traveldk.com

When Zeus impregnated his mistress Metis, he was told she would have a son who would de-throne him. As a preventative measure, he swallowed Metis whole, but the unborn child continued to grow in Zeus’s head. After nine months, Hephaestus split open the god’s head with an axe, and out sprung the girl goddess Athena, already in full armour.

Athena and Poseidon, god of the sea, competed for patronage of the great city in Attica by offering their best gifts. Poseidon struck his trident into the rock of the Acropolis and out gushed salt water. But Athena offered the olive tree, and the Olympian gods awarded her the city.

Hephaestus tried to rape Athena, but only managed to spill his seed on her leg. Athena brushed it to the ground, where it grew into the baby Erichtonius (“earth-born”). Athena raised him to become a king, and he is considered the first ancestor of all Athenians.

Erichtonius’s son Pandion had two daughters, Procne and Philomela. When Procne’s husband Tereus raped Philomela and cut out her tongue, Procne took revenge by serving the flesh of their son to Tereus. The sisters then turned for help to the gods, who made Philomela into a swallow, Tereus into a hoopoe and Procne into a nightingale (which cries “Tereu”).

Orestes, after murdering his mother, Klytemnestra (to avenge her murder of his father, Agammemnon), was pursued to Athens by the Furies (underworld goddesses of vengeance). Athena decreed that instead of being killed, Orestes should stand trial. He was acquitted, and the trial marked a turning point in Athens, from blood feuds to rule of law.

As goddess of spinning and weaving, Athena decided to help a poor but talented weaver called Arachne. Arachne won great admiration but took all the praise without crediting the goddess, and so Athena challenged her protégé to a weaving contest. Arachne’s work depicted the inappropriate love affairs of the gods; Athena, furious with indignation, turned Arachne into the first spider.

Theseus, son of Athens’ King Aegeus, was secretly raised far from court. At 16, armed with a sword left by his father, Theseus left for Athens, en route slaying dozens of monsters terrorizing Attica. He became Athens’ greatest king and hero.

After a dispute between Aegeus and his brother Minos, King of Crete, Minos demanded Athens send regular tributes of 14 youths and maidens, who were sacrificed to the monstrous Minotaur. One year, Theseus asked to be sent and, with the help of Minos’s daughter, Ariadne, he killed the Minotaur, saving hundreds of future Athenians.

Theseus had told his father that if his quest to kill the Minotaur was successful, he’d change his ship’s sails from black to white on his return. But, after all the excitement, he forgot. When Aegeus, watching out for the ship from Sounio, saw the black sails, he was stricken with grief and plunged to his death in the sea (now called the Aegean).

Perseus was the son of Zeus and the maiden Danae. The tyrant Polydectes violently desired Danae, but Perseus promised him the snake-infested head of Medusa in exchange for his mother’s safety. Perseus slew Medusa with Athena’s help and, upon his return, turned Polydectes to stone; Athena then put Medusa’s head on her shield.