Queen Athena

Queen Athena is one of the two overarching protagonists (alongside King Triton) of The Little Mermaid franchise. She was the wife of King Triton, the mother of Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, Andrina, and Ariel, the mother-in-law of Eric, and the maternal grandmother of Melody.
She is voiced by Lorelei Hill Butters for her speaking voice, and Andrea Robinson for her singing voice.
==Physical appearance==
Queen Athena is shown to be a beautiful mermaid with long, red hair tied in a partial pony tail, green eyes, and a bluish green tail. She wears a gold crown.
Of all her daughters, her youngest, Ariel, resembles her the most. This is most obvious in the original release of The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, at least 23 years following the film's events, when Ariel has matured and become a mother herself.
It is possible that the animators of Athena based her appearance on the mature version of Ariel.
==Role in the film==
Queen Athena appears in the film's flashbacks to when her daughters were very young. She and Triton are shown to be very much in love. They are shown to share a special song (known as "Athena's Song"). They share the song with their daughters, and use it as a lullaby.
One day, they are relaxing in a cove with the princesses and some other merpeople playing fine music. They are celebrating their anniversary, and so Triton gives Athena a special music box that plays their song.
However, pirates soon approach the cove in a large ship, attack the merpeople, and snatch their instruments. Most of the merpeople escape safely, Triton escapes carrying Ariel, Arista, Aquata, and Adella to safety while Andrina and Alana dive into the water to swim to safety, but Attina, the oldest princess, gets her tail stuck between two rocks. Athena is able to free her in time, but she was crushed to death by the ship while trying to save the music box and the ship sinks after hitting the rocks.
Athena's death leaves Triton completely devastated. As a result, he tosses the music box in the ocean, bans music from the kingdom and raises his daughters very strictly because of evil and selfish mermaid Marina Del Rey.
However, Ariel and her sisters inherited their mother's love of and talent for music. Later on, Ariel references her at several points. When she learns of the Catfish Club, she sings a song remembering her mother and her love for music.
Later, when confronting Triton over his ban of music, Ariel points out that her mother wouldn't have wanted music to be banned from the kingdom. She had sacrificed herself to save them.
To honor the death of her mother Athena, Ariel finds her music box, but before she can give it to Triton and convince him to allow music back into the kingdom, the final battle begins when Marina carries the fishing net, bans Ariel from the kingdom and orders the eels to have her and Flounder eliminated before catching Sebastian. As a result, to make Athena happy, Ariel pushes Marina away, preventing her from trying to kill and crush Sebastian to death, and Triton allows music back into his kingdom and orders his guards to arrest Marina after Ariel recovers.
==Gallery==
Athena and Triton 2.jpg|Queen Athena and Triton dancing
Queen Athena smiles.jpg|Athena smiles while holding hands with Aquata and Alana
Athena, Triton and Ariel.jpg
Queen Athena 4.jpg
Queen Athena 3.jpg|Queen Athena singing
Ariel and Athena.jpg|Athena and Ariel.
Queen Athena.jpg|Queen Athena smiles
Athena and Triton.jpg|Athena and her husband Triton
Athena and Triton 3.jpg|A heartwarming moment
Queen Athena 7.jpg|Queen Athena smiles 
Athena and Attina 2.jpg|Athena gasps
Athena and Attina.jpg|Athena saves Attina
Queen Athena 6.jpg|Queen Athena saw her music box
Queen Athena 2.jpg|Queen Athena gasps in horror
Queen Athena 5.jpg|Queen Athena's final moments before her death
==Trivia==
*Queen Athena is similar to Martha from Hotel Transylvania, as both love their families, both are the mothers of the heroines, both sacrifice their lives, both were killed by humans, and both are deceased grandmothers. The only difference is that Athena's death was more of accident, while Martha's death was intentional. 
*She is similar to Bambi's Mother, Mufasa, Littlefoot's Mother, Coral and Tarzan's parents as a parent/parents to the protagonist (Bambi's mother with Bambi, Mufasa with Simba, Littlefoot's mother with Littlefoot, Coral with Nemo and Tarzan's parents with Tarzan). Both are killed by villains (Bambi's mother was killed by Man, Mufasa was thrown off a cliff by his brother Scar into a wildebeest stampede where he was trampled to death by them, Littlefoot's mother was killed by a Sharptooth, Coral was eaten by a barracuda and Tarzan's parents killed by Sabor the leopard).
*Although Athena is briefly mentioned quite a few times prior to the release of The Little Mermaid III, this is the first time she is actually seen.
*Athena bears a shocking resemblance to that of Ariel. They both have a similar hair color, and an acclaimed singing voice. However, their similarities are even more noticeable in The Little Mermaid II, where Ariel has grown to look almost identical to her.
*Although Athena and Ariel look quite similar, it is impossible for Ariel's appearance to be based on her mother's, because Athena made her first appearance in the third film while Ariel appears in all three, including the television series. In fact, Athena's appearance was probably based on that of the matured Ariel from The Little Mermaid II, which was released 8 years prior to the third film.
*Athena and Ariel's likeness could have partially contributed to the reason Triton is so protective of the latter.
*Athena's eldest daughter's name, Attina is a variant of her own, which explains why they sound so similar and it could mean that she was named after her.
*Ariel was 5 years old when Athena died
*She is the third Disney mother to die after Snow White’s mother and Cinderella’s mother and she is also the first mother to have her husband survive as well as the first mother to be a grandmother even though she died.
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