Minerva is the goddess of wisdom, arts and military strategy in Roman mythology, protector of Rome and the patron saint of artisans. Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter and corresponds to Athena in Greek mythology.
This goddess is represented in various statues, where a beautiful, modest woman with a serious, noble and majestic expression is seen. He usually wears a helmet on his head, a breastplate on his goatskin chest and in his hands a pica and a shield. It appears standing, with a warrior attitude, or sitting, with a meditative air.
The Myth of Minerva
Minerva was the daughter of J piter and Metis . Before she was born, they told Metis that if she fathered a girl, she would then have a son who would surpass her father and therefore her father devoured her when she was about to give birth, which caused a severe headache.
Then he ordered that the head of an ax be opened, and thus Minerva was born, adult and armed with a spear and a shield . Later, Minerva helped her father in the war against the Giants or Gigantomaquia.
This goddess sometimes leads Ulysses on her travels, she is also an architect of upholstery works with floral floral motifs and embellishes Juno's coat with her own hands. According to Ovid, he faced Arachne to determine which of the two fabrics was faster and proposed as a work a magnificent cloth. Noticing that his rival was so fast, he was so jealous that he turned her into a spider.
Minerva is responsible for the construction of the ship of the Argonauts according to her drawing and who places the wood cut in the forest of Dódona on the bow of the ship, which has the property of speaking. This was the one who directed their course and indicated how to avoid obstacles along the way.
Who was Minerva?
Minerva is the goddess of military strategy in Roman mythology, but it was only in Rome that she was given a bellicose character. Minerva is a symbol of wisdom, of modest beauty, patron of artisans. He was called by Ovid "the goddess of a thousand works."
This was a goddess worshiped throughout Italy . In Rome they celebrated their festivities from March 19 to 23, Quinquatria, the fifth day after the March idus, the festival of artisans. In another version, Minerva was celebrated in Minusculae Quinquatrus, in the IDs of June, June 13, the festival of the flutists.
Minerva was worshiped in the Capitoline Triad, on Capitoline Hill, along with Juno and Jupiter. In the play Life of Pericles by Plutarch, the goddess Minerva appears to Pericles during a dream and orders a treatment for a citizen of Athens who was injured. The treatment managed to cure that man and a monument was erected in honor of the goddess.
The wisdom qualities of Minerva are a consequence of her ancestry, for being the daughter of Zeus and Metis. She is also the goddess of thought and a symbol of intellectual progress. It is to her that the invention of the arts, sciences and agriculture is attributed .
Minerva and Poseidon competed for the possession of Athens and for this the gods promised that the city would be for him to create the most useful gift to its inhabitants. Poseidon raised a horse with his trident, the one who delivered the men. Athens gave them an olive tree. And it was recognized that the olive tree was the most useful gift for men, hence agriculture was born.
Seen in Whom, by Peter, editor of the White Brotherhood
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