a man, any man, not want a woman by his side to always be kind, gentle and supportive if the world outside is so cold and so competitive…?
Athena, the Modern Woman?
Athena is particular to me because she seems to represent a figure as a woman I feel I can relate to:
not perfect, but well-liked, desired even, yet not easily taken in — or had.
She fights only in order to make more peace.
She sprang from the head of her father Zeus, reigning god of Greek mythology, at birth, also a striking way to come to life: a father’s thought or idea…
She failed once dreadfully when killing her sister in a sparring fight, where her father Zeus interfered at the last minute, blinded her sister momentarily to weaken her and thus made Athena kill her sister accidentally.
Why? Shouldn’t a God and father protect his daughter against things, grave mistakes in particular?
A little background here makes it clearer:
‘Pallas’ had been her uncle Poseidon’s daughter in the tales, but both had been raised and felt like sisters. That Zeus would interfere at all, in the tales was due to an old rivalry between his brother Poseidon and himself. The male tragedy of competition again…?
That’s apparently why she is called ‘Pallas Athena’ on most statues or scrolls or in texts: she put the name of her beloved sister in front of her own to remind and be reminded for the rest of her life.
She is protective goddess of all crafts, close to arts and although I am not a craftswoman as such, I like many crafts very well, such as knitting, crocheting, or cooking.
Wisdom, last but not at all least of the main characteristics and responsibilities of her as a figure in the tales:
Wisdom is dear to me and I try to attain more, as the years pass by, always have held in it in high regard.
Wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing by a long chalk. But experience and a kind heart, as well as knowledge are the best possible bases for wisdom to come — sometimes sooner, sometimes later.
Non-violently ‘fight’ for peace, be wise, do not let them fool you and look your fellow-man — literally and figuratively — squarely in the eye, yet remember also about love or passion, quality-wise, instead of quantity: that’s what this image means to me in a nutshell. Athena.
