ATHENA: What I've Learned

ATHENA: WHAT I’VE LEARNED

 Okay, so the past couple of weeks in English, we’ve been learning about Greek mythology (of course, Mr. Thompson, you knew that! J ). Each person in my class was assigned a famous person (god, hero, etc.) in Greek mythology and had to do research on them to write an essay. Honestly, before this assignment I had no idea whatsoever who Athena was or why she was important. I didn’t even know that she was a Greek god! Some of my friends and I went and asked Mr. Thompson for a specific person to do our report on, and I asked for Athena. I only asked for her because I liked her name, not because I knew anything about her and/or thought she was interesting. I’ve learned, though, that Athena was a pretty cool Greek goddess! Now, I know that she isn’t real (obviously), but I’ll just talk for right now as though she is real. It’ll be much easier that way.

Well, anyway, I learned that Athena is/was the goddess of wisdom, peace, skill, strategy, war, fine arts, and crafts. I’m glad I chose to ask Mr. Thompson to be assigned to her that day, because after doing a little research, I think Athena is awesome! I love how she is tough, not the typical soft, sweet, beautiful, dough head goddess like Aphrodite, for example. Athena was the goddess of war!

Do you want to know how Athena was “born”? One day, Zeus was walking along (this is a really long story, but I’ll make it short….it might sound choppy and unclear, but it’s the only way, trust me) and saw a woman named Meitis. He swallowed her (I told you it would sound weird) because he knew she was the goddess of wisdom, and he wanted to be wise. A little while later, Zeus developed a terrible migraine. He ordered one of his servants to crack his skull open to rid him of the pain. When the servant obeyed, Athena came out of Zeus’ cracked skull, full grown and dressed in full armor.

I might add to this later, just so you know, but that’s all I feel like writing about Athena right now. J