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The goddess Athena was born fully grown from Zeus's head.

According to Greek myth, Athena leapt out of her father's forehead already wearing armor and ready for battle.

2 min read
The goddess Athena was born fully grown from Zeus's head.
THE FULL STORY

Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, crafts, and clever battle strategy. Her birth story is one of the strangest in Greek mythology. According to the legend, Zeus swallowed her mother Metis whole, and Athena later grew inside his head until he got a giant headache.

The myth says the god Hephaestus solved the problem by splitting Zeus’s skull open with an axe. Out leapt Athena, already a fully grown adult, wearing a helmet and armor and shouting a war cry. The other gods were stunned.

Athena’s symbol was the owl, which is why owls are still linked with wisdom today. The city of Athens was named in her honor after she gave the people their first olive tree. The famous Parthenon temple in Athens was built specifically for her - its ruins still stand on a hilltop after almost 2,500 years.

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