To Athena

Kallistos

Oh Mistress Athena!
Your clear eyes pierce the veil of ignorance, you see as clearly as an owl!
Your deft fingers work swiftly at the loom shaping the warp and the weft of the peplos you are making.
Your strong hands shape the clay on the wheel into a fine amphora.
Your aigis and shield guard those whom You claim as Your own with Your might.
Your clear and cunning thought makes the strategy which protects the cities of Men.
Only skillful Hephaistos can rival you in the work of crafts.
You best even mighty Ares at warcraft.
Your wise counsels are sought by and comfort Great Zeus the Highest, Your excellent father.
Your wisdom and guidance aids powerful heroes in war and adventures.
You stand by Your heroes as few of the Blessed Immortals do. Many heroes came through their dangerous trials with Your sure help. Cunning Odysseus you aided both on the plains of Ilios, and on the wide paths of the Sea. Godlike Diomedes faced Gods Themselves on the field of battle with Your strength to help him. Brave Perseus would have perished without Your guidance.
You give Men your wise gifts, the car, the bridle, the fruitful Olive tree and its versatile oil with its many uses, the swift ships that sail the wine dark sea.
Your city, Athens, truly won great fame under Your tutelage. Her handiworks are famed for their skillful make and artistic beauty to this day. The wisdom of her sages, from Solon to Sokrates to Proclus echo down to us and are studied and wondered at to this day. Her wise generals Militiades and Themistokles won lasting renown that echoes over the millennia for the defeats that they inflicted on the mighty Persians at Marathon and Salamis. The craftsmanship and mathematical precision (and imprecision) of Your great Temple is a wonder to behold to this day, recognized across the broad Earth, to the point of being imitated in lands unknown even to far-sailing Odysseus and venturesome Pythias.
Your naked beauty was powerful enough to blind the Seer at a glance!
Verily you were a fit candidate for “the most Beautiful” or “the Goodliest” inscribed on the bright gold apple that Eris threw amongst the Gods of Olympos at the wedding of Thetis.
Oh Athena of the flashing eyes, few are Your equal.
Arachne foolishly thought herself your better in the art of weaving. Truly did she pay the price for her hubris.
Truly Alexandros of Ilios faced a difficult choice on the slopes of Mount Ida. All three Goddesses had just claim to the title.
Yet I know which of the three I would have chosen were I in Paris’ shoes, oh Mistress Athena!