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Comment
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(4/15/04 9:23 pm)
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Trickster Athena
Hi, I just stumbled onto this site when google turned up an old thread about female trickster figures. I was thrilled, because I'm writing a paper on Athena as a trickster figure-- she's definitely 'crafty,' a true daughter of Metis, she compares herself to Odysseus in the Odyssey, she invents things, and most interesting to me, she straddles gender boundaries, taking on male characteristics in the same way that male tricksters take on female characteristics. But while male tricksters' most distinctive female trait is that they are often responsible for creating humans (they give birth to worlds, in a sense) Athena is a virgin goddess who gives up her potential to create life as she takes on male roles. I would *love* to hear people's thoughts on this, and any scholarly work that has been done with it. Thanks!
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(4/18/04 2:48 am)
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Re: Trickster Athena
Well, re:gender roles, I do know that Athena is/was considered to
be an almost completely male-identifed figure. Usually the source
cited for this is at the end of the Oresteia when she tells Orestes
that it's totally OK that he killed his mother, because mothers
don't really count: the true parent is "he who mounts."
So she makes the female-identifed furies who are chastasing Orestes
for murdering his mother stop. She refers to herself as "motherless,"
as she sprung from Zeus's head (despite the fact that yeah, as I
recall, her mother is Metis whom Zeus swallowed.
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(4/18/04 3:19 am)
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re: Trickster Athena
Yes, swallowed because she was going to have a child that would overthrow Zeus. Metis is described as a cunning and crafty goddess; I wish I knew if she appeared in any stories other than this one. I admit I took up the topic partly because it seemed so improbable, I mean trickster figures are well, vulgar, and Athena just isn't. But since I've started my research I've been finding Athena in places where she you just wouldn't expect her. For one thing, she's oddly present in Prometheus' most tricksterish stories: she helps him steal fire from the gods--gives it to him, really--and he creates humans with her approval, after which she breathes life into him. In another story, she breathes life back into Zagreus whom the Titans have killed, a doublet of Orpheus' destruction. I don't know whether bringing things to life is ipso facto a trickster trait, but they certainly do it a lot. What I'm finding a lot of is Athena less as a trickster herself than the particular patron and facilitator of tricksters. Its been suggested that she usurps some of Hermes' characteristics in the Odyssey, notably his cap of invisibility and winged sandals.
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Terri
Windling
Registered User
(4/18/04 9:20 am)
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Re: re: Trickster Athena
Have you read Athena: A Biography, by Lee Hall
(Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1997)? Subtitled: "A New Look at
the Goddess of Culture Wars and Sexual Politics," it's a fascinating
examination of myth and gender.
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(4/18/04 11:31 am)
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Re: Trickster Athena
No, I haven't, but I certainly will. Thank you for the reference, I'm sadly in need of modern work on this! At the moment I'm working with mostly the primary sources, a couple of books on Trickster that don't involve Athena (Madcaps, Screwballs and Con Women), and the chapter of Hyde's Trickster Makes This World on Trickster and Gender.
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Terri
Windling
Registered User
(4/19/04 8:07 am)
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Re: Trickster Athena
The Landay and Hyde books are indeed good ones to consult. (Isn't
Lewis Hyde just brilliant? I loved The Gift, his
previous book, too.)
Have you come across Mercury Rising: Women, Evil, and the
Trickster Gods by Deldon Anne McNeely? It's a Jungian take
on the subject, so I don't know if that will be useful to you or
not -- but I thought I'd mention it. There's also an essay by Hyde
on "Where Are the Women Tricksters" in the collection
Trickster Lives: Culture and Myth in American Fiction,
edited by Jeanne Campbell Reesman.
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(4/19/04 1:24 pm)
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Re: Trickster Athena
Hyde is indeed amazing, I first read Trickster Makes This World in high school and it was one of the books that really focused my interest in myth. Thank you for the references, that essay from Trickster Lives sounds like just what I am looking for!
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