Athena was one of the twelve chief Olympian deities and the goddess associated with wisdom, craft, and warfare. In wars—where she was most commonly depicted—Athena embodied cold rationality, tactics, and strategy. Athena’s cold logic stood in direct contrast to her brother Ares’ rage, violence, and impulsiveness.
Athena was called many things: Pallas (“girl”), Parthenos (“virgin”), Promachos (“of war”), Ergane (“of the crafts”), and Athena Nike (“victorious Athena”). In literature, she was described as “the bright-eyed," “goddess of spoil,” and the “lovely-haired goddess." In art, she was often depicted in full armor as well as in the company of olives and owls. While Athena was broadly worshipped throughout the Greek world, her cult was particularly strong in Athens, the intellectual center of the Greeks. Continue reading from World History Encyclopedia
Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom, medicine, commerce, handicrafts, poetry, the arts in general, and later, war. In many ways similar to the Greek goddess Athena, she had important temples in Rome and was patron of the Quinquatras festival. Originally, Minerva was an Italian goddess of handicrafts closely associated to the Greek goddess Athena. The scholarly consensus, however, is that Minerva was indigenous, passing to the Romans from the Etruscan goddess Menrva, and that her name derives from meminisse, meaning 'to remember'. Continue reading from World History Encyclopedia
