Athena vs Poseidon: The War still Goes On
Hm, admittedly the title may cause confusion to some of you guys since the question that pops-up is: since when were those two gods of Mt. Olympus at war anyway?
In order to comprehend the above statement we need to keep a few facts in our minds regarding the rules of Mt. Olympus that Zeus imposed to his fellow gods.
(For more about Zeus click here: Zeus)
(For more about Mt. Olympus click here: Mt. Olympus)
In other terms, in contrast to gods from other mythologies, one of the first things that Zeus made sure, during his ruler-ship, was that the gods were not allowed to kill each other. So, even if they were in disagreement and (in extreme cases) were beating the crap out of each other no one dared to deliver the final blow (remember this is the time after the wars of the Titanomachy and the Gigantomachy). And if they could not reach an understanding, whatsoever, they had to stand before Zeus and his decision about the matter would be final.
Hence, how could the gods of Olympus solve their disagreements (aka fight each other) without breaking the rules that Zeus made? Obviously enough (as it still happens nowadays in various circles) through their proxies! In other words, the proxies are the suckers; and in this case (and you guessed correctly) the suckers are no other than the humans!
Surprisingly, when you follow up historical records, regardless the official ones or the unofficial ones, you should be able to observe a similar pattern that persists via the millennia; which is that the powerful ones usually solve their differences via their proxies. In contrast, every time they duked it out without any proxies, they usually ended up in cancelling each other out (aka they pretty much destroyed each other). Consequently, proxies are their all-time classic approach so as to solve matters between them.
Moving on to our main topic…
When did Athena and Poseidon start not to look eye to eye with each other?
(For more about Athena click here: Athena and for Poseidon click here: Poseidon)
Battle 1: Athena vs Poseidon (the beginning of the war)!
There once came a time in Ancient Greece when the first king of Athens, Cecrops, who was half person and half snake, had to find a patron deity for the city state of Athens (at that point Athens was not named yet as "Athens"!).
(for more click here: Cecrops)
Two Olympian gods got intrigued by the fact that such a beautiful city would not only receive their patronage but moreover, their name. Before Cecrops, Athena - the goddess of Wisdom and Skill, and Poseidon - the god of the Seas, appeared. So the king asked from them to offer a gift truly valuable for Athens.
Poseidon came first: he struck the earth powerfully and created a well with his trident. Immediately, streaming water shot forth, but the water turned out to be salty and not very useful for the population.
Next, it was the turn of goddess Athena. Athena stepped forward, struck her spear into the ground and then she kneeled and planted an olive branch in it. This way she created an olive tree, as a symbolization of peace and prosperity on earth.
Cecrops was very impressed by Athena’s gift. So he chose Athena to lay claim of the city of Athens and the city was named after her. God Poseidon, however, was not pleased with the decision of Cecrops and cursed the city of Athens to never have enough water from then on.
After that, it is said that a major problem of water shortage started in Athens, which continues until nowadays (a fact that is valid!).
(for more click here: Name of Athens)
Battle 2: Athena vs Poseidon, Athens vs Atlantis (the first bloodstained war)!
Poseidon most probably perceived the circumstance of Athens something like a slap to his face from Athena (keep in mind Poseidon’s ego was BIIIGGGG!!!).
Consequently, he went to an ocean that nowadays we call Atlantic Ocean; and there, in a Continent, he created the famous Atlantis.
Before we proceed, let us take down a few facts regarding Atlantis and Athens.
Fact 1: How and why was Atlantis created by Poseidon?
Like other antediluvian gods Poseidon had sexual relations with both goddesses and mortal women (humans). At one point he fell in love with a human mortal by the name of Cleito. To protect her, he built a sanctuary on top of a hill near the middle of an isolated island in the Ocean and surrounded her new home with rings of land and water and implemented constructions that made the Island fertile and beautiful. There were five concentric circles of land and water each. Cleito gave birth to ten children and thus, the royal family lineage of Atlantis was founded. Their firstborn son, Atlas, was the first ruler of Atlantis (hence, it became known as the Kingdom of Atlantis).
Fact 2: Atlantis compared to Athens?
Practically both cities could be termed as “Greek Cities”. Both of them were formed in a similar fashion, both cities believed in the same Pantheon, the citizens spoke the same language (aka Ancient Greek), both cities had similar, if not the same, customs, both cities were highly advanced (even for today’s standards), both cities had formed various commerce-treaties between them and finally, both cities were leading an alliance.
Atlantis was the leader of the Atlantian-Alliance and Athens was the leader of the Athenian-Alliance.
Fact 3: Poseidon the patron of Atlantis!
It goes without saying that the patron of Atlantis was Poseidon himself!
How did the two great cities end up fighting one of the bloodiest World Wars of Ancient Times?
(For more about Atlantis vs Athens click here: Atlantis vs Athens)
As time passed, both cities grew bigger and bigger; and more powerful compared to any other nation.
Athens adopted the approach of living peacefully alongside other nations and in harmony with nature. It is said that their technology was based on crystals (see Kryptonian technology from the Superman-Universe).
Eventually, on the other hand, Atlantis started to diverge from its original path (although at the beginning Atlantis did follow a similar pattern as Athens did). Plato describes it as follows (in loose translation):
"… eventually the citizens of Atlantis grew arrogant, intoxicated with their power…"
Why? Because both great nations, apart from technological achievements, acquired powers such as telepathy, telekinetic and so forth.
But, Atlantis started to utilize nuclear power and with their magical devices to draw, and to misuse, natural energy (something like Geothermal energy). Moreover, the majority of the citizens from Atlantis started to turn their focus on the 3 lower-chakras; hence, they fell from grace and started to behave like mindless masses of people (making them easy prey for the ruling class). If you notice, today our civilization does the exact same thing; interesting, isn't it?
It goes without saying that some of the ruling classes didn’t agree with that approach; therefore, they were exiled from Atlantis and went on as “teachers”, aka "gods", and boosted other primitive civilizations' to higher levels of “technological” developments.
Time passed, and eventually Atlantis decided to expand and to conquer the world; ruling over everyone. So, Atlantis started attacking every nation – starting off with the nations around them.
To make the long story short, the only nations that were still free from the Atlantian rulership were the Greeks, Egypt, the Middle-East up to India and a few nations around the area of India; the rest of the world was already under Atlantian rulership.
World War was inevitable. An alliance of the (still) free nations was formed and their leader became Athens!
And so the merciless war, the clash between the two Alliances, begun; and it was a fearsome war.
Battle after battle, destruction after destruction, the Athenian-Alliance managed, in the end, to corner the Atlantian-Alliance in their own continent.
… And finally, the Athenians were able to defeat the notorious Empire of Atlantis.
… Atlantis, in a final effort, to change the course of events utilized their ultimate magic; which also backfired at them and Atlantis self-destructed.
… The tidal waves that appeared, as Atlantis was sinking, through fire and water, also resulted in the destruction of the Athenian-Alliance’s forces; and many nations, around the world, were catapulted back to the “stone-age”.
The rest is history…
Battle 3: Athena vs Poseidon - The Trojan War!
(For more about the Trojan War click here: Trojan War)
Thousands of years past but Poseidon still had a score to settle with Athena.
Regardless of the final outcome, of the war between Athens vs Atlantis, it was apparent to everyone: Athens defeated Atlantis and therefore, the score between the two gods was, Athena vs Poseidon 2-0.
As the Trojan War waged on, the Olympian Gods were divided into two groups:
The gods that supported the Greeks
The gods that supported the Trojans.
Before we proceed, let us take down a few facts regarding The Trojan War.
Fact 1: Both Alliances (the so called Greek-Alliance and the city of Troy) were Greeks!
Indeed, similar to Atlantis-Athens, both parties had the same customs, spoke the same language (aka Ancient Greek), believed in the same gods, had formed various commerce-treaties between them and so forth.
Another fact that supports this claim is that the SAME(!!!) Pantheon was divided in two.
Fact 2: Poseidon was also involved with the construction of Troy.
Specifically, Poseidon was involved – one way or another – with the construction of the walls that were surrounding the city of Troy; basically, making them impenetrable to any mortal (and if you remember Homer’s Epic Poem, the Iliad, Troy was defeated through a strategic manoeuvre concerning a Horse, aka the Trojan Horse).
Fact 3: Athena and Poseidon supporting different fronts.
Since Poseidon was supporting the Trojans… we were very surprised to find out (we are being sarcastic here) that Athena ended up in supporting the opposite front – the Greek Alliance.
Hold on!
According to the Iliad, wasn’t Poseidon at the same side with Athena supporting the Greek front?!
Yes, they were, however his actions before - during - and (especially) after the Trojan War, clearly depict that he was indirectly fighting his war against Athena!
Consequently, for simplicity purposes we will continue our division of Poseidon vs Athena, and in this case, Troy vs Greek-Alliance.
Without much delay, moving on…
The Trojan War that ended the Heroic Age...
Let us see what arsenal the two gods brought into the battle front:
Poseidon had at his disposal of mortals:
Hector (the top dog of Troy, killed by Achilles) - (for more click: here)
Penthesilea and some Amazons (smoked mainly by Achilles) - (for more click: here)
The impenetrable Trojan Walls
… hmmm, nothing else worth mentioning comes to mind…
OK guys, the dimwit Parys does not count, since he is definitely someone that Poseidon would like to forget…
Athena had at her disposal of mortals:
Achilles - (for more click: here)
Odysseus - (for more click: here)
Ajax - (for more click: here)
Agamemnon - (for more click: here)
Calchas - (for more click: here)
Diomedes - (for more click: here)
Before we continue with the Trojan War, we consider it appropriate to tell you, at this point, a side-story about our man Diomedes.
The reason we are doing it is, because Diomedes has not been given the appropriate credits in historical records, compared to the other heroes of the Trojan War.
The side-story: Diomedes' Greatness (aka Macho-ness):
So what makes Diomedes so much worth mentioning that we actually inserted a side-story about him?
To begin with, Diomedes was a combination of Mr Universe, Bruce Lee and Einstein; and by the way, he was huge.
In terms of strength, he was only second best to Achilles; and Achilles respected Diomedes.
In terms of cleverness, he was only second best to Odysseus; and Odysseus respected Diomedes.
He was respected by Odysseus that much to the point that those two formed a formidable, and undefeated, duo that went ahead and participated in various covert ops (wracking havoc against Trojan forces); and you guessed correctly, Odysseus and Diomedes were also stationed inside the Trojan Horse.
Diomedes was also one of goddess Athena's favourites (after Odysseus of course).
Diomedes, had accumulated more military experience than many of the Greek generals had when they left for Troy, and though Diomedes was the youngest military commander to lead warriors across the Aegean he was also among the wisest, the strongest, and the most accomplished (he was a member of the Epigoni who practically destroyed Thebes. For more see also: Seven Against Thebes).
It also bears mentioning that Diomedes was a one-time suitor of Helen, and that when he departed the shores of Greece he brought 80 ships with him, which was the second largest invasion force behind only Agamemnon - the overall commander of all Greek forces in Troy.
Diomedes was also wearing an impenetrable armour crafted by the forge-god Hephaestus, which was emblazoned with images of wild boars, striking fear to his enemies.
Every time Diomedes entered the battlefield there was no fighting… Diomedes was a slaughter machine, destroying everything in his wake; as a matter of fact, Diomedes was that lethal that when reading the Iliad, the reader, loses track of the number of Trojans that were killed by Diomedes hand!
And Diomedes was the only one (during the Trojan War) to fight against not 1, not 2 but 3 Olympian gods(!!!) and to arise victorious!
What?! Here is the story...
As fate wanted it, during the Trojan War, Diomedes came face-to-face with one of Troy’s top dogs, namely, Aeneas (according to The national epic of mythical Rome, “the Aeneid” of Virgil, that dude was the founder of the Roman Empire).
So, Diomedes said "what’s up" by smashing a rock at the face of Aeneas.
And while Aeneas was lying on the ground unable to do anything against the mighty Diomedes, goddess Aphrodite jumped from her sit at Mt. Olympus and came down crashing to stop Diomedes and to protect the pathetic dude called Aeneas.
(for more click here: Aphrodite)
Aphrodite was like “Back off Diomedes, spare him… and if you obey I might let you into the secrets of love with me”… making a wing at Diomedes etc.
Obviously enough, the hottest mama to ever walk both heaven and earth did not calculate correctly one thing: Diomedes' Machoness!
So he practically told her to get lost, and with Athena guiding his sword, he charged forward and wounded Aphrodite in her arm. The goddess crashed to the ground crying out in pain. Realizing that she could do nothing against Diomedes, she rushed back to Mt. Olympus leaving Aeneas there lying on the ground.
Although, we strongly suspect that Athena had still a bone to pick with Aphrodite due to the fact that Paris chose her instead of Athena… (for more click here: Eris)
What can we say, women…
In any event, Dioimedes – Gods of Mt. Olympus: 1 – 0.
After that, "Round 2" was on, and this time it was god's Apollo turn.
(for more click here: Apollo)
Apollo flew from Mt. Olympus in the speed of light so as to carry away Aeneas. Diomedes just didn’t care who Apollo was because that pathetic dude over there was his prey.
Consequently, Diomedes attacked Apollo and the only thing Apollo could do was to repel Diomedes with some sort of flashy-lights, trying to blind him.
But not our man, Diomedes… he charged and charged against Apollo forcing the god to get the hell out of there while carrying the heavily wounded Aeneas… ASAP!
Outcome, Dioimedes – Gods of Mt. Olympus: 2 – 0.
Sooner or later "Round 3" was bound to happen; and this time it was Ares turn, the god of War himself.
(for more click here: Ares)
Diomedes somehow managed to irritate Ares in the fact that there was actually a mortal that was sky-rocking the death count; and that was a privilege that only Ares had!
So Ares appeared before Diomedes to face him.
And what did Diomedes do?
He charged with his chariot against Ares head on!!! Ares, the god that was the personification of destruction, slaughter, war, fear etc etc etc.
Athena, seeing his brave warrior charging fearlessly against Ares, warped down into Diomedes' chariot, guided his arm and Diomedes... through a spear that wounded Ares; forcing Ares to run back to Mt. Olympus!
Can you guys just try to imagine what Diomedes actually accomplished here?
Imagine it like as if you are a game developer, and somehow a character from inside the game – that you as a programmer are developing – turns around and beats the lights out of you! Impossible? Indeed… BUT that is exactly what Diomedes accomplished here!
Outcome, Dioimedes – Gods of Mt. Olympus: 3 – 0.
Other Accomplishments of Diomedes.
For starters, Diomedes defeats Hector (Troy's top dog) in a duel by cracking him in the skull with a javelin...
Diomedes beats up Ajax (one of the Greek-Alliance's strongest warriors; who by the way, was huge as well) in a full-contact sparring match, which is actually stopped by the Greek generals when they see Diomedes' fury and fear for Ajax's life.
Diomedes outruns Odysseus in a footrace.
Diomedes wins a chariot race against many other Greek heroes.
To conclude with our side-story:
Diomedes was that much respected or feared, depending on whose side you were on, that after the Trojan War no god or mortal dared to mess with him; so Diomedes lived to grow very old.
And guess what: there are no specific accounts about his death either! Can it be that Diomedes did beat the crap out of death as well?!
End of side-story
... As the years went on there was no end to the war.
Even when Achilles took down Hector, Troy’s top dog, even if Apollo possessed the dimwits body (aka Paris, to take down Achilles at the ninth year of the war), the war still raged on.
To be more precise, the so called Greek-Alliance with almost all of their top warriors still remaining (aka Odysseus, Diomedes etc.) forced the Trojans behind their walls.
So everything came down to an old fashioned siege of a city.
The problem: the walls were impenetrable (and you guessed correctly, Poseidon was involved with its construction).
Hence, there was no end to the war…
BUT… the Greek-Alliance had the most cunning warrior by their side, Odysseus (Athena’s favourite), who came up with the Trojan Horse; and Calchas supported that idea.
The covered operation was led by the unbeatable ninja-style duo namely, Odysseus and Diomedes; and obviously it was bound to succeed.
Eventually, Troy fell from within and the city got totally sacked!
Final Outcome: Athena vs Poseidon, 3 - 0.
What are the lessons to be learned from the wars between goddess Athena and god Poseidon?
One: for each war, amongst their proxies, to build up its “momentum” it requires a few thousands of years. It is like a circle that takes time to build and its patterns are almost identical. And thousands of years have already passed after the Trojan War...
Two: For each war to occur, both sides need to somehow reach a specific level, and above, of (technological) advancement. It is as if a higher power awaits, somewhere out there, observing us, waiting patiently for us to reach a cosmic crossroad and then, we are pitted against each other.
Three: Every time such a crossroad is reached the two sides have specific characteristics. To understand that we need to look at each of the characteristics that Athena and Poseidon have.
The side that represents Athena is, compared to the other side: more rational, more strategic, more ethical, more peaceful, more in harmony with nature and more spiritual.
The side that represents Poseidon is, compared to the other side: more irrational, more unethical, more war-like, more materialistic and pretty much pretends of carrying about nature.
How can we observe the aforementioned facts in the previous three wars, between Athena and Poseidon?
In the first war, Poseidon created a well without thinking of the consequences; the water was salty. Athena on the other hand, very humble, gave the olive tree to the Athenians. A tree that lives long, which is able to produce olives and oil – the base of the Mediterranean diet, a tree that… (OK, you get the idea).
In the second war, although Atlantis started off correctly, eventually it became intoxicated with its wealth and power, neglecting its spiritual powers (they were like telepathic, telekinetic etc.) and diverted towards the pleasures of the flesh and the materialistic world; which eventually resulted in forcing themselves towards other nations, via expansions and conquers.
In the third war, the Trojan War started with prince Parys using underhanded means (the help of goddess Aphrodite) to enchant Helen; hence, he betrayed one of the holy vows of marriage. In other terms, Parys was unethical.
As a side note: to be precise here, Helen was just the needed excuse for Agamemnon to invade the ultra-wealthy Troy. But he could not do it since, if he would act like that, he would be crashed by Athena. So the dimwit Parys fled to Troy with the idol of Helen (and not the actual one) and thus, he gave Agamemnon the needed excuse. Although Hector realized his brother’s stupidity, it was already too late; Parys committed an enormous crime in the eyes of the gods.
(for more click here: Helen)
Bottom line is that nowadays, in our society (referring to the entire human world) it becomes more than apparent that our technological advancements resemble the ones of Atlantis; and that, in terms of “Poseidonian” characteristics, we are very close or we have already reached that cosmic crossroad once again.
It remains to be seen what the future will bring us… A peaceful world (utopia some may call it) or another World War…
What do you guys think about the war between Athena vs Poseidon?
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Author: nikvas
Published: October 11, 2016
Written For: Ancient Greece Reloaded
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Author: nikvas and the Ancient Greece Reloaded Team
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