ABSTRACT
Athena appears in an extraordinary range of myths, due in part to her role as the patron of heroes. She participates in stories associated with numerous heroes, from the Greek warriors at Troy to the great adventurers including Jason, Perseus and above all Herakles. So pervasive is her role that it might even be said that one of the ‘qualifications’ for heroism in Greek myth was to have Athena on one’s side. W. F. Otto memorably identified Athena as the ‘goddess of nearness’ (1954). It is in her interventions in the lives of heroes that this characterisation has particular resonance.
