Athena and Minerva

    Nice to see you again! We've gone over Zeus/Jupiter and Hades/Pluto, so you know what that means. Yes, it's time for Athena/Minerva! Wait, you were expecting Poseidon/Neptune? Sorry, but he's a topic for another day. I have held off on telling the myth of Athenas/Minervas birth for far too long. I promise that he'll be coming soon, so don't fret over that.

     Anyway, let's talk, well read, about Athena and Minerva. Personally, I prefer Minerva over Athena for various reasons which I will explain later. For now, let's go over the Birth of Minerva/Athena. If you've read my Zeus/Jupiter post, you probably remember me mentioning this and giving a summarization of what happened. So, Zeus/Jupiter was told a prophecy that the second child he had with Metis would be more powerful and would overthrow him like how Zeus/Jupiter overthrew his father. Because Zeus/Jupiter doesn't really listen prophesies until the consequences face him, he goes and has sex with Metis. Of course, she gets pregnant because she had sex with a god, and Zeus gets super paranoid. Like, really freaking paranoid. So paranoid that he straight-up eats Metis to make sure she couldn't give birth. But since Metis was a Titan, she survived and gave birth to Athena/Minerva inside of Zeus/Jupiter and made armor for her daughter. Somehow this only gave Zeus a headache, so he lets Hephaestus/Vulcan bash open his head. Some accounts say that he used his hammer, while others state that he used a stone from a river. Either work, so just go with what you like. Anyway, Athena/Minerva proceeded to come it of Zeus/Jupiters head, fully grown and fully armored.

   So Athena/Minerva obviously had a rather unique birth, but thankfully she took more after her mother. Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom first and foremost, but she is also the goddess of medicine, commerce, and crafts. Minerva is the Roman goddess and reins over all of the domains previously mentioned, with the addition of being the goddess of war. Only Athena has the shield Aegis, but I'd bet that the Romans gave Minerva a cool shield too. They also probably gave her a sword.