The Greek goddess Athena, and her Roman counterpart Minerva, were associated with defensive and strategic warfare rather than violence and aggression, which were the preserve of Ares in Greece and Mars in Rome.
According to Wikipedia, Minerva was also the goddess of justice, law and victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy.
Most ancient sources (if not all of them) agree that Athena was born from Zeus's forehead. In some versions she had no mother, but others (including that of Hesiod – a poet, contemporary with Homer) explain that Zeus swallowed his first consort, Metis, after it was prophesied that she would give birth to a daughter, and then to a son who would be mightier than Zeus and would overthrow him. Metis was pregnant with Athena at the time; Athena was first born within Zeus and then escaped from his body through his forehead.
Zeus went on to have six more consorts, the last of whom was Hera – the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth – often described as the Queen of the Greek gods.
© Haydn Thompson 2021