Birth of Athena

Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, was born from the head of her father Zeus, fully grown and in armour. Her mother was Metis, “Thought”, a daughter of Ocean, whom Zeus swallowed while she was pregnant after he was warned that her children would be mightier than himself. This is how Athena came to be born without a mother, as Zeus’ own child (Hesiod, Theogony 886–900, 924–926).

Zeus and Metis

When the gods had won their struggle with the Titans and Zeus had been persuaded to rule, he divided their honours among them, and Hesiod says that he made Metis his wife first; she was wiser than all gods and mortal men (Theogony 881–887). Apollodorus gives a more dramatic start: Metis turned into many shapes to avoid the embraces of Zeus, but he caught her and lay with her (Library 1.3.6). She did not escape, and she became pregnant.

The Prophecy

According to Hesiod, when Metis was about to bring forth bright-eyed Athena, Zeus deceived her with cunning words and put her into his own belly, as Earth and starry Heaven advised him, so that no other god should hold royal sway in his place. For very wise children were fated to be born from Metis: first Athena, the maiden Tritogeneia, equal to her father in strength and in wise understanding, and afterwards a son of overbearing spirit, who would be king of gods and men (Theogony 886–900). Apollodorus says the same, with the warning attributed to Earth alone: after bearing the maiden, Metis would bear a son who should be lord of heaven, and out of fear Zeus swallowed her (Library 1.3.6). Zeus’ father Cronus and grandfather Uranus had both been overthrown by their sons.

Hesiod adds that Zeus swallowed Metis so that the goddess might devise good and evil for him from inside his body (Theogony 899–900). Metis was not destroyed: Hesiod says that she remained hidden beneath the inner parts of Zeus, and that she was Athena’s mother, “worker of righteousness, who was wiser than gods and mortal men” (Theogony 929n–929p, in the longer version of this passage that some ancient copies preserved). The son she was to bear is never born.

Zeus' Headache

When the time came for the birth, Zeus himself gave birth to Athena “by way of his head” (Theogony 924–926). The sources do not agree about who opened it. According to Pindar, Hephaestus cleft the head of Zeus with a bronze-wrought axe (Olympian 7.35–38). Apollodorus says that Prometheus or, as others say, Hephaestus struck the head with an axe (Library 1.3.6), and Euripides’ chorus in the Ion sings that Athena was delivered from the forehead of Zeus by the Titan Prometheus (Ion 452–457).

Pindar, Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn say only that Athena came out of the head of Zeus; the pain that made Zeus cry out is not described in these early sources, and a god had to open the head with an axe or wedge for her to emerge.

Athena's Birth

Out of the head sprang Athena, fully grown and in a full set of armour. The Homeric Hymn to Athena describes it: Zeus bore her from his awful head, arrayed in warlike arms of flashing gold, and awe seized all the gods as they gazed. Athena sprang from the immortal head and stood before Zeus, shaking a sharp spear. Great Olympus reeled at her might, the earth cried fearfully, the sea was moved and tossed with dark waves, and Helios stopped his swift horses for a long while, until the maiden Pallas Athena had taken the armour from her shoulders (Homeric Hymn 28 to Athena 1–16). Pindar likewise says that Athena leapt out and cried aloud with an exceeding cry, and that Heaven and Mother Earth trembled at her coming (Olympian 7.35–38).

Hesiod says that she was born on the banks of the river Triton (Theogony 929l–929m, in the longer version), and Apollodorus names the same river, the Triton (Library 1.3.6); this is why the poets call her Tritogeneia (Theogony 895, 924). Hesiod calls her the awful one, the stirrer of strife, the leader of armies, who delights in tumults, wars and battles (Theogony 925–926). Homer repeatedly calls her the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 8.38–40).

Hera, Hephaestus and Typhaon

Hera was furious that Zeus had given birth without her. In Hesiod, she answered by bearing Hephaestus alone, without union with Zeus (Theogony 927–929). In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Hera is angry with Zeus because he bore Athena from his head, and she prays to be allowed to bear a child who will be stronger than Zeus; she then bore the monster Typhaon (Hymn to Apollo 305–355).

Birth of Athena Sources

The main sources are Hesiod’s Theogony (886–900, 924–929 with the longer version 929a–929t), the Homeric Hymn 28 to Athena (1–16), the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (305–355), Pindar’s Olympian 7 (35–38), Euripides’ Ion (452–457) and Apollodorus’ Library (1.3.6); the Iliad (8.38–40) calls her Zeus’ dear child.

See Also: Zeus, Metis, Hephaestus, Athena, Hera, Prometheus