| home | gods & monsters | masks | ordering | about the artist | resources | what's new | contact us |
athena
price: $ 95 catalog # GG4 -- Ath |
|
Pallas Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, is said to have sprung fully grown and armed for battle from Zeus' head. She is often described as "gray-eyed" or "flashing-eyed". In The Iliad and other early sources she is a ferocious and ruthless Battle Goddess, and less the benign and familiar Goddess of Wisdom.
|
 This Athena was designed
to recall that primitive Goddess, by linking her to the earlier
Goddesses whose attributes she most likely absorbed. Her face is framed
by snakes, reminiscent of the famed Minoan snake
Goddess (right). Snakes are also associated with Athena, as she
was responsible for both the creation of the gorgon Medusa (a hideous monster
whose hair was full of snakes and whose glance could turn a man to stone), as
well as Medusa's destruction at the hands of the hero Perseus. Medusa's
head was then displayed (depending upon the source) either on Athena's
breastplate or Zeus' Aegis, or shield, which Athena carried for her father. Because she has
no mother, she is considered the most masculine of the Goddesses. Her
nose is shaped like that of her father's,
Zeus, to
emphasize their familial connection. The shaping of her eyebrows is a
variation on those of the "Agamemnon" Mycenaean death Mask (below).
|
