Areia

A surname of Athena, under which she was worshiped at Athens. Her statue, together with those of Ares, Aphrodite, and Enyo, stood in the temple of Ares at Athens.1 Her worship under this name was instituted by Orestes after he had been acquitted by the Areopagus of the murder of his mother.2 It was Athena Areia who gave her casting vote in cases where the Areiopagites were equally divided.3

From these circumstances, it has been inferred, that the name Areia ought not to be derived from Ares, but from ἀρέσκω (areskō), to propitiate or atone for.

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References

Notes

  1. Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 8.4.
  2. ibid. i, 28.5.
  3. Aeschylus. Eumenides, 753.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.