Athena and Me

Athena, Herakles and Atlas

I admire and respect Athena. If Carl Jung was right about each man having inside him the archetype of the ideal woman, his anima then I have to look no further, she is Athena. You might be inclined to ask how is it possible that a 20th/21st century man may turn to a goddess that was worshipped 2,000 years ago and say he has found his ideal woman? Well, I'm living proof that it can happen.

I grew up and still live in Greece. I am a Hellene both in name but also in spirit. The second part I had to fight to achieve. As a child I was fascinated with the Greek myths. I had a book with pictures that dealt with all the Greek Gods; I had many more books about Greek Mythology and Greek History. All children like exciting stories of powerful heroes and great deeds with incredible plot and action; well the stories of ancient Greece are choked full with these elements and I rejoiced in them with all my heart.

I remember bits and piece from my childhood; like the time when I ran around barefoot on the ground so that I'd become tough like the Spartans, or when I cut leaves from an olive tree and pretended to be an Olympic victor. I even decided to build an altar on the back yard but I was not much of a builder so that plan fell through. Anyway my point is that my life was filled with the stories of the ancient Greeks and of their gods. But then, I grew up.

I never stopped liking the stories but the pains of growing up took precedence for awhile. Each time I would go to a museum, or a ruined temple or catch a glimpse of a documentary on TV I would connect with the gods. But that feeling wasn't the first thing on my mind. Still, every time I saw the wooden sword I had built as a replica of one I'd seen in a book, I was brought back to those early times.

Growing up you realize that life is no picnic, it's a constant struggle. It's really hard to get lost if you don't have a solid framework to build your life around. I tried to find such a solid framework, driven by the will I've had since I was a child to live my life in the best way I could. I tried many paths, politics, Jungian psychology, a few sessions of zazen which were a miserable failure, reading endlessly about a new subject every month. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't having a nervous breakdown, I simply tried to check out everything as a 20-year-old kid is supposed to.

How did I get back to the Greeks, their gods and - most importantly- to Athena? I think it all started when I was reading Joseph Campbell more particularly his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. That book explained my fascination with myths and also reminded me of Athena; there was a picture of her standing by Iason who emerges from the jaws of a dragon. It was a magical moment of understanding something which I had always known. I dug up my old schoolbooks and found the Iliad and the Odyssey, I bought more books, I payed a visit to all the glorious monuments and museums of my country. I had reconnected with the Hellenic spirit and this time it was for good.

I had long ago realized that religion doesn't speak about actual entities outside ourselves. Many of you won't accept this, but I do. The beautiful gods are symbols rooted on the mind of human beings, they represent spiritual entities in our psyche. They are real, but they are inside us not outside. This realization led me to undertake a conscious effort to create a religion, or a spirituality that was based on myself and not enforced by others. And what would be a better place to start than the gods and heroes I had always admired and honored, from the first time I'd heard of them.

And now to Athena. Why do I like her so much? Well, she represents wisdom which is something I've always sought. She represents beauty and her statues and sculptures are filled with her beauty and the harmony of her untroubled feautures. She is also a woman of action, a goddess of war and initiative; I would not have my goddess as a passive stay-at-home. She is a goddess who stands by the heroes she chooses: Perseus, Herakles, Theseus, Odysseus, Diomedes, Akhilleus have all enjoyed the comforts of her protection. She incites men to heroic deeds; that is my life ambition, to act like a hero, to do great things. So Athena is naturally my most beloved goddess.

All this is, of course, attempts of my brain to rationalize my closeness with Athena. I am fortunate enough to live in an apartment which faces the Acropolis. I sit looking at the Parthenon and I instantly feel calm, and self-complete. I look at the picture of Athena on my wall, the one they call the Mourning Athena and cannot take my eyes off her. They say that this sculpture was next to a tomb of Athenian cavalry-men who died in the Peloponesian war. Looking at her I feel the comfort she must have given to the families of the deceased who visited that tomb. I understand, that under her shield, all tears are dried. I hope that she will always be with me and I pray that she will be with you too.

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