# Talk:Athena

Since the Goddess Athena has been equated with Isis by Plutarch I think we should put it in the article. Given that Neith is there another goddess equated with Isis. A side note would love to add other deities equated with Athena similar to Aphrodite with the source as a reference. Сяра (talk) 19:11, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

Feel free to add any reliably sourced content to the article's body. I assume you're referring to the infobox, though. Any information presented in the infobox (especially equivalencies) should, per MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE, be discussed in the article's body, be accompanied there by unambiguous sourcing, and be significant enough to Athena to be considered a key fact about her. Regarding Aphrodite's article, those equivalencies have been removed from her infobox because they aren't discussed in the article. – Michael Aurel (talk) 01:33, 12 February 2025 (UTC)
Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride from J. Gwyn Griffiths I think could be used as a source Сяра (talk) 19:30, 12 February 2025 (UTC)
Assuming you're referring to Moralia 376 A, that only indicates that the Egyptians identified the two (or that they referred to Isis as "Athena"), not that the Greeks did. – Michael Aurel (talk) 01:00, 13 February 2025 (UTC)
It seems reasonable to see how the Egyptians saw this foreign goddess as equivalent to their own  Сяра (talk) 09:26, 9 March 2025 (UTC)
Why? She's a Greek goddess. Remember we're talking about the infobox (not just the article's prose), which should be reserved for information that is especially important to the subject of the article. This is also the definition at interpretatio graeca: gods of various cultures whom the Greeks or Romans identified [...] with their own gods and heroes (emphasis mine). Besides, Athena was identified with numerous goddesses from the Near East, Egypt, and Anatolia; what makes the identification with Isis especially significant here? – Michael Aurel (talk) 13:50, 9 March 2025 (UTC)
On a simple note, she was the goddess most worshiped in the Greco-Roman especially Roman world, and given her synchronisation with Aphrodite, Demeter, and Persephone I don't think it will be a problem to put a simple equivalent with Athena. Now on a more complex note Neith and Isis are equated themselves we have from the sources that assumed that the statue of Athena was Isis(Neith) so because of this and again because we have sources I think we need to include Isis and I think that we should start including more goddesses equated with Athena not just Minerva and Neith as you question implied why just Isis I honestly think we should start with Isis to include more goddesses and advance the page Сяра (talk) 17:17, 5 August 2025 (UTC)
Isis's importance independent of Athena isn't relevant here, what's relevant here is whether her identification with Athena is important to Athena. Can you demonstrate this with sources? As to we should start with Isis to include more goddesses and advance the page, see MOS:IBP: the infobox should be a summary of the key facts that appear in an article, and we should keep in mind that [t]he less information that an infobox contains, the more effectively it serves its purpose. – Michael Aurel (talk) 03:08, 10 August 2025 (UTC)
Michael Aurel is quite right -- the "equivalent" parameters should be used very sparingly. They are appropriate when two deities were widely considered different names for the same god, such as Zeus/Jupiter, Aphrodite/Venus, and so on, even acknowledging the imperfect nature of those particular crossovers. They shouldn't be used for corresponding gods in clearly different traditions, like Thor/Zeus/Baal or Athena/Isis/Astarte -- interpretatio Romana (or Graeca) is not the same thing. In the city of Rome at least, there were seperate temples to Isis and to Minerva, which strongly weighs against the idea that they were seen as the same. UndercoverClassicist T·C 18:44, 10 August 2025 (UTC)
I said equated not because they are the same but because they have been  syncretized as we know from Kristine Bulow Clausen's ''Domitian between Isis and Minerva. The dialogue between the "Egyptian" and ''Graeco-Roman" aspects of the Sanctuary of Isis at Beneventum" Сяра (talk) 18:54, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
Yes -- for the reasons above, that's not the right use of the parameter. UndercoverClassicist T·C 19:20, 21 August 2025 (UTC)
What is a good example because if academic and historical research isn't enough I don't know what is  Сяра (talk) 18:26, 15 September 2025 (UTC)
The classic example would be Roman–Greek equivalents -- Minerva/Athena, Aphrodite/Venus etc -- where we have plenty of records of Romans reading e.g. the Iliad and using the names of their gods for those Greek deities. That's a higher bar than "this goddess fills the same role in another pantheon", but is necessary, because otherwise (for example) we'd fill up Zeus's infobox with every single chief god, Poseidon's with every god of the sea, and so on. UndercoverClassicist T·C 19:03, 15 September 2025 (UTC)
But that is how they usually are equated  Сяра (talk) 15:37, 25 September 2025 (UTC)
I feel like Thor/Zeus is a bad example. At least to the old Germanics tribes, Thor was widely considered the same enough to replace Jupiter in "Thursday" whereas none of their other agricultural gods got the same treatment in replacing Saturn in Saturday. 2600:8800:97:E200:F5AA:9EFC:EE8C:1F68 (talk) 22:13, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

In the Illiad, Athena, Hera and Poseidon, after some hesitation, went against Zeus' orders during the Trojan War, breaking the rule of not interfering with mortal affairs. It is revealed that the rebelled against Zeus before with the purpose of overthrowing him in the past, which is very interesting in Athena's side because despite she is considered his favorite child, there are many myths in which he mistreated (albeit indirectly) like how she and her mother Metis (who raised her and made sure she was armed before she escaped, by the way) were swallowed, and how he was the reason Pallas died. Thus, I think her attempted rebellion should be added to her page. Alexandra Guardián Oporto (talk) 17:28, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

I would implore the site to allow my previous edit to go through so I mean to do it again, such it is a badly needed correction (the mess with this whole "Ovidian controversy", as I call it); indeed, Ovid in his Metamorphoses does NOT tell that Medusa was a priestess sworn to Athena such she was inside one of the goddess' temples that Poseidon attacked her therein, and he also sees Perseus speak of only Medusa being transfigured - I would imagine the #Official Wikipedia site would do better, please. Chrisangelo23 (talk) 14:28, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

You're right; the Metamporphoses doesn't say Medusa was a priestess of Athena. The claim that she was a priestess of Athena was inserted way back in 2011[1] and it's a shame it wasn't picked up. The currently cited Seelig 2002 (a psychoanalytic study of the story of Medusa and Athena) doesn't mention her being a priestess either; perhaps that citation was added to support something else. Sadly, your edit came between some other edits that introduced other problems and were reverted all together, losing your work in the process. I'll edit the article myself rather than reinstate your edit, as yours did have some errors, and I hope we can be a little briefer and repeat less. NebY (talk) 16:09, 18 April 2025 (UTC)
As NebY says, I inadvertently undid your changes in this edit, [2] while reversing a series of recent changes (by another editor) which introduced problems. Sorry about that; your point is of course correct. – Michael Aurel (talk) 00:12, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
Your response is most appreciated, Aurel, thank you and NebY for clarifying. Chrisangelo23 (talk) 20:29, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

Around the segment displaying how Athena may have been born, the word "otherthrow" was misspelled as "otherthow". CMDRJacksonXJ (talk) 01:42, 12 May 2025 (UTC)

Fixed. – Michael Aurel (talk) 01:58, 12 May 2025 (UTC)

Goddess of love Titanna20920114141 (talk) 16:30, 25 October 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. jolielover♥talk 17:22, 25 October 2025 (UTC)