In Bachofen’s opinion, despite being a female deity, Athena embodied nothing but the total victory of the Apollonian principle over the Demetrian one throughout the historic development of the Hellenic world, the principle of spiritual heredity over blood kinship. In cultural terms, it was the triumph of the individual heroic endeavor on the path towards divinization over the free maternal gift granted by the Demetrian mystery. This is Orestes delivered from Erinyes, chthonic female goddesses of vengeance. Although Athena was foretold to be more powerful than her father Zeus, according to this interpretation, she is the patriarchal values incarnate. An inferior status of women in Athens, the iconic polis of Greek antiquity patronized by Athena, in this context, also shows that she may hardly be seen as the “feminist” deity. In this respect, Athena as a guardian of a solar hero was not far off Christianity as the religion of individuation in terms of Carl Gustav Jung. However, is Athena really the inversed “masculine” deity? In the classic study “Athena, Virgin and Mother in Greek Religion” (1952) [3], Karl Kerenyi, as for me, fairly undermines the applicability of the vulgar distinction between chastity (which, in turn, did not coincide in the ancient Greek world with virginity) and fertility to this goddess. Pallas Athena, as a maiden, at the same time had a cultic epithet “mother,” the one which another divine virgin, Artemis, has never enjoyed, although in Asia Minor she coincided with Great Mother. Furthermore, Athena was a wedding goddess, too, but, unlike Hera, she, above all, secured the conception of a child (“father-right”), which, according to Kerenyi, was observed independently of Bachofen. Chapter of Kerenyi’s work, “Athena - Mother, Mistress and Protectress,” reveals further astonishing details of the Athena cult in ancient Greece involving an opposite sex, marriage and maternity. First, Athena is intrinsically connected with the Serpent as a male symbol. Back in times of Athena and Poseidon’s contest for Athens, the city was governed by chthonic, half-serpent king Cecrops who supposedly established monogamy which allowed to determine the father of the child and name the latter after him. His tomb was located in Athena’s sanctuary in Acropolis, which, in turn, was titled the Erechtheum after serpent king Erechtheus who worshipped Athena. Her serpentine partner is said to have erected the first ever statue to Athena and have been the first to call Zeus “the highest,” that is, to found his patriarchal cult. It is also well-known that Athena transformed Medusa’s hair into venomous snakes and, overall, once a beautiful maiden, who, as a priestess of Athena living in celibacy, was seduced by Poseidon in her temple, into Gorgon, a monster that turned to stone everyone who took a look at her. After Perseus killed Medusa, Athena has been bearing her image on a shield as one of her attributes. There are many other instances proving Athena’s connection with snakes and archaic stories of a wedding ceremony in a serpentine form. Athena, in fact, had mother - Metis, who was swallowed by Zeus before his mighty armor-clad daughter emerged victoriously out of his head. There is another legend explaining the “Apaturia” epithet, the deceiving one, which was given both to Athena and Aphrodite on different occasions. Athena led maiden Aithra astray, having ordered her to come to the island of Sphairia to pour a libation for a charioteer of Pelops where she was suddenly taken by Poseidon. After her forced marriage, Aithra renamed the island to Hiera, the holy, founded there a temple of Athena and launched the tradition of brides’ offering their girdles to Athena before the wedding. This rite was also performed in Athens. However, the fact that Athena, as mentioned above, secured the conception of a child proves that this hieratic legend was quite late, when the transition to patriarchal values has been already completed. The Arrephoria mystery is the most prolific in terms of detecting hidden archaic (matriarchal) motives in the Athena cult, as well as her connection with Aphrodite and partially Artemis. 4 girls from aristocratic families between the age of 7 and 11 were chosen to perform the ritual function as part of the Athena mysteries that were centered around the Acropolis. Only two of them, though, were involved in Arrephoria. It is believed that they correspond with 3 daughters of the serpentine king Cecrops: Aglaurus, Herse and Pandrosus. This mystery, according to Pausanius, took place “the night before the festival,” meaning the Skira during which occurred a massive bull sacrifice and in which participated the priestess of Pallas, the priest of Poseidon and the priest of Helius. Nevertheless, it also happened on the eve of the Panathenaea, and the main intrigue of the Arrephoria consisted in carrying concealed sacred objects (Arreta) by two girls-arrephoroi out of the Acropolis into the sanctuary of “Aphrodite in the Garden.” In the cavern filled with monuments to Aphrodite and Eros, as well as his phallic representations, girls took another unknown burden and carried it back to the shrine of Athena Pallas. After the ceremony, other girls who did not have possible “aphroditic” experience in the grotto, were chosen to serve Athena as arrephoroi. Their preparation to the mature life through the participation in the mystery is the most self-evident and plain testimony of Athena’s patronage of marriage and family life. Yet there is more about Athena’s own sexual nature, and it is encrypted in the strict prohibition to disclose those sacred objects which were kept sealed in a basket. The prohibition, as always, is reinforced by lethal outcomes for those disobedient who dared to look into the basket. According to the legend, these were two of three Cecrops’ daughters, Aglaurus and Herse. Aglaurus, who violated the ban and opened the basket, either was killed, or jumped out of the fortress in self-sacrifice or out of insanity when she saw the cultic content. This place on the north slope of the Acropolis, which is bypassed by the ceremony proceeding eastward to Aphrodite’s shrine, is called Aglaureum. Herse shared sister’s fate. Pandrosus, who remained faithful to the goddess, also had her precinct, Pandroseum, which is located on the Acropolis against the Erechtheum where the sacred olive tree grows. The sacred objects are believed to be, at least on the way down from the fortress, the divine child and, probably on the way back, genitalia and serpents made of dough, which explains their concealment in the light of the virgin goddess’ mystery. All of these facts and guesses are highlighted in the aforementioned work by Kerenyi. Even a short glimpse into the darker side of ancient Greek myths confirms Friedrich Nietzsche’s intuition about the tragic Dionysian truth hidden beneath the veil of solar Apollonian forms that represent antiquity Furthermore, the one who took Aglaurus maidenhood, according to the hieratic stories, was her father Cecrops. This precedent opens a chain of further incestuous relations marking the transition from the matriarchal “mother-son” pattern, when the child’s father remained unknown, to the patriarchal “father-daughter” pattern which bound maiden first to her father as the representation of the patriarchal order, and then to her husband. Mythologically and ritually, the triumph of the patriarchal pattern corresponded with the story of Zeus devouring Athena’s mother Metis and vanishing of the moon. However, the rise of the lunar crescent after the period of moon’s disappearance and presumable conjunction of sun and moon, which reflects the motif of Athena’s emergence out of Zeus’ head, gives an impression of certain revenge of the female principle. Archaic consciousness does not know the notion of total chastity and ascetism, that is why Kerenyi argues that Athena’s refusal, and inability, to succumb to the power of man (also absent in the case of Artemis) is rooted in an archaic incestuous connection with the father (Zeus) who stands out in complete superiority over other male connections. Anyway, the invocation of the young moon after the “wedding” of sun and moon, as well as devouring the moon by the sun, on the 28-29th day of the lunar cycle, which is the key to Athena mysteries, only partially confirms Kerenyi’s conclusion about the crucial role of Athena in Greek religion as an embodiment of patriarchal and heroic values. More presicely, this fair interpretation does not exhaust the richness of her archetype, in relation to the female in particular. To cut a long story short, these mysteries reveal not only Athena’s archaic maternal facets but also an idea of the female restoration after pregnancy and birth giving, which is directly associated with sexuality, apparent Aphrodite’s domain. The latter, in turn, is symbolized by the moon’s disappearance and reappearance, the motif which we also encounter in Hera’s cult. It included ritual aspects of three sanctuaries correlating with three periods in woman’s life (and represented by Hera’s surnames: Child or Maiden; Complete or Fullgrown; Widow, when Hera was separated from Zeus), three seasons (spring; summer and autumn as a single harvest season; winter, which resembles Demeter’s mourning for the abducted daughter) and, finally, moon phases (growing moon; full moon; waning moon). The focal point of Panathenaea was a new moon’s invocation. The crescent rising in the evening sky after respective ritual actions that lasted for several days is the symbol of Artemis which was regarded as the moon goddess along with Selene.
@AnnaLVajda
2 жыл бұрын
Yeah since when are Owls associated with Harry Potter when this Goddess has had them as her symbol for eons.
@AnnaLVajda
2 жыл бұрын
So many ignorant uneducated unwise people such a shame.
@Mr11ESSE111
15 күн бұрын
@@AnnaLVajda catholicism ,orthodox now have Mary idol instead Athena
@bijussbijuss6386
3 жыл бұрын
athena is faittr god🇬🇷🦉
@Mr11ESSE111
2 жыл бұрын
Mary now replaced Athena,one idol are replaced with other
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