Compare And Contrast Athena And Othian Goddesses - 769 Words

Throughout ancient Greco-Roman history, the Olympian Gods had very different roles in mythology. Athena and Artemis were two of the twelve gods who ruled Olympus. The goddesses portrayed many different religious aspects of this culture and played a large role in mythology. Both goddesses were believed to be virgin goddesses but still represent the ideas of growing into a woman, childbearing, and matronly duties. Throughout this paper the reader will find examples of similarities and differences between two virgin goddesses and how they represented the cultures of women, purity, and womanly duties. Athena and Artemis were both believed to be daughters of Zeus. They were believed to be incredibly powerful because of this and were often†¦show more content†¦Another important example of Athena and Artemis’s similarities includes what kind of goddesses they were. Athena was depicted as a goddess of strategical warfare and Artemis was depicted was a goddess of hunting. The goddesses represented the better parts of women and are very commonly used symbolically as womanly strength. Some believed that because the two shared such close epithets, they agreed on many things. The two sisters did agree on many things and were very similar, but just like all siblings, they were also very different. Artemis and Athena had different views on several topics. Athena was depicted as a lover of many heroes. She was said to favor Odysseus, Jason, Perseus, and Heracles. In Greek mythology, there are several accounts of Athena helping these heroes on their long quests. This is an important concept in mythology because it represents the idea that immortal gods do care for mortals and demigods and do not want all the heroes to fail. Athena cared for many heroes but she also cared for all mortal women who worshipped her. On the other hand, Artemis was not a fan of heroes. Also in Greek mythology, Artemis was expressed as a killer of heroes. She was depicted has hateful to most heroes and rarely ever opted to help someone on a quest. If a hero was on Artemis’s bad side, she typically chose to get rid of them, the complete opposite of