nated in the form of a golden shower; a third pictured the maid
Europa, kidnapped by Zeus in the guise of a magnificent white bull.
The theme of her tapestry was Arachne’s undoing. Athena was
so incensed at what Arachne portrayed that she tore the work to
pieces and drove Arachne to hang herself. Then, feeling some pity,
Athena let Arachne live, but transformed her into a spider, forever
condemned to hang by a thread and spin. (In biology, spiders are
classified as arachnids, after this unfortunate girl.) Note that Athena,
very much her father’s defender, punished her for making Zeus’s
deceitful and illicit behavior public, rather than for the impudence
of the challenge itself.
ATHENA THE ARCHETYPE
As Goddess of Wisdom, Athena was known for her winning
strategies and practical solutions. As an archetype, Athena is the
pattern followed by logical women, who are ruled by their heads
rather than their hearts.
Athena is a feminine archetype: she shows that thinking well,
keeping one’s head in the heat of an emotional situation, and devel-
oping good tactics in the midst of conflict, are natural traits for some
women. Such a woman is being like Athena, not acting “like a man.”
Her masculine aspect, or animus, is not doing the thinking for
her—she is thinking clearly and well for herself. The concept of
Athena as an archetype for logical thinking challenges the Jungian
premise that thinking is done for a woman by her masculine animus,
which is presumed to be distinct from her feminine ego. When a
woman recognizes the keen way her mind works as a feminine
quality related to Athena, she can develop a positive image of herself,
instead of fearing that she is mannish (that is, inappropriate).
When Athena represents only one of several archetypes active in
a particular woman—rather than a single dominant pattern—then
this archetype can be an ally of other goddesses. For example, if she
is motivated by Hera to need a mate to feel complete, then Athena
can help assess the situation and develop a strategy to get her man.
Or, if Artemis is the guiding inspiration for a women’s health collect-
ive or a women’s
Goddesses in Everywoman