I decided to do a review of Athena by George OConnor.
First of all, the beginning:
At the beginning of the book is a basic summary of what happened in the previous book, Zeus - King of the Gods, in which the Titan-son of Earth and Sky, Kronos, swallowed all his children but one, who rose against him, made him vomit the children up, and then locked him and the other evil Titans in Tartaros. These children rose up as the 1st of the Olympians, the 12 major gods. Here in Athena, the Moirai (Moirai), goddesses of fate, tell the story of Zeus, king of the Olympians, who tricks his wife Metis into a game of shapeshifting after a terrible prophecy from Earth. Personally, I loved this part. Why I love watching a girl turn herself into various flying creatures including a dragon-like snake and then getting swallowed whole by her shapeshifting husband, I know not.
Of course, as I just revealed, Zeus swallows her. Unknown to him, though, she is already pregnant. She gives birth to a daughter, and uses her last powers to forge the girl armour. Then, in a headache and a hammer-swing, Zeus' head opens and his daughter by Metis, Athena/Athene bursts out. The next parts of the book are basically just of how Athena recieved and revised her Aegis. Athena, goddess of wisdom, battle, and art, is not fitting in on Olympos, and goes to Camp Triton in Libya, a camp for girls (tomboys to be exact) founded by the merman Triton. Athena is friends with Pallas, Triton's daughter, who seems affixiated by Zeus, or to be exact, his power. His symbol of power: his cloak, the Aegis. During a disarmment contest between Pallas and Athena, Zeus uses this as an advantage to distract Pallas and allow Athena to win. Pallas, distracted too much, drops defenses and is stabbed by Athena, who does not realize her friend's distraction and was trying to disarm her. Pallas dies with the final words, "Did Zeus see how I fought..." Zeus, ashamed, gives the grieving Athena his Aegis and gives her a throne on Olympos.
This is, in my imagination, a brilliant translation of the many Pallas and Athena stories, all in which Athena kills Pallas accidentally because of Zeus, and all of which are very, very nondescriptive. In fact, I hope George doesn't mind if I "borrow" it...
The next story in the Aegis selection is that of Athena and the Gigant Pallas (for those of you who don't know, a Gigant is a giant rock/mountain-monster with tremendous size and strength sometimes also depicted with snakes for legs). In my version of the story, Pallas attacked with Typhon (no, I'm not explaining who Typhon is, get over it and read a book for once you no-good, lousy sloths), but here, George shows him as attacking with the other Gigantes in the Gigantomakhy (Gigantes vs. Olympians battle, which I know is impossible because Herakles had to help out in it but this part of the Aegis was completed before Herakles' grandad was even born, hence my theory of Typhon and Pallas). Anyway, here the Gigantomakhy starts as the Gigantes, in one full page comic, begin building a mountain-ladder to Olympos so they can confront the Olympians. The Olympians fight back, but are held back by two facts: the Gigantes can't die if they touch Gaia (Mother Earth)'s sacred ground, and the leader (Alceoneus in the original myth, pallas in this version) is huger than the others. Athena confronts Pallas, kills him, and skins his fur for her Aegis. I loved this part, even though in my opinion this is the one that changed the myth the most.
The next Aegis story (of course) is the myth of Perseus, the hero who slew the goddess Medusa and gave her head to Athena. Again, read a book. I'm not going through the entire Perseus story. Athena makes Medusa's head part of the Aegis (in this version, only the snakes. In the original myth, she used the face too). And yes, that picture above is about Pegasos. Any of you who read know he came from Medusa after she died.
The last tale (not about the Aegis) is of Arachne/Arakhne. Arachne is a skilled weaver who boasts to be better than even Athena at weaving. A weave-off is held between the goddess and the girl, Athena weaving a tapestry of her father Zeus defeating his father Kronos. But Arachne, who ends up winning, has woven a bold statement: weaving all the scenes in which Zeus and Athena had seemed dumb, ruthless, or ignoramical. What happens now is perhaps my least favorite ending to the Arachne story. Out of simple jealosy and anger, Athena turned Arachne into a spider. This, as said before, is my least favourite ending to this story. In mine version's ending, arachne, struck guilty by Athene, kills herself, and Athene pitiously turns her into a spider then.
Over all, Athena was very good. Loved it. On a scale of 1-5, 4.
Pictures by George O'Connor. Don't steal and say they are you're own. Cuz' he'll sue you.
