Athena’s Surprising Birth
By:Emmanuelle Perez
This is the tale of how the goddess of wisdom and war, Athena, was born. It all started long ago when Zeus was sitting on his throne casually when all of a sudden one of his servants rushed in with a piece of paper in his hand.
“My lord! My lord! Read what this prophecy has to say.”
Zeus grabbed the piece of paper and read it.
“One day, you're wife Metis will bear a child greater than you, and he will dethrone you!”
Zeus was shocked and nervous, especially since Metis was already pregnant. He had to prevent the baby’s birth somehow, so he brainstormed until he thought of something.
Zeus called his wife over and convinced her to play a game with him where she was going to transform into different creatures.
“Fish! Tiger! Mouse! Shark!” Zeus kept naming creatures, and his wife would obey his command by turning into them. They both giggled and laughed, but Metis didn’t know Zeus was planning to make her disappear!
“Now, to test your powers, you must transform into a fly!” Zeus said. Metis accepted challenge and turned into a small fly. Zeus took advantage of this and swallowed her whole! Zeus was relieved that he got rid of Metis and the baby.
Years passed, and although Metis was gone, she guided and advised Zeus from inside his head. One day, Zeus was relaxing on his throne when all of a sudden he had a really painful headache. He couldn’t bear it anymore, so he called over his son Hephaestus, the god of metalworking to hit his head with a mighty axe.
“Hephaestus, my boy, I have a headache, and I can’t bear it anymore! Give your old man a good whack to the head,” Zeus said. Hephaestus didn’t wish to harm his father, but Zeus kept asking him until the god split open his father's skull, and a surprise came out.
A beautiful grown woman popped out fully dressed in robes with a helmet. Thunder roared behind her, and the gods stood there in shock.
This goddess was Zeus’s daughter, Athena. She was the child Zeus thought he had prevented by swallowing Metis. Soon with time, Athena became Zeus’s favorite child; she became daddy’s little girl and the only god that he trusted to use his thunderbolts and his shield Aegis.
After Athena’s birth nothing else was heard from Metis. Some people say she died when she was swallowed and all of her wisdom ended up transferring to Zeus. Others say that from Zeus’s belly she guides and advises him so he’ll stay out of trouble. Which one is true? We will never know. The only thing we know is that Athena is the goddess without a mother
THE END
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Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war, but she made a weird entrance! Her father didn’t want her to be born and did something that he thought would stop her, but she ended up being born. Overtime she gained her father’s trust and love, and she became his favorite child.