Athena – Clone Goddess of a dysfunctional family

Zeus (sitting) Hephastus to right (looking back with Axe) Athena just visible above Zeus’s head

I didn’t know the full story of the birth of Athena until I went to the Feminine Power exhibition at the British museum.

So Zeus eats Athena’s mum, Metis, who is pregnant with her. Sometime later he has a cracking headache. Hephaestus, the disabled artificer God hits Zeus over the head to clear the headache.

Zeus gives birth to a fully formed Athena from the split in his head.

The point, I think, is that Athena being partially a clone of Zeus had both male and female virtues and is thereby the most powerful Deity.

And even the most elite families are deeply f***** up.

There is a lesson in there somewhere.

Posted earlier today on Facebook.