ABSTRACT
The major Greek gods have such distinctive characteristics and functions that it is tempting to study each of them in isolation – to produce a detailed study of, say, Zeus in his various incarnations and guises, or Apollo, Aphrodite or Athena, who is particularly appealing in this regard due to her distinctive appearance, the various festivals connected with her and her numerous epithets, modes of operation and attributes. Scholarship of recent decades, however, has stressed the dangers associated with such an approach, because it risks overlooking the importance of one of the principal features of ancient Greek religion: the pantheon. This chapter will be concerned with the question of how we should steer a path between, on the one hand, Athena’s distinctive character and functions and on the other, her status as one divinity among many in the polytheistic religion of the Greeks.
