Archaic image of the goddess and its evolution
In the ancient past of Athens zoomorphic indicate its attributes - a snake and an owl, as well as epithets (sovookaya, etc.).. Chthonic wisdom of Athens has a source in the image of the goddess with snakes Cretan-Mycenaean period.
According to the concept, developed in detail by Martin Nilsson, Minoan "goddess with a shield, shown in Larnaca from Milat, as well as on other monuments, whose symbol was a shield in the form of eight, was the forerunner of Athens. According to IM Diakonov, a single image maiden-warrior among the Greeks divided into three: warrior and craftswomen Athena, a hunter of Artemis and Aphrodite, goddess of sexual passion.
The myth of the birth of Athena Metis (whose name translates as "thought") and Zeus belongs to the late period of Greek mythology, the time of discharge of the classical canon. Graves suggests that before this she was the daughter of one partenogennoy Metis. The appearance of ingested Athena born from Zeus's head is depicted from the perspective of mythology period of patriarchy, which highlight the men's organizing principle. Athena transformed into an obedient shout Zeus and deliberately deprived of his past. As pointed out by Losev, Athena becomes like a direct continuation of Zeus, the performer of his plans and will, he thought, carried out in action. Over time, motherhood Metis becoming more abstract, symbolic, nature, and Athena begins to be a product of one of Zeus, and takes on the role of divine wisdom, as well as Zeus took them from the Metis.
According to Graves, refusal Athens from his father Poseidon indicates a shift has taken place in ancient times, the supreme deity of Athens. AI Zaitsev, by contrast, suggests that the option with the birth of Athena from Zeus without a mother is more ancient, and the story of Hesiod swallowed Metis - later. Wilamowitz assumed (based on the fact that the word means both the crown κορυφη Zeus in myth, and the top of the mountain) that the original idea was the birth of Athena from the mountain tops.
Athena - One of the main figures of the Olympic pantheon. In terms of importance, it is Zeus, and sometimes exceeds it. It is rooted in the earliest period of Greek mythology - a matriarchy. Having acquired new functions of military power, the goddess has kept its independence matriarchal (maiden and a champion of chastity).
Athena has many features of the space (it keeps the lightning of Zeus, was born in the windfall, etc.).. It was thought of as fate and the Great Goddess-mother, parent, and destroyer of all living things.