On Athena, In Greek Mythology

This paper restored, through the investigations of related theories, mythologies, classical texts, visual images, as well as archaeological relics, the view of the ancient Greeks on the imagery of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. Athena, according to the contemporary imagery, has become the pronoun of "Metis", representative of Greek Wisdom which is also characteristic of Athena's activity. Apart from fully recognizing and demonstrating Athena's well-known nature of "Wisdom", this paper investigated her "multi-natures", which has long been ignorant, but which is equally important for people to understand her, and attempted to construct a "Goddess of Wisdom" as well as a "Goddess of multi-natures" in the eyes of the ancient Greeks.The first chapter analyzed, through the birth mythology of Athena, some important characteristics of Athena, that is, she was both a noble warrior and the incarnation of Wisdom and although she was female, she was on the side of patriarchy. Meanwhile, in this chapter the relationship between this mythology and the heirs of the supreme power in Greek mythology was under analysis as well. In chapter two, the prehistoric archetype of Athena, the amalgam of the "snake goddess" of Crete and the "shield goddess" of the invading Mycene, was constructed in the perspective of Feminism. The third chapter, by selecting three typical examples, made a comparatively structuralist research on the relationship between Athena and other gods, revealing that Athena's essential characteristic lay in "Metis". By investigating the relationship between Athena and heroes, the fourth chapter discussed the core values of ancient Greece, that is, "helping friends, harming enemies", and introduced the females who encountered Athena in the mythology. Most of them ended up in tragedy. In mythology Athena became a goddess for men from the Great Mother for women,which indicates the decline of social status of ancient Greek women.