Athena Pallas

> *"I've been blessed with incredible talents and opportunities; I'm constantly surrounded by love and praise; but when you're placed on a pedestal like that for so long, you become separated from the people that put you there in the first place. Everyone assumes I'm too good for them - that I'm on a level that they simply can't attain. It's become impossible to form any sort of meaningful relationship with people."*
>
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## Athena Pallas

### Aliases

* Virgin
* Pallas
* Areia
* Triton-born

### Titles

* The Unwearying One
* The One of the City
* The One with gleaming eyes
* The One who fights in front
* The Industrious
* The One of the Horses
* The Diver
* Protector of the Anchorage
* The Bridler

## Personal Status

### Relatives

* Metis (Mother)
* Zeus (Father)

## Professional Status

### Crimes

* Malefic
* Abuse of power
* Psychological abuse
* Attempted usurpation
* Harassment
* Stalking

**Athena** is the goddess of wisdom and military victory, also associated with war, battle strategy, handicrafts, warfare, and skilled peacetime pursuits, and is known as the patroness of spinning and weaving.

## Appearance

Athena is described as so beautiful, that at her birth, grown men dropped to their knees in front of her and Helios was so impressed with her looks that he came to a complete stop in the middle of the sky.

Athena wears her red hair in a waist-length ponytail, curled slightly into a loose ringlet. She also wears light-green eyeshadow around the far upper corners of her green eyes. She is tall and quite muscular.

She wears a brown overbust corset with a vertical strip of lighter brown in the center. Additionally, Athena wears an elastic, black, A-line mini skirt and brown opera-length gloves on both arms. She wears a red ankle-length sash that wraps around her skirt.

As for accessories, there is a small circular bronze plate on her right hip opposite two pouches with both connected to a belt. Underneath her hair, she always wears a brown circlet adorned with a pair of small, green, teardrop-shaped emeralds on thin chains. She also sports a large bronze gorget around her neck and a bronze bracelet on the upper half of her left arm.

Unlike the rest of the goddesses, Athena wears armor. She has elaborate bronze greaves that start below her mid-thigh before continuing downwards into her boots as well as a pair of cuisses that begin mid-thigh and end slightly above her knees. She is also equipped with a bronze bracer capable of connecting with the Aegis atop the sleeve on her left arm. Her high-heeled boots are brown with bronze trim, matching her skirt and sleeves and reaching up to mid-calf.

## Personality

Athena is a very professionally-capable, friendly, righteous yet relaxed and selfless person. She is a composed and collected individual who, despite being a celebrity, is modest and patient around other people, making her very sociable. Additionally, she tends to be quite formal. In addition to her impressive range of combat abilities, she is a quick thinker, knowing her limits and assessing her opponents before acting.

She is a reasonable and empathetic goddess towards mortals, but at the same time, she is very proud and sometimes condescending. A prime example was her punishment of Arachne - Athena was sore at the mortal woman for beating her in a weaving contest but still willing to admit defeat, however, when Arachne weaved a tapestry of Zeus portraying him as a sex-fiend, Athena punished her by turning her into a spider and condemned her to weave forever.

Athena is not above crossing other gods, but usually tries to do so covertly so as not to ruffle any divine feathers. Her answer to Odysseus, one of her favorite mortals, being victimized by Poseidon, was to counsel him in dreams and conspire with her father to free him from Poseidon's grasp while the latter was on holiday. She is good friends with the Nike, goddess of victory, her half-sister Artemis, goddess of the moon and hunt, and her half-brother Apollon, god of the sun and arts. Nike is often seen in temples with Athena to symbolize how intellect and victory tend to go hand-in-hand, Artemis' followers often view Athena as their secondary benefactor, and bards who view Apollon as their patron are well received in cities dedicated to Athena.

She has a strong rivalry with her half brother Ares (with whom she shared a similar title and role) and her uncle Poseidon (the two often seem to argue over various topics). However, out of all the gods, the one she hates the most is Ares himself. She often mocks him and shows a great disdain for his ignorance and lack of rational thinking. During conflicts, due to both her and Ares being gods of war, they often take opposing sides: an important example of this is the legendary Trojan War, with Athena aiding the Greeks and Ares the Trojans, both blaming each other for starting the conflict, despite it actually being the fault of the goddess Aphrodite.

She values respect very highly and can be enraged in the face of disrespect. However, she retains a merciful nature, hating worthless conflicts and senseless violence, unlike her brother Ares who glorifies such things.

## Powers and Abilities

Athena is one of the most skilled Gods, being able to quickly and easily adapt to her combat situation and analyze her opponents while fighting and changing tactics to suit the situation she is in. She has shown extreme accuracy, being able to hit moving targets from hundreds of meters away and strike vital weak points on an opponent mid-combat both with and without the aid of her powers. She is also highly skilled at using her weapon's multiple forms in combat, being able to switch between forms several times in rapid succession to both deliver rapid attacks and counter others simultaneously. Even without her weapons, she is skilled, being able to take out several gods at the same time with kicks and her bare hands. She is a master of use of her powers, being able to apply it in combat almost always undetected, doing so with such skill and precision that she had led many to believe she was untouchable and invincible.

* **Strength**: Athena is physically strong, as she is seen to punch through grown tree trunks with her shield without any change in her posture or stance.
* **Flight**: She can fly at great speeds.
* **Immortality**: She is a Goddess, after all.
* **Eternal Youth**: Athena has the gift of eternal youth, which means that, unlike mortals, she will always look young and beautiful.
* **Shape-shifting**: Athena often visits mortals by making herself appear to be a mortal, the word "Mentor" comes from the name of one of her mortal aliases and has long since been used to now indicate that someone is a learned teacher.
* **Genius Intellect**: The most intelligent of the deities, and also the Goddess of wisdom, so its a given. She has a variety of skills she is said to have taught mortals purely to better them such as weaving, mathematics, and political debate.
* **Invisibility**: She can render herself and other beings invisible from mortal eye sight.
* **Inventing**: She has the special ability to invent useful items and crafts which were later adopted by women. Items said to be invented by her include chariots, plows, ships, rakes and pottery.
* **Illusions**: She can create illusory images.
* **Blessing and Cursing**: Athena has the ability to bless and curse. Once, Athena cursed and transformed Medusa into a terrible monster and thickened her hair into hissing snakes, making everyone who looks at her turn into stone. In another instance, Athena transformed Arachne into a spider. On the contrary, she also possesses the power to bless anyone. Athena blessed Tiresias by granting him the ability to understand the language of the birds and also gave him supernatural powers of precognition which led to Tiresias becoming a great prophet.

## Equipment

* **Aegis**: Zeus's shield and breastplate set, passed down to her. It was created from the impregnable skin of the divine goat Amaltheia, who had nursed her father since birth, and was tough enough to serve as the only defense against his thunderbolts. Athena covered it in bronze.

## History

The story of Athena goes back to that of her father and mother, Zeus and Metis. Zeus had met the titaness Metis, on his way to slay his father, the titan Cronus, Metis and Zeus had fallen in love and Metis was willing to help Zeus get close enough to overthrow his father and her king. Thanks to a con by Metis involving a poison passed off as a vitality potion, Zeus was able to defeat his father and free his siblings from Cronus. With all his children freed Cronus called for the titans to defeat them, thus began the Titanomachy, a battle between the gods and titans. In the conflict, Metis, along with a few other titans sided with the gods against Cronus. The gods eventually won the conflict and sentenced the defeated titans to an eternity in the fiery Tartarus, with exceptions made for the titans that had sided with the gods, including of-course Metis. Zeus married Metis and served as his wizened adviser. Over time Zeus' attention wandered and he became enamored with the goddess Hera. After Zeus seduced Hera, Metis saw the romance was more than a passing fling, and agreed to step-down as Zeus' wife. She, however, stayed on as Zeus's adviser.

Zeus soon found though that Metis was pregnant, while Zeus was happy at first he became worried when Gaia warned Zeus that his first child would become even greater than he, just as he had to his father before overthrowing him and his father had to his grandfather. Zeus wanted to secure his rule but he did not wish to banish Metis. Zeus decided to trick Metis. Metis and Zeus would play a game in which they changed their forms to fit certain criteria; One day Zeus challenged Metis to one such game with the criteria being who could come up with the smallest animal and Metis was happy to play. Zeus turned himself into a rodent but Metis had assumed the form of a mayfly. Zeus congratulated Metis, but then quickly breathed her in and swallowed her whole. Zeus's plan had worked, he had removed the threat of Metis giving birth but without sentencing her to Tartarus and being able to constantly hear her advice with her in his head. Over time Metis was completely absorbed into Zeus' brain, granting him great wisdom and for a long time, Zeus considered it the best solution for the situation. Though he might have many children, his first would never actually be born.

One day, Zeus began to have great headaches. Zeus' elder sister, Hestia, gave him nectar and ambrosia to help clear his head, but they only seemed to delay the pain and before long it was back. One day at a feast the pain flared up uncontrollably and neither nectar nor ambrosia seemed to help any longer. Hera told Zeus to wait for the pain to pass, but it would not. Soon Zeus was in monumental pain. Quickly Zeus and Hera's son, Hephaestus - god of the forge, grabbed one of his blades and neatly carved open his father's head at the point of the pain. From the single point exploded a fully clothed and armored woman (The gods were awestruck by Athena's appearance and even Helios, the god of the sun, stopped his chariot in the sky). Hestia quickly healed her brother's wound and Hephaestus took back his blade and stepped aside. When Zeus asked who the woman was she said her name was "Athena" - the daughter of him and Metis. Though Metis had been absorbed as part of Zeus' brain, her child was still born separately from him. Athena had been clothed, educated, and cared for by Metis in the back of his mind until she was too big to be contained in his head any longer. As Zeus waited for his daughter to declare her intentions, she pledged her loyalty to Zeus; she was not angry or vengeful, but had been raised to be loyal to her father/king. Zeus still feared Gaia's prediction that she would become greater than he but would not raise a hand to her if she had no plan to do so to him, so was Athena welcomed as one of the Gods of Ascim.

After Athena was born fully armed from Zeus' forehead, Triton, son of Poseidon and messenger of the seas, became her foster parent to the goddess and raised her alongside his own daughter, Pallas. The sea god taught both girls the arts of war.

During an athletics festival, Pallas and Athena fought with spears in a friendly mock battle in which the victor would be whoever managed to disarm her opponent. At the beginning of the fight, Athena got the upper hand, until Pallas took over. Before she could win, Zeus, who was in attendance, fearing to see his own daughter lose, distracted Pallas with the Aegis, which she had once shown interest in. Pallas, stunned in awe, stood still as Athena, expecting her to dodge, impaled her accidentally.

Out of sadness and regret, Athena created the palladium, a statue in the likeness of Pallas, and wrapped the aegis, which she had feared, about the breast of it, and set it up beside Zeus and honored it. Later, Athena took on the title Pallas as tribute to her late friend.

### Story of Medusa

Medusa is described as having been a young priestess who served in the temple of Athena. Poseidon lusted after Medusa, and raped her in the temple of Athena, refusing to allow her vow of chastity to stand in his way. Upon discovering the desecration of her temple and what Poseidon had done, Athena transformed Medusa into a hideous monster with serpents for hair whose gaze would turn any mortal to stone so that she would never be hurt again. This also started her growing hatred for Poseidon.

### Story of Arachne

Arachne is a Lydian maiden with a great talent in weaving; she is so good she starts to brag she's even better than Athena, a typical display of hubris; humans boasting of being superior to gods on a particular quality, talent on which was supposedly bestowed by those very gods on the mortal, was seen as a sin. Athena heard of this, and paid a visit to Arachne in the form of an old woman. As the "crone" advises Arachne to be humble, Arachne suggest that perhaps Athena herself should come to tell her so, whereupon Athena reveals her true nature. The two of them set up a weaving contest.

Athena weaves the myth of her and Poseidon competing over patronage of the city of Athens; Athena won by offering an olive tree, while Poseidon had offered a salt water spring. She further decorates the tapestry with four more myths demonstrating how bad of an idea is to claim superiority over the gods. Arachne's tapestry, on the other hand, has illustrated many instances of Zeus and Poseidon dropping everything to bang random women, half the time shaped like an animal while doing so.

While Arachne's tapestry is indeed flawless, Athena is very disturbed by its content, and proceeds to tear the tapestry and beat Arachne in the head, while shouting "What! Were! You! Thinking!?" Arachne, pretty distraught, prepares to kill herself by hanging, but Athena takes some pity on her and transforms her into a spider instead, so she can live and also keep weaving as before. She warns Arachne not to draw any dicks, however.

### Lady of Athens

Athena competed with Poseidon for the patronage of Athens. They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and that Cecrops, the king of Athens, would determine which gift was better. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring sprang up; this gave the Athenians access to trade and water. Athens at its height was a significant sea power, defeating the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis—but the water was salty and undrinkable. Athena offered the first domesticated olive tree. Cecrops accepted this gift and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens. The olive tree brought wood, oil, and food, and became a symbol of Athenian economic prosperity.

Afterwards, Poseidon was so angry over his defeat that he sent one of his sons, Halirrhothius, to cut down the tree. But as he swung his axe, he missed his aim and it fell in himself, killing him. This was supposedly the origin of calling Athena's sacred olive tree *moria*, for Halirrhotius's attempt at revenge proved fatal (*moros* in Greek). Poseidon in fury accused Ares of murder, and the matter was eventually settled on the Areopagus ("hill of Ares") in favor of Ares, which was thereafter named after the event.

### Patron of Heroes

Athena, as a war goddess, inspired and fought alongside the heroes; her aid was synonymous with military prowess. Zeus, the chief god, specifically assigned the sphere of war to Ares, the god of war, and Athena. Athena's moral and military superiority to Ares derived in part from the fact that she represented the intellectual and civilized side of war and the virtues of justice and skill, whereas Ares represented mere blood lust. Her superiority also derived in part from the vastly greater variety and importance of her functions, Ares being of foreign origin. Athena was the divine form of the heroic, martial ideal: she personified excellence in close combat, victory, and glory. The qualities that led to victory were found on the aegis, or breastplate, that Athena wore when she went to war: fear, strife, defense, and assault. Athena appears in The Odyssey as the tutelary deity of Odysseus, and the helper of Perseus and Heracles (Hercules). As the guardian of the welfare of kings, Athena became the goddess of good counsel, prudent restraint and practical insight, and war.

Athena is frequently shown aiding the hero Heracles. She appears in four of the twelve metopes on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia depicting Heracles's Twelve Labors, including the first, in which she passively watches him slay the Nemean lion, and the tenth, in which she is shown actively helping him hold up the sky. She is presented as his "stern ally", but also the "gentle... acknowledger of his achievements." Athena is shown to have driven him to Ascim in her chariot and presenting him to Zeus for his deification. Athena intervenes to save Orestes from the wrath of the Erinyes and presides over his trial for the murder of his mother Clytemnestra. When half the jury votes to acquit and the other half votes to convict, Athena casts the deciding vote to acquit Orestes and declares that, from then on, whenever a jury is tied, the defendant shall always be acquitted.

In *The Odyssey*, Odysseus' cunning and shrewd nature quickly wins Athena's favor. For the first part, however, she largely is confined to aiding him only from *afar*, mainly by implanting thoughts in his head. Her guiding actions reinforce her role as the "protectress of heroes," or, as the "goddess of nearness," due to her mentoring and motherly probing.

### Story of Tiresias

This story begins with Athena bathing in a spring on Mount Helicon at midday with one of her favorite companions, the nymph Chariclo. Chariclo's son Tiresias happened to be hunting on the same mountain and came to the spring searching for water. He inadvertently saw Athena naked, so she struck him blind to ensure he would never again see what man was not intended to see. Chariclo intervened on her son's behalf and begged Athena to have mercy. Athena replied that she could not restore Tiresias's eyesight, so, instead, she gave him the ability to understand the language of the birds and thus foretell the future.

### Story of Myrmex

Myrmex was a clever and chaste Attic girl who became quickly a favorite of Athena. However, when Athena invented the plough, Myrmex went to the Atticans and told them that it was in fact her own invention. Hurt by the girl's betrayal, Athena transformed her into the small insect bearing her name, the ant.

### Trojan War

All the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles). Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited. She was annoyed at this, so she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "for the fairest"), which she threw among the goddesses. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.

The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Trojan prince. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, the goddesses appeared before Paris for his decision.

All three goddesses were ideally beautiful and Paris could not decide between them, so they resorted to bribes. Hera tried to bribe Paris with power over all of the North and Tyrth, and Athena offered fame and glory in battle, but Aphrodite promised Paris that, if he were to choose her as the fairest, she would let him marry the most beautiful woman on earth. This woman was Helen, who was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Paris selected Aphrodite and awarded her the apple, which enraged the other two goddesses.

Athena aids the hero Diomedes, who, in the absence of Achilles, proves himself to be the most effective warrior.

Athena also gets into a duel with Ares, the god of the brutal wars, and her male counterpart. Ares blames her for encouraging Diomedes to tear his beautiful flesh. He curses her and strikes with all his strength. Athena deflects his blow with her aegis, a powerful shield that even Zeus's thunderbolt and lightning cannot blast through. Athena picked up a massive boulder and threw it at Ares, who immediately crumpled to the ground. Aphrodite came down from Ascim to carry Ares away but was struck by Athena's golden spear and fell. Athena taunted the gods who supported Troy, saying that they will too eventually end up like Ares and Aphrodite, which scared them, therefore proving her power and reputation among the other gods.

While Achilles is chasing Hector around the walls of Troy, Athena appears to Hector disguised as his brother Deiphobus and persuades him to hold his ground so that they can fight Achilles together. Then, Hector throws his spear at Achilles and misses, expecting Deiphobus to hand him another, but Athena disappears instead, leaving Hector to face Achilles alone without his spear.

She punishes Odysseus's rival Ajax the Great, driving him insane and causing him to massacre the Achaeans' cattle, thinking that he is slaughtering the Achaeans themselves. Even after Odysseus himself expresses pity for Ajax, Athena declares, "To laugh at your enemies - what sweeter laughter can there be than that?" Ajax later commits suicide as a result of his humiliation.

## Relationships

### Subordinates:

#### Nike (Emissary)

Nike is a close friend and comrade of Athena, who always accompanies her in battles to ensure her success.

#### Odysseus (Warrior)

Odysseus' cunning and shrewd nature quickly wins Athena's favor when she watches him ever since he was a child. She created a magical boar to test his skills, one day. A magic boar that only the best of the best could kill. The boar had a lot of will, and so it could not be killed by just any hunter. And, against all odds, Odysseus killed the boar. This proved to Athena that he was the right person to train to become the best warrior in the land. And so she did that, by putting thoughts in his head.

#### Medusa (Priestess)

Medusa is one of Athena's Priestesses. When Poseidon raped her in Athena's temple, Athena transformed Medusa's beautiful hair into horrible snakes so that any man that looked at her would turn into stone. She did this so no one would take advantage of Medusa again.

#### Chariclo (Nymph)

Chariclo is known to be Athena's favorite Nymph. When Chariclo's son saw Athena naked when they both were bathing, Athena struck him blind, but Chariclo begged Athena to have mercy. Athena couldn't restore Tiresias's eyesight, but she gave him the ability to understand the language of the birds and thus foretell the future, making him a great prophet as a result.

Apart from that story, the two are known to be really close. Suspiciously close. Even outside of intimate settings, Chariclo is often touching Athena, and even Athena is pretty touchy with Chariclo, though it’s more touching her cheeks and chin than touching her body, even though any other person would be all over touching Chariclo like that.

### Family:

#### Zeus (Father)

Athena is Zeus' favorite child, so she earned Zeus' favor quite quickly. For example, Athena sent Nike to aid Zeus in the battle between him and Typhon. Zeus was hesitant in confronting Typhon, so Nike, in the form of Leto, went to persuade him. One of the things Nike says to get Zeus to confront the snake-headed giant were the possible repercussions of allowing Typhon to win, which includes the rape and enslavement of Zeus's daughters, Athena and Artemis. Then in the morning, Zeus answered Typhon's threats, showing that Athena is one of his favorite children.

#### Metis (Mother)

Metis is Athena's mother. She loves her daughter very much and made her a full set of armor before Athena was born.

#### Hera Teleia (Paternal aunt/Step-mother)

Hera is Athena's paternal aunt through Zeus as well as her stepmother, as Hera is the Queen of the Gods,. Athena will usually do whatever Hera commands her to as long as it is not against Zeus' will. Hera’s dress was hand woven by Athena for her. The two also competed with each other in a beauty contest alongside Aphrodite to win a golden apple. Both Goddesses are also patrons of housewives, domestic work and the tending of the home.

#### Triton (Adoptive Father)

Triton, the god of the waves, calm seas and the herald of Poseidon, raised Athena during her early life alongside his own daughter, Pallas. He also taught both girls the art of war.

#### Pallas (Adoptive Sister/Childhood Friend)

Pallas was a warrior Nymph of Lake Tritonis in Libya, and a childhood friend of Athena, with them being raised together. Athena accidentally killed her in a friendly battle at an athletics festival and out of sorrow created the Palladium and took Pallas as an epithet to honor her.

#### Poseidon (Paternal Uncle)

Athena has shown a hatred for her Uncle, starting from when he raped Medusa in Athena's own temple. Athena also competed with Poseidon for the patronage of Athens. They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and that Cecrops, the king of Athens, would determine which gift was better. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring sprang up; this gave the Athenians access to trade and water, but the water was salty and undrinkable. Athena offered the first domesticated olive tree. Cecrops accepted this gift and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens, which made Poseidon very angry. In his anger, he sent one of his sons, Halirrhothius, to cut down the tree. But as he swung his axe, he missed his aim and it fell in himself, killing him.

#### Hestia (Paternal Aunt)

Athena's paternal aunt, both of them are eternal maidens. Athena has association to Hestia as she is also associated with the work women do at home and was believed to help women with their domestic chores, meanwhile Hestia is the goddess of the hearth and home itself as well as domesticity.

#### Ares (Half-brother/Rival)

Athena constantly competes with her brother Ares and the two specialized in winning wars, just in different areas of war. Ares fought with a sword, Athena with a spear; Ares with brute-force, Athena with tactics; Ares played off primal fury, Athena, nationalist pride; Ares encouraged rulers to take action over talk, Athena encouraged rulers to talk over taking action; both of which worked to tremendous effect but lead to extreme violence when the two gods, and by extension followers, clashed. Most of their fights, however, ended in her victory.

#### Artemis Khryselakatos Iokheira (Half-sister)

Artemis is Athena's half sister and an eternal maiden like her. The two have striking similarities, both being active and skilled warriors, however whilst Athena is a city loyalist, Artemis bases herself in the countryside.

## Quotes

* *"When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather... some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life."*
* *"Because all my life I've learned to suffer in silence."*
* (Athena's motto) *"When the obstacle becomes the way."*
* *"You wish to be called righteous rather than act right."*