The Birth of Athena: A Teratological Approach

Citation: Maria do Sameiro Barroso, "The Birth of Athena: A Teratological Approach", Universal Library of Multidisciplinary, Volume 01, Issue 02.

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The birth of Athena, the Patron Deity of Athens, praised for her wisdom and craft skills, as an adult from Zeus’ head after a severe headache, is an abnormal and biologically impossible event that challenges traditional gender roles. This narrative takes to the extreme the impossibility of Nature to change the essentially feminine function of giving birth and the worldview previously embodied by the great Goddess or great Mother, the dominant figure during the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages. There have been significant historical shifts in societal values and power dynamics since the Bronze Age. The onset of agriculture, animal domestication, and the discovery of metals allowed the manufacture of more powerful and effective weapons that led to the flourishing of male hegemony and patriarchy, establishing the prevalence of masculine over feminine values. This essay highlights the role of Nature Sciences and Medicine in understanding mythological creatures and narratives. Approaching the natural phenomena, the aforementioned disciplines can sometimes shed light on ancient narratives, since records of congenital malformations, which came down to us in worldwide artworks, often present images similar to those from the shelves of Anatomical Museums and Pathological Anatomy books. This essay discusses this possible relationship in the case of Athena’s birth, presenting a olivine stone head of Zeus from the Archaeological Museum, D. Diogo de Sousa in Braga (Portugal), which presents the crack from which Athena was born.

Keywords: Congenital Malformations; Teratology, Ancient Mythology; Birth of Athena

https://doi.org/10.70315/uloap.ulmdi.2024.0102003