The Greeks learned that the city was protected by the Palladium, so they plotted to steal it to win a decisive victory. This played an important role in some accounts of the Trojan War. It was believed to have been in the city during the Trojan War, which had taken place several hundred years earlier.Īccording to legend, the city would never fall as long as the Palladium remained in the temple. Greek writers mentioned the Palladium as the protector of Troy as early as the 6th century BC. This simple wooden figure was believed to have been crafted by Athena herself in mourning for her dear friend. The Temple of Athena in Troy was said to have been the location of a statue of Pallas known as the Palladium. The Romans believed that Minerva had been one of the first goddesses brought to their region from the Greek world. Inside Jupiter’s head, she became the source of his own intellect. She was traditionally believed to be the Titaness of wisdom, a trait that she passed on to her daughter. In some Roman writings, however, Metis remained inside Jupiter’s head. In the Greek version of the story, Metis faded away after this event.
#Photolicious minerva cracked
Months later Jupiter had his skull cracked open by Vulcan, just as Zeus had by Hephaestus, to release her. So Jupiter tricked Metis into transforming herself into a fly so that he could swallow her. In the Roman version, the prophecy did not specify that Metis would give birth to a daughter first, so Jupiter worried that she had already conceived the son that would overthrow him. This is similar to other stories from mythology, such as the capture of the Titaness Thetis.Īs he struggled with Metis, Jupiter remembered the prophecy and regretted what he had done.
Metis herself initiated the shapeshifting, taking on a variety of forms in an attempt to escape Jupiter’s grasp.
Instead, he was trying to force her to become one of his mistresses. In the Roman telling, Metis and Jupiter were not married. He did not know that she was already pregnant with his daughter, so Athena was born from his head several months later. To avoid this, Zeus had turned Metis into a fly and swallowed her. A prophecy claimed that she would have two children and the younger child, a son, would one day overthrow his father just as Zeus himself had usurped his father’s throne. The Greeks claimed that Metis was the first wife of Zeus. How this came to be, however, was subtly different. The Romans continued the tradition of Minerva being born from her father’s head. Her father was Jupiter in Rome, just as he had been Zeus in Greece. Her mother was a Titaness named Metis in both. In most aspects, the Greek and Roman stories of Athena/Minerva’s birth were the same. New stories, expanded civic roles, and the influences of the Empire’s most distant provinces created a unique mythology and identity for Minerva. As Minerva, the Romans placed less emphasis on her role in war and saw additional influence by the goddess in trade and the arts.Īs the Roman Empire grew, Minerva became even more distinct from her Greek counterpart. Because of the differences between their cultures and the imprecise association between Italian and Greek gods, some uniquely Roman qualities emerged.Īthena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, had been given the name of Minvra, a Etruscan goddess. The way these gods were seen in Rome, however, was sometimes different than they had been in Greece.
The result was that the Roman gods had names from Etruscan and other Italian languages, but were otherwise virtually identical to the Greek pantheon. When the Romans created their mythology, they gave the stories and characteristics of the Greek gods to local deities.
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