It is believed that Metis is the mother of Athena; however, Metis did not give birth to Athena. Zeus was told that any child born from Metis would possess more power than Zeus. To prevent this from happening, Zeus swallowed Metis. Unbeknownst to Zeus, he had swallowed Metis while she was pregnant with Athena.
Hephaistos had a strong desire for Athena, but as a virgin goddess she ran away from him. He was not able to catch her – but he ejaculated and the seed fell on her leg. She wiped it away with a piece of wool and the seed fell on Gaia, the Earth, making her pregnant.
How was Athena born? Athena, the daughter of Zeus, was produced without a mother and emerged full-grown from his forehead. An alternative story was that Zeus swallowed Metis, the goddess of counsel, while she was pregnant with Athena so that Athena finally emerged from Zeus.
Shortly after, in a undisclosed year on July 12, Athena sent him their daughter, a girl named Annabeth, as a gift. She was considered a "Brain child" like all other children of Athena, which means that they were born from the thoughts of the goddess.
The Quater-Blood Chronicles: Prologue- How Percy Got Annabeth Pregnant.
Athena was an armed warrior goddess. The Parthenon at Athens was her most famous shrine. She never had a true lover or someone to hug and hold her; all she had was her loving mother, caring father and most of all her brothers and sisters.
Zeus saved their unborn child, Dionysus, from the womb and kept him in his thigh until the baby was ready to be born.
Zeus even managed to impregnate mortal women when he was a swan or a bull. Hercules was the illegitimate child of Zeus and a mortal woman, as were Perseus, Helen of Troy and Minos (among other very, very famous offspring of Zeus). Yep, the Greek God family tree is very, very tangled.
Zeus's Favourite Child Was Possibly Athena, Goddess of War
Perhaps partly because of the strange circumstances of her birth, Athena is often cited as Zeus's favourite child. He also greatly admired her strength of character and fighting spirit.
In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena is immune to romantic love, so there is no particular lover for her.
Usually represented as a virgin goddess, she had no children. Athena was very different from the war god Ares, who was associated with mindless fury and the brutal aspects of battle.
Annabeth Chase is a demigod daughter of the Greek goddess Athena and girlfriend of Percy Jackson. She is one of the main protagonists in Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus.
Metis gave birth to Athena after Metis was swallowed. Athena began growing inside Zeus's head. When Haphaestus cut open Zeus's head, and Athena was born, she was not born an infant. Instead, Athena was born a fully grown warrior, dressed in armor and ready for war.
Athena, as you may know, was not born in the normal way. She sprang from Zeus's head in full battle armor. Her children have similar magic births. They are the product of purely intellectual affection Athena sometimes bestows on men of great cunning.
}); Athena (Minerva), the goddess of war and wisdom, had a strange birth. Her father Zeus (Jupiter) had swallowed his pregnant consort Metis (“wisdom”), because he was afraid she would bear a son who would overthrow him.
According to a Homeric Hymn, there are three goddesses whom Aphrodite “can't persuade or decieve”, i.e. who don't feel sexual desire and are perpetually virgins. They are Athena, Artemis and Hestia. So, we are sure that Zeus did never have affairs with any of those three.
Aphrodite later and of her own volition had an affair with Zeus, but his jealous wife Hera laid her hands upon the belly of the goddess and cursed their offspring with malformity. Their child was the ugly god Priapos.
While the vast majority of Zeus's lovers were female, one of Zeus's lovers was the mortal Ganymede. Ganymede is noted as the only one of Zeus's lovers to whom he granted immortality.
Zeus has four siblings which include Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Hestia. Zeus also had six children which include Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, Athena, Ares, and Aphrodite. Together we will explore and learn about Greek Mythology, Zeus and his family through this beautiful gallery. This is a statue of the God, Zeus.
Aside from his seven wives, relationships with immortals included Dione and Maia. Among mortals were Semele, Io, Europa and Leda (for more details, see below) and the young Ganymede (although he was mortal, Zeus granted him eternal youth and immortality).
While many of the other greek gods - men and women alike - were promiscous, Athena was completely asexual, and not because she was a "pure" goddess of chasity or something. Athena really did not have any interest in sex at all.
According to the Bibliotheca, Athena visited the smith-god Hephaestus to request some weapons, but Hephaestus was so overcome by desire that he tried to seduce her in his workshop. Determined to maintain her virginity, Athena fled, pursued by Hephaestus. He caught Athena and tried to rape her, but she fought him off.
In fact, Athena was jealous of Medusa's beauty and lustrous hair. Poseidon ravaged her and took what she held dearly, her purity. Athena, outraged by this incident, cursed Medusa and turned her wonderful hair into venomous snakes, her beautiful face turned so ugly that any man who gazed upon would turn to stone.