ATRENE, or PALLAS ATITENE, the Greek goddess corresponding, as we have said, to the Roman 3Iinerva, was one of the few truly grand ethical divinities of Greek myth ology. Different accounts are given of her origin and parentage, probably from the jumbling together of local legends; but the best known, and in ancient times, the most orthodox version of the myth represented her as the daughter of Zeus and Metis. Zeus, we are told, when he had attained supreme power after his victory over the Titans, chose for his first wife Metis (Wisdom); but being advised by both Uranus and Gas (Heaven and Earth), he swallowed lier,when she was pregnant with Athene. When the time came that Athene should have been born, Zeus felt great pains in his bead, and caused Hephiestus (Vulcan) to split it up with an axe, when the goddess sprang forth— fully armed, according to the later stories. Throwing aside the thick veil of anthropo morphism which conceals the significance of the myth, we may see in this account of Athene's parentage an effort to set forth a divine symbol of the combination of power and wisdom. Her father was the greatest, her mother the wisest of the gods. She is literally born of both, and so their qualities harmoniously blend in her. It is possible that the constant representation of her as a strictly maiden goddess, who had a real, and not a merely prudish antipathy to marriage, was meant to indicate that qualities like hers could not be mated, and that, because she was perfect, she was doomed to virginity She was not, however, a cold unfeeling divinity; on the contrary, she warmly aud actively intrrested herself in the affairs of both gods and men. She sat at the right
hand of Zeus, assisting him with her counsels; she helped him in his wars, and con quered Pallas and Encelados in the battles of the giants. She was the patroness of agriculture, invented the plow and rake, introduced the olive into Attica, and (in har mony with her character as the personification of active wisdom) taught men the use of almost all the implements of industry and art; and is said to have devised nearly all feminine employments. Philosophy, poetry, and oratory were also tinder her care. She was the protectress of the Athenian state, was believed tohave instituted the court of justice on Mars' Hill (the Areiopagus). As a warlike divinity, she was thought to approve of those wars only which were undertaken for the public good, and conducted with prudence; and thus she was regarded as the protectress in battle of those heroes who were distinguished as well for their wisdom as their valor. In the Trojan wars, she favored the Greeks--who, in point of fact, were in the right. Her worship was univer sal in Greece, and representations of her in statues, busts, coins, reliefs, and vase-paint ings were and are numerous. She is always dressed, generally in a Spartan tunic, with a cloak over it, and wears a helmet, beautifully adorned with figures of different animals, the tegis, the round Argolic shield, a lance, etc. Her countenance is beautiful, e,arnest, and thoughtful, and the whole figure majestic.