preview

The Birth Of Athena Essay

Decent Essays

The Birth of Athena represents one of the most stunning births of Olympian deities, being immortalized on countless pottery objects. Athena’s status of goddess protector of Athens certainly provides an explanation for the numerous vases dedicated to her. The Yale amphora is not an exception. This Group E black-figure amphora is among the works of the greatest black-figure vase painter, Exekias, and its two panels vividly tell the story of Athena’s birth. While divine births are spectacular ipso facto, the birth of the goddess of wisdom is remarkable in that she emerged from the head of Zeus. Unlike Dionysus’s birth from the thigh of Zeus, which lead to the death of Semele, a mortal woman, Athena’s unusual birth came as a result of the swallowing of …show more content…

Witnessing the birth are Dionysus and Apollo on the left, and the Eileithyiai and Ares on the right. Apollo is playing his kithara, while Dionysus, wearing his iconic ivy wrath, is uncharacteristically somber. Eileithyia, the birth goddesses is assisting Zeus during the labor. However, the Theogony assigns Eileithyia a minor role and she is never depicted in relationship to Athena. Rather, she is mentioned as the daughter of Zeus and Hera (921). Interestingly enough, the Yale vase doesn’t show just one Eileithyia, but rather two of them. The Eileithyiai are not mentioned in the Theogony. (they also provide help to women, not men) To the right of Eileithyiai is a fully armored, Ares, the war god, wearing a star-decorated shield and pointing his spear in the general direction of Athena, as if anticipating his future conflicts with her. Under Zeus’s throne, a miniature man is standing; his identity is unclear, however his role is that of support, a telamon, which carries some of Zeus’s burden. Zeus is holding a scepter-looking object in his left hand, while his right hand grasps

Get Access