I begin to sing of Pallas Athena, the glorious goddess, bright-eyed, inventive, unbending of heart, pure virgin, saviour of cities, courageous, Tritogeneia. From his awful head wise Zeus himself bare her arrayed in warlike arms of flashing gold, and awe seized all the gods as they gazed. But Athena sprang quickly from the immortal head and stood before Zeus who holds the aegis, shaking a sharp spear: great Olympos began to reel horribly at the might of the grey-eyed goddess, and earth round about cried fearfully, and the sea was moved and tossed with dark waves, while foam burst forth suddenly: the bright Son of Hyperion stopped his swift-footed horses a long while, until the maiden Pallas Athena had stripped the heavenly armour from her immortal shoulders. And wise Zeus was glad. Hail to you, daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis!
Commentarius · Commentary
The birth of Athena from the head of Zeus, and in the very first line about it stands a word one does not expect.
Τὴν αὐτὸς ἐγείνατο μητίετα Ζεύς — whom Zeus the counsellor himself bore. Egeinato is the verb of a woman's childbearing; it is applied to a male god, and applied deliberately. Zeus did not "produce" or "bring forth" — he gave birth, out of his holy head, and the whole enormity of the event is contained in the grammar.
What follows is not a description of the infant but a description of the spectators. Σέβας δ᾽ ἔχε πάντας ὁρῶντας ἀθανάτους — awe held all the immortals who watched. The gods here are an audience, and they are afraid.
And in the lines beyond (the card's translation reaches them) earth, sea and sun stand still until she takes off her armour. The birth of a deity is described as a natural catastrophe: Olympus shakes, the sun halts, and the order of things resumes only once the goddess has disarmed.
She was born already armoured — polemēïa teuche' echousan. Athena has no infancy and no development; she appears finished, and that distinguishes her from Dionysus or Asclepius, who had to be reared and enrolled.
Fons · Source
AuthorAnonymous (Homeric corpus)
WorkHomeric Hymns
Section28
Periodarchaic Greek (7th-6th c. BC)
OccasionHomeric Hymn to Athena — poetic invocation celebrating her birth fully armed from the head of Zeus and the cosmic awe at her coming forth
