Myths - Athena vs. Poseidon

Myths Athena vs. Poseidon -​ Key details -​ Athena and Poseidon both wanted to be the patron deity of Athens. To decide who would rule, they held a contest, offering gifts to the city. -​ Poseidon struck the ground with his trident, creating a saltwa...

Myths Athena vs. Poseidon -​ Key details -​ Athena and Poseidon both wanted to be the patron deity of Athens. To decide who would rule, they held a contest, offering gifts to the city. -​ Poseidon struck the ground with his trident, creating a saltwater spring. However, the townsfolk found the water to be salty and not particularly useful -​ Athena quietly knelt and planted an olive seed, from which sprouted an olive tree, laden with fruit. The tree promised oil, food, wood, and peace. -​ The people saw the practicality and sustainable future Athena offered and declared her the city’s protector. Poseidon, furious, sent floods and storms in retaliation. -​ Interpretation -​ Athena represents wisdom, civilization, and rationality, while Poseidon embodies raw power, nature, and chaos. -​ Their conflict symbolizes the tension between order and untamed force, where intelligence and long-term benefits triumph over sheer might -​ Athena’s victory suggest the Greeks valued practical innovation and civic progress over brute strength -​ Reflection on Greek Society -​ The myth developed during the rise of city-states, when Athens was shaping its identity around wisdom, democracy, and strategy rather than conquest  -​ Olive oil was a crucial economic resource, making Athena’s gift symbolically and materially significant -​ The myth reflects Athenian ideals, portraying Athena as a goddess of intelligence, craftsmanship, and civic duty, aligning with the city’s self-image -​ Broader mythological patterns -​ Many myths feature male gods vs female deities in struggles over power or control (e.g., Demeter vs. Hades over Persephone) -​ Athena’s victory follows a pattern where gods who offer sustainable civilizing gifts win over those who display raw force (e.g., Prometheus giving fire vs. Zeus maintaining divine rule) -​ Poseidon frequently loses contests for land (e.g., Argos to Hera), reinforcing the theme of story chaos being subdued by order -​ Influences on myth and characters -​ Cultural: this myth reflects the real-world importance of olive cultivation in Greek economy, trade, and daily life -​ Religious and Political: Athens was a rising power, and this myth justified Athena’s supremacy in the city’s religious and civic life Tantalus and Pelops -​ Tantalus doubted the power of the gods -​ Invited the gods to his palace in Sipylus in Western Asia Minor -​ Fed them his son, Pelops  -​ Everyone noticed and did not eat him, except for Demeter (because she was mourning Persephone?), who ate his shoulder -​ Tantalus was punished and Pelops was put back together, but with an ivory shoulder -​ His punishment was that he was in water with fruit trees hanging above him but when he was thirsty and tried to drink the water, it would recede. When he was hungry and tried to pick the fruit, the branches moved away from him. -​ The fruit and water being SO close yet so far away was “tantalizing” Eros, Apollo, and Daphne Myth of ER -​ The moral of the story is that virtues such as wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation, which philosophy teaches, serve to one’s advantage no matter what the situation as long as they genuinely embody them -​ The Moirai -​ Clotho: the spinner -​ Lachesis: the allotter (portions out the wool) -​ Atropos: the unturnable (cuts the wool) Myth of Prometheus -​ Name means “fore learner” -​ Son of Iapetus (Titan) and Clymene (Oceanid) -​ Brothers: Atlas, Menoetuis and Epimetheus (“After learner” or “dummy”) -​ Atlas is the one who holds up the world as a punishment  -​ Menoetius took the side of the Titans during the Titanomachy so he’s in the deepest parts of the underworld as a punishment -​ At Mecone (in the Theogony 535-559), when the humans and the gods were arguing, he taught the humans how to make a sacrifice to the gods -​ In doing so he tricked Zeus -​ Also stole fire Myth of Pandora