Athena (Minerva)

• How was she born?

Athena
• Which city is under
her protection?
• What’s her role in the
Trojan war?
• What’s her
contribution to the
mankind?
Athena VS Arachne
• Can the mortal
compete against the
immortal?
 1
• Zeus was strolling 散步 on Olympus one
morning and noticed 注意到 a new
maiden 少女 walking in his garden. She
was Metis, a Titaness 泰坦族人 , daughter
of one of his old enemies 敵人 . But the
war was long ago, and she was beautiful.
He charged down the slope 衝下山坡 after
her.
 2
• She turned into 化身成 a hawk 老鷹 and flew
away, He turned into a hawk and flew after her
緊追不捨 . She flew over the lake and dived 潛
in and became a fish. He became a fish and
swam after her. She climbed on the bank 河岸
and became a serpent 大蛇 wriggled 蠕動
away. He changed himself into a serpent and
wriggled after her and caught her. And the two
serpents plaited 編織 themselves into beautiful
loops 圈 .
 3
• After he left her, he heard a bird cry and a
fish leap, and those wild sounds combined
to become a prophecy 預言 , which the
rattling 摩擦 leaves echoed 回音 , ”Oh,
Zeus, Metis will bear 生 a child, a girl
child. But is she bears again, it will be a
son who will depose 推翻 you as you
deposed Cronos.”
 4
• The next day Zeus walked in his garden
again and found Metis there. This time she
did not flee 逃跑 . He spoke softly to her
and smiled. She came to him. Suddenly
he opened his mouth and swallowed her.
 5
• That afternoon he suffered a headache—the worst
headache that anyone, god or mortal 凡人 , had
suffered since the beginning of time 有史以來 . It was
exactly as if someone were inside him with a spear 矛，
魚叉 , thrusting 猛刺；猛推 at all soft places in his
head. He shouted for Hephastus 火神 , who came
rushing up with hammer and wedge 楔子 . Zeus put his
head on the anvil 鐵砧 , and Hephastus split 剖開 the
mighty skull 頭蓋骨 . Then Hephastus leaped back 往後
跳 , frightened because out of the head sprang 跳 a tall
maiden in armor 身穿盔甲 , holding a spear 手持長矛 .
 6
• This was Athene, the gray-eyed, the wide-
browed. The manner 方式 of her birth 出生
gave her domain 領域 over intellectual 智慧
activities. It was she who taught man how to
use tools. She taught him to invent the ax, the
plough 犁 , the ox-yoke 牛軛 , the wheel, and
the sail. She taught his wife to spin 紡絲；結網
and weave 織 . She concocted 調配；創造 the
science of numbers and taught it to man—but
never to woman.
 6.2
• She hated Ares 戰神（男） and took great
pleasure in thwarting 阻撓 him on the field of
battle 戰場 . For all his mighty strength, she often
beat him, because she was a mistress of strategy
戰略女神 . Before battle, captains prayed to her
for tactics 戰略 . Before trial 審判 , judges 法官
prayed to her for wisdom. It was she who stated
that compassion was the best part of wisdom 同
情心是智慧最重要的一部分 . The other gods
didn’t know what she meant by this.
 6.3
• But some men understood and were
grateful 感激 . All in all 總之 , she was
perhaps the best-loved 最受愛戴 god in
the Pantheon 眾神廟 . The people of
Athens 雅典 named their beautiful cities
after her 以雅典娜命名 .
 7
• There were many stories about Athena—
about her skill in battle, her wisdom, and
her kindliness. But, like the other gods,
she was also very jealous 嫉妒 . One of
the best stories is that of Arachne.
 8
• Arachne was a young girl who loved in
Lydia, famous for its purple dye. Her joy
was weaving, and she wove the most
beautiful things that anyone had ever
seen: cloaks 披風 so light that you could
not feel them about your shoulders, but
warmer than fur;
 8.2
• Tapestries 掛毯；織錦 wrought 手織的
with pictures so marvelous that birds
would fly through the window and tried to
eat the berries off the woven bough 樹枝 .
She was a very young girl, and everyone
praised her—and soon she began to
praise herself.
 9
• She said: ”I, I am the greatest weaver in all
the world. The greatest since the world
began, no doubt. In fact, I can weave
better than Athena herself.”
 10
• Athena heard this, of course. The gods are
very quick to hear criticism 批評 and very
swift 快速 to act. So she came to earth, to
the little village where Arachne lived.
 11
• The girl was inside, spinning. She heard a
knock at the door and opened it. There
stood a lady so tall, so sternly 堅定
beautiful that Arachne knew she must be a
goddess, and she was afraid she knew
which one. She fell on her knees 跪了下
來 . Far above her head a voice speaking
softly, saying terrible things.
 12
• “Yes, miserable 可憐的 girl, I am Athena. I
am the goddess you have mocked 嘲笑 .
Is there any reason I should not kill you?”
• Arachne shook her head, weeping 啜泣 .
She could not answer.
• “Very well,” said Athena. “prepare yourself
for death. You have defied 公然蔑視 the
gods and must die.
 13
• Then Arachne stood up and said, “Before I
die, great Athena, let me give you a
present.” She went in and took a lovely
cloak she had woven and gave it to her.
And said, “Take this cloak. It must often
get cold up high on Olympus. This will
shield you from the wind 幫你擋風 . Please
take it. I’m sure you have nothing so fine.”
 14
• Athena shook her head and said, “ Poor
child. You are being destroyed by your
own worth 你的才華摧毀了你 . Your talents
has poisoned you with pride 你的才華讓你
驕傲，荼毒了你 like the sting of a
scorpion 毒蠍子的針 . So that which(talent)
makes beauty brings death. But it is a
handsome cloak, and I appreciate the gift.
I will give you one chance.
 14.2
• You have boasted 吹噓 that you can spin and
weave better than I—than I, who invented the
loom 織布機 , the distaff 紡紗桿 and the
spindle. 紡錘 , and out of the fleece 羊毛 of
the clouds wove the first counterpane 床單
for my father, Zeus, who likes to sleep warm,
and dyed it with the colors of the sunset. But
you say you can weave better than I. Very
well, you shall have a chance to prove it.
 14.3
• And your villagers 村民 shall judge 擔任裁判 .
Seven days from today7 天後 , we shall meet.
You will set your spindle 紡紗機 in the
meadow, and I shall be in my place, and we
shall have a contest. You will weave what you
will, and I shall do so too. Then we will show
what we have done, and the people will judge.
If you win, I shall withdraw 收回 the
punishment. If you lose, it is your life 你將被處
死 . Do you agree?”
 15
• “Oh, yes,” said Arachne. “Thank you, dear
goddess, for sparing 饒 my life.”
• “It is not yet spared,” said Athene.
• The word flashed 快速傳遍 from village to
village. When the time came, not only
Arachne’s neighbors but all the people in
the land had gathered in the great
meadow to watch the contest.
• Arachne’s house was the last in the village
and faced the great meadow. She had set
up her loom 織布機 outside the door.
Athene sat on a low flat hill overlooking the
field. Her loom was as large as Arachne’s
cottage 小木屋 .
 16
• The girl went first. At the sight 一看到 of her sitting
spinning there in the sunlight, the crowd pushed in so
close 緊緊圍過來 she hardly had room to work. Her
white hands danced among the flax 亞麻 , and she
worked so quickly, so deftly 敏捷 , that she seemed to
have forgotten the loom and to be weaving in the air.
Swiftly and more swiftly she tapped on the wool with
her fingers, making it billow 翻騰 and curl, Then
rolling it quickly into a ball, then shaking it out again,
straining the wool into long shining threads 絲線 with
quick little pokes 戳 of her thumb at her spindle.
• It was said that her working 工作的模樣
was as beautiful as her work 成品 , and
when she was told that, she always smiled
and said, “it is the same thing. “So she
wove, and the people watched. Then the
finished cloth began to come from the
loom, and everybody laughed to see.
• For they were joyous 愉悅的 scenes 景色 .
Morning scenes: A little boy and a little girl running
in a green field among yellow flowers, chased by a
black dog; a maiden at a window dreamily combing
her hair; a young man watching the sea, counting
the waves 數著浪花；看著潮來潮往 . And later, in a
purple dusk 薄暮中 , that same young man and girl
standing under a tree looking at each other. Swiftly
and more swiftly the white hands danced between
loom and spindle.
• She wove bouquets 花束 of flowers for the
wedding, and a wedding gown 婚紗 for the
bride, and a gorgeous cloak for the young
husband. And, remembering what Athena had
said before, she spun a counterpane 床單 for
their bed. Each square 框框 not a block of color
色塊 , but a little picture—One from their
childhood 童年 of the man, one from the
childhood of the bride, all together, mixing, as
their memories would mix now.
• The counterpane was last. When she
arose 起身 and just snapped it out, the
people gasped and laughed and a wept
with joy. And Arachne curtsied 屈膝行礼
toward the low hill, and Athena began to
spin.
• The goddess had conjured up 制作 a flock of
plump woolly clouds about her hilltop. So she
did not have to comb fleece or draw thread;
She used cloudwool, the finest of stuff in all the
world. And she dyed it with the colors of the
dawn 晨曦 and the colors of the sunset and the
colors of sleep and the colors of storm. Now the
whole western part of the sky was her loom.
She flung great tapestries 挂毯 across the
horizon 地平线 .
• Scenes from Olympus—Things that mortal
凡人 man had never hoped to see. Almost
too terrible to see. Kronos cutting up
Oranos with a scythe 长柄大镰刀 . Zeus
charging 冲过 across the firmament 苍天
with the His Hundred- handed ones,
shattering the Titans. ..The binding of
Zeus...The punishment of Hera.
• Zeus Chasing Metis as a hawk and a fish and a
snake. Then the birth of Athena
• herself, springing from Zeus’ broken head. Then
more quiet scenes: Athena teaching the arts to
man; teaching him to ploughing, to sail, to ride
in chariots; Teaching the women to spin, then,
finally muddling 混在一起 it all up, poking 戳 her
long spindle 纺锤 among the woven clouds, and
mixing them and disturbing up a dark a strange
picture-the future of man.
• And growing huge and monstrous, his
trees turning to spikes 尖刺 , his fields to
stone. Swollen 肿大 and it dropsical 水肿
的 with pride, building something so
loathsome 令人厌恶 he had to look away
while he was making it.
• And this was too much for the multitude 群众 .
The vast crowd fell on its knees 跪下 and wept.
Arachne was watching. She never had moved
from the time Athena had started to work, But
stood there straight with pale face 脸色苍白
and glittering eyes, watching. And when the
people fell on their knees, she turned and went
away. She walked quietly to a grove 树丛 of
trees and there took a rope and hanged herself.
• Athena came down from the hill and spoke no
word to the people, who dispersed 散开 . Then
she went to the grove 树丛 and saw Arachne
hanging there. The girl’s face was black, her
eyes were bulging 突出 , her hair was streaming
像流水般流下来 . Athena reached her long arm
and touched the girl on the shoulder. The face
grew blacker, and the eyes bulged more. The
body shrank; the arms and legs dwindled 缩小
and multiplied 倍增 .
• Then Athena touched the rope. It shriveled
枯萎；憔悴 , growing thinner and thinner,
until it was a frail 脆弱的 shining strand
线 . And there at the end of this shining
silken hair swung a small hairy creature
with the many legs.
• It looked at Athena, Then turned and
scuttled up 急拉 its thread, drawing it
climbed. It floated away over the grass
until it came to a low bush 灌木 , cast
another loop 圈 , and just sat there
practicing, for it knew that now it was
meant to 注定 spin without a rivalry 敌人
until the end of time 直到永远 .
• This is why spiders are called Arachnids
by those who know them best.