Pallas Athena: krigsgudinna och aigisbärarens barn : En undersökning av Athenas porträttering inom Iliaden och Hymnen till Athena av Callimachus

This study is about how Athena is portrayed in two of the surviving works of antiquity, the Iliad and the Hymn to Athena by Callimachus. The study further shows in comparison of the two works, how Athena can be described based on her emotions, attributes, actions and character traits. In relation to the Iliad, Athena comes to express emotions such as frustration, dissatisfaction, anger, hatred, happiness, joy and as loving. Furthermore, the analysis of the Iliad has been able to identify actions and character traits such as cunning, persuasion, incitement, courage, eager and quickness. Athena has also been able to be attributed characteristics in relation to her as a goddess of war and her father Zeus within the analysis. The characteristics that emerged during the analysis are the goddess as terrifying, angry, with destructive powers, that she never tires, terrible deity and based on her epithet Tritogeneia. Through analysis of the Hymn to Athena by Callimachus, the goddess can be attributed to emotions such as pity and love. Unlike the Iliad, emotions of a negative nature such as frustration, dissatisfaction and anger do not appear in the hymn. Furthermore, other actions and character traits can also be attributed to Athena in the hymn, such as female beauty and personal hygiene. The majority of epithets and designations can be attributed to the goddess within the hymn, which, unlike the Iliad, is more numerous in number. The epithets and designations that are claimed are polisgoddess, queen, lady and Thebes. Like other identifications attributed to Athena within the hymn, epithets and designations can be related to context. That in the sense that worshipers want to see Athena appear in their company, which is most likely to happen if they address the goddess with respectful words.