One morning as Zeus was
strolling through the gardens at Olympus, he saw a beautiful maiden whom he did
not recognize. Her name was Metis,
a Titaness, daughter of his old enemies.
Setting aside past events for a little while, Zeus decided to chase
after her.
The girl
turned into a hawk and flew away.
But Zeus, god of all gods, quickly turned his own self into a hawk and
flew after her. She flew over a
lake and dove in and became a fish; but Zeus became a fish and swam after
her. She slithered on shore as a
serpent and wriggled away; he changed himself likewise and wriggled until he
caught up with her.
After
Zeus had made love with Metis, he left her. As he left, he heard a birdŐs cry and saw a fish leap in the
water. He recognized these wild
sounds as symbols of a prophesy to be told. ŇOh, Zeus,Ó said a voice, echoed by the rustling leaves, ŇMetis
will bear a child, a daughter. But
if she bears a second child, it will be a son who destroys you as you did your
own father.Ó
On the
following morning, Zeus strolled in his garden as he had done the day
before. Again he found Metis, but
this time she did not flee from him.
He spoke softly to her and smiled.
And then, as though bending to kiss her, Zeus opened his mouth and swallowed
her.
Later
that day, Zeus suffered a terrible headache. In fact, it was the worst headache that anyone, god or
mortal, had suffered since the beginning of time. If felt almost exactly as if a full grown warrior was inside
his head trying to break out by thrusting a sharp spear upward through the soft
spots.
Zeus
shouted for his stepson Hephaestus to come quickly with a hammer and
anvil. He kneeled as though about
to pray and then rest his head upon the anvil as though a pillow. With a single swing Hephaestus split
open the godŐs mighty skull with his hammer.
Then
Hephaestus leapt back, for out of the side of ZeusŐ head sprang a maiden
dressed for battle and holding a long spear.
This was
Athena, the gray-eyed goddess, her fatherŐs favorite child for she was his
alone. Her natural birth as the
mind of Zeus made flesh entitled her with the right to preside over all
intellectual activities. It was she
who taught man how to use tools and who showed woman how to weave. It was Athena, a mistress of strategy
and diplomacy, who won wars with wisdom as her weapon. She loved to laugh in the face of Ares,
her more hasty and militant male counterpart, whom she left for dead on a
battlefield on more than one occasion.