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# Athena

🏷 Greek divine name pun · name — by Gerry · Dec 2020 · 639 words

The Greek goddess Athena is officially a pun with a theo noa for “the godly intelligence”. But as with all gods, we can see that really all her attributes are puns with her name. One important one is with atenizo for “gazing”: That’s where her association with owls comes from.

Like all gods, Athena seems to be a conglomeration of attributes that are roughly pronounced like her name. According to Plato’s explanation, you can even slap the article ἁ hā before any word starting with T, so we can include those T-words as well.

- Athena is the goddess of wisdom, according to Plato because θεου νοησις theou noesis means “godly intelligence” (shortened to α θεονοα a theonoa).
- Athena may also be the goddess of strategy, perhaps for a pun of δηνεα denea for “planning” & “counsel”, or with ευθυνω euthuno / ιθυνω ithuno for “guiding” & “steering”.
- Athena wields a spear, because θεινω theino / εθεινε etheine means “striking” & “wounding”.
- Athena is born fully grown by her father, because ou ωδινω ou odino means “without the throes of childbirth”.
- Athena stays all by herself without marrying, because οιοθεν oiothen means “alone” & “by oneself”.
- Athena is accompanied by a small owl, probably for synonym wordplay of ατενιζω atenizo for “gazing” & “staring”, which is similar to Athena, but also a synonym to σκοπς skops, which means “watching” and “small watcher owl”. “Bringing owls to Athens” means you don’t need to “bring owls to gaze”, as they do it all the time. (Compare the owl entry.)
- Athena is generally associated with owls, probably also for synonym wordplay of αιθων aithen for “glittering” & “blazing”, which is similar to Athena, but also a synonym to γλαυξ glaux, which means “bright” and “bright-eyed owl”.
- Athena is called Glaukopis or the bright-eyed, probably also for these puns with ατενιζω atenizo for “gazing”, and γλαυξ glaux for “bright-eyed owl”.
- Athena is called Promachos or fighting in front, because αδεινος adeinos means “unfearing” (as in dino-saur).
- Athena may be a spook symbol, perhaps because ουθην outhen means “not true”, and very often the spooks proclaim “wisdoms” which in reality are simply things that are not true. (ου ou for “not” even corresponds to the negation prefix ἀ- a-).

A lot of Athena puns only work if the N is swapped for L. Such N ≈ L puns work in many languages, but may be unfamiliar to English speakers, as the letters are not really interchangeable here.

- Athena is said to have grown an olive shoot, perhaps because θαλλος thallos / θαλλω thallo means “young olive shoot” & “blooming” (for L ≈ N).
- Athena is a female warrior, perhaps because αθηλη athele means “unfeminine” (for L ≈ N).
- Athena is a warrior, perhaps also because αθλευω athleuo means “combat” & “struggle” (for L ≈ N). (This is also the main Atlas pun.)
- Athena was born fully grown, perhaps also because αθηλος athelos means “unsuckled” (for L ≈ N).

#### Greek aten-, ethein-, aithen- = various attributes of Athena

δήνεα dēnea : counsels, plans, arts — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

εὐθύνω euthynō : guide straight, direct; lead or drive; manage, guide; direct, govern — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

ἀτενίζω atenizo : to gaze intently, to fixate one’s eyes (upon), to stare; to be fixated on, to focus on, to concentrate on — Ancient Greek (Wikt)

ἀτενισμός atenismos : intent observation; fixed stare — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

ὠδίνω ōdinō : to have the pains of childbirth, be in travail — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

οἴοθεν oiothen : from one only, i. e. by oneself, alone — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

θείνω ; ἔθεινε theinō; etheine : to strike, wound — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

οὔθην outhēn : surely not, certainly not — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

#### Greek athel-, athle-, thal- = various attributes of Athena

ἄθηλυς athēlys : unfeminine — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

ἄθηλος athēlos : unsuckled — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

ἀθλεύω athleuō : contend for a prize, combat, wrestle; struggling — Ancient Greek (LSJ.gr)

θᾰλλός thallós : young shoot, young branch (especially of the olive) — Ancient Greek (Wikt)

🏷 Greek divine name pun · name