City The Olive Tree example essay topic

312 words
Minerva is the goddess of war, wisdom, and weaving. She is the daughter of Zeus, and is one of two children that Zeus actually gave birth to. Zeus was told that if he had a son by Metis, the son would overthrow him so when she became pregnant Zeus swallowed her whole. Nine months later Zeus was having terrible headaches He had Vulcan split open his head with an ax and out sprung Minerva fully dressed in her armor and helmet.

Minerva became Zeus's favorite child. Once a woman called Arachne wove a beautiful picture. Minerva tried to find something wrong with it. When she couldn't, she tore it up and turned Arachne into a spider.

The spider still weaves beautiful webs. Minerva helped the hero Perseus kill the gorgon Medusa, who was a monster with snakes instead of hair. Anyone who looked at a gorgon turned to stone. But Minerva told Perseus to look at Medusa's reflection in a polished shield. That way he could cut the head off without looking directly at the gorgon.

Out of gratitude he gave the head to Minerva, who put it on her shield, so it would turn her enemies to stone. Poseidon (the god of the sea) and Minerva both wanted Athens as their city. It was decided that whichever god gave a better gift to the city could have it. Poseidon gave the city horses and Athena gave the city the olive tree. The olive tree was judged to be the better gift because of the important resource it became and the immense wealth it brought to the city.

So Athens became her city and the Parthenon her temple. Her objects are the aegis, the olive tree, the Parthenon, her shield, and the owl.