Identified with Minerva by the Romans, Athena was the daughter of Zeus and Metis and one of the greatest deities of Olympus. Since Uranus and Gaea had predicted that one of Metis' children would one day rule over the Olympians, Zeus swallowed his wife so that the child in her womb would not be born from her body. When Athena was ready to be born, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to open his head with a blow of his hammer and from the wound sprang Athena, fully armed and shouting a terrible war cry. This miraculous birth was supposed to have taken place on the banks of the river Triton (or Lake Tritonis), perhaps located in Libya, and Athena was therefore given the epithet Tritogeneia.
Athena was raised by Triton and grew up with his daughter Pallas, who became the goddess' unfortunate playmate. It is told that while the two girls were practicing the art of war, Pallas was about to strike Athena. Her father Zeus immediately intervened, placing his aegis, a goatskin capable of inspiring terror, between the two combatants. Pallas was so horrified by this that she was unable to avoid her friend's blow and was killed. In despair over the loss of Pallas, Athena made a statue of her, the Palladium, and assumed Pallas as one of her epithets.
Athena was portrayed as a , with a heart untouched by human passions. It is told that she bore Erichthonius to Hephaestus without uniting with him. She was also a warrior goddess who played an important part in the Gigantomachia (war of the giants). Her hatred of Paris prompted her to fight on the side of the Achaeans in the Trojan War, and she was particularly fond of Ulysses, Achilles, Diomedes, and Menelaus. She protected Heracles while he was carrying out his labors and, as a mark of his gratitude, received the gift of the golden apples of the Hesperides. However, Athena, as the daughter of Metis, was considered the most cultivated and the wisest of the gods. She devoted herself chiefly to peaceful works. She introduced the olive to Attica and was patron of all the arts, including those of practical utility, such as weaving, spinning, and embroidery. She invented the flute and the trumpet, the terra-cotta vase, the yoke for oxen, and the ship. She gave Bellerophon the bit that he used to tame Pegasus.
As time passed, writers came to identify Athena as the goddess of wisdom and reason, and it is in this role that she exercised her authority over the laws of the state. Order, the administration of justice, and the people' assembly were placed under her protection. It was claimed that she was responsible for the creation of the Areopagus, the highest political body in Athens. It was at Athens that the Panathenaea festivals were held in her honor.