Sacred Athena

The Library of Athena: Research & Sources

Find scholarship on Athena, Greek religion, mythology and art in The Library of Athena, with source summaries, publisher links and citation exports.

The Library of Athena contains 1,523 sources. Use the interactive library to search, filter, paginate and export citations.

Selected research sources

  1. Description of Greece, Book 1.17–29

    Pausanias. Description of Greece, Book 1.17–29. Translation by W. H. S. Jones; Theoi Classical Texts Library, 2nd century CE; English translation 1918.

    A Roman-period visitor’s account of Athens and its Acropolis. Especially useful for Athena’s images, sacred buildings and ritual traditions; not a contemporary account of the fifth century BCE.

  2. Homeric Hymns 11 and 28, To Athena

    Anonymous. Homeric Hymns 11 and 28, To Athena. Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White; Theoi Classical Texts Library, Ancient Greek collection; English translation 1914.

    Two short hymns presenting Athena as protector and warrior, including an account of her birth. The hymns belong to a composite collection; their authorship and individual dates are uncertain.

  3. Collection Publications: Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens

    Princeton University Art Museum. Collection Publications: Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens. Princeton University Art Museum, 2019.

    Museum introduction to the Panathenaia, civic participation, contests and prize amphorae. Distinguish this online article’s date from the publication it discusses.

  4. Athena Cult 1: Ancient Greek Religion

    Theoi Project. Athena Cult 1: Ancient Greek Religion. Theoi Project, Undated online compilation.

    Collected ancient passages on Athena’s sanctuaries, epithets and cult. The compilation is a finding aid: claims should be checked against the identified ancient author and passage.

  5. The Erechtheion

    Acropolis Museum. The Erechtheion. Acropolis Museum, Undated online resource.

    Official museum account of the building’s sacred functions, its relationship to the earlier temple of Athena Polias and its architectural sculpture.

  6. Parthenon

    Encyclopaedia Britannica. Parthenon. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Online reference; date not recorded.

    Overview of the Parthenon’s fifth-century BCE construction, architecture, sculptural programme and later history.

  7. Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora, attributed to the Euphiletos Painter (14.130.12)

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora, attributed to the Euphiletos Painter (14.130.12). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Object dated ca. 530 BCE; catalogue undated.

    Official collection record identifying Athena on the obverse and a footrace on the reverse. Rogers Fund, 1914. The museum API identifies the object image as public domain.

  8. Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora, attributed to a painter of the Kittos Group (56.171.6a, b)

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora, attributed to a painter of the Kittos Group (56.171.6a, b). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Object dated ca. 366/365 BCE; catalogue undated.

    Official collection record for an inscribed prize amphora with its lid. Athena appears on the obverse and a footrace on the reverse. Fletcher Fund, 1956. The museum API identifies the object image as public domain.

  9. A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey, Volume 1: Introduction and Books I–VIII

    Heubeck, Alfred, Stephanie West, and J. B. Hainsworth. 1988. A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey. Vol. 1, Introduction and Books I–VIII. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    An introduction and detailed commentary on Odyssey books 1–8, covering Telemachus’s journey and Odysseus’s arrival among the Phaeacians.

  10. A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey, Volume 2: Books IX–XVI

    Heubeck, Alfred, and Arie Hoekstra. 1989. A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey. Vol. 2, Books IX–XVI. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    A detailed scholarly commentary on Odyssey books 9–16, including Odysseus’s adventures, return to Ithaca, and encounters before the palace confrontation.

  11. A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey, Volume 3: Books XVII–XXIV

    Russo, Joseph, Manuel Fernández-Galiano, and Alfred Heubeck. 1992. A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey. Vol. 3, Books XVII–XXIV. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    A detailed commentary on Odyssey books 17–24, covering Odysseus’s return to the palace, the suitors’ deaths, recognition, and restoration.

  12. A Decree of Haliartus on Cult

    Kent J. Rigsby, “A Decree of Haliartus on Cult.” American Journal of Philology 108.4 (1987), 729–740.

    Reinterprets SEG 32.456, concerning sacrifice to Athena Itonia and Zeus and an equestrian contest associated with the Ptoia. As summarized by Angelos Chaniotis, Rigsby locates the sacrifice at Akraiphia and connects the contest to Athena, treating Haliartos’s participation as a particular invitation rather than an established annual obligation.

  13. A Dream on Trial: The Contest of Oracular Interpretations and Authorities in Hyperides’ In Defence of Euxenippus

    Van Hove, Rebecca. 2019. “A Dream on Trial: The Contest of Oracular Interpretations and Authorities in Hyperides’ In Defence of Euxenippus.” Mnemosyne 72 (3): 405–436. First published online 12 September 2018.

    Separates selecting incubants, experiencing a dream, transmitting it and interpreting it. A close reading of Hyperides argues that Polyeuctus’ first intervention could dispute the interpretation, while the later prosecution attacked the report’s truthfulness.

  14. A Dwarf Maiden on the Athenian Acropolis: Disability and Dedication in the Archaic Polis

    Sneed, Debby, and Erin Lawrence-Roseman. 2025 [published online 27 February 2026]. “A Dwarf Maiden on the Athenian Acropolis: Disability and Dedication in the Archaic Polis.” The Art Bulletin 107 (4): 67–89.

    Reconsiders Acropolis Kore 683 together with its proposed companion and shared inscribed base. The authors argue that the statue represents an elite maiden with dwarfism and that this bodily difference remained compatible with the dedication’s conventional religious and social work.

  15. A Further Manuscript Source for Proclus’ Hymns

    Thomas, Oliver. 2016. “A Further Manuscript Source for Proclus’ Hymns.” The Classical Quarterly 66 (2): 828–831.

    Thomas identifies previously uncatalogued Proclan material in the opening leaves of Bruxellensis 11377–80 and attributes the copying to Demetrios Moschos. His comparison of variant readings places this witness within a specific humanist transmission network.

  16. A Greek-English Lexicon

    Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones. 1940. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    A major historical dictionary of ancient Greek, documenting vocabulary, meanings, usage, and citations from literary and documentary texts.

  17. A Methodological Enquiry: The Great Bronze Athena by Pheidias

    Birte Lundgreen, “A Methodological Enquiry: The Great Bronze Athena by Pheidias.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 117 (1997): 190–197.

    A compact but important methodological study of the great bronze Athena conventionally called Promachos. Lundgreen examines the uneven testimony of coins, gems, lamps, sculpture, Byzantine images, and written sources.

  18. A Mixed Blessing: Market-mediated Religious Authority in Neopaganism

    Rinallo, Diego, Pauline Maclaran, and Lorna Stevens. 2016. “A Mixed Blessing: Market-mediated Religious Authority in Neopaganism.” Journal of Macromarketing 36 (4): 425–442.

    Rinallo, Maclaran, and Stevens examine how participation in markets can both support and undermine religious authority among Italian Wiccan leaders. The study also shows the difficulty of separating religious leadership from paid services when participants perceive overlapping relationships.

  19. A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey

    de Jong, Irene J. F. 2001. A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    A narratological commentary on the Odyssey, examining storytelling techniques, characterization, perspective, and the organization of the poem.

  20. A New Athena Polias Votive Inscription from the Phaselis’ Acropolis

    Nihal Tüner Önen and Fatih Yılmaz, “A New Athena Polias Votive Inscription from the Phaselis’ Acropolis.” Adalya 18 (2015), 121–131 (printed article and figures; the offprint also includes a following blank page).

    Publishes a fifth-century BCE Doric dedication found in the 2013 survey at Phaselis. Euphanes, son of Chrysias, fulfilled a vow by offering Athena Polias a tenth of his property.

  21. A New Dedicatory Inscription of Athena Oreia from Corycus

    Hamdi Şahin, “A New Dedicatory Inscription of Athena Oreia from Corycus.” Philia 2 (2016), 143–148.

    Publishes a limestone altar dedicated to Athena Oreia, found at Çele near Corycus in 2013, and situates it among cave, rock-relief and altar dedications in Cilicia. The tightly regional evidence gives substance to the mountain epithet and allows comparison between named local manifestations of Athena, rather than importing her Athenian attributes wholesale.

  22. A New Reading of the Damonon Stele

    Christesen, Paul. 2019. A New Reading of the Damonon Stele. Histos Supplement 10. Newcastle upon Tyne: Histos.

    A study and reinterpretation of the Damonon stele, an inscribed dedication recording athletic victories in Laconia.

  23. A Web of Fantasies: Gaze, Image, and Gender in Ovid's Metamorphoses

    Salzman-Mitchell, Patricia B. 2005. A Web of Fantasies: Gaze, Image, and Gender in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

    Examines gaze, images, and gender in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, exploring how acts of seeing and visual representation shape mythological narratives.

  24. Acropolis 625 (Endoios Athena) and the Rediscovery of Its Findspot

    Patricia A. Marx. “Acropolis 625 (Endoios Athena) and the Rediscovery of Its Findspot.” Hesperia 70.2 (2001): 221–254.

    Reconstructs the find history of the seated Archaic Athena through archival and topographic evidence, identifying its reuse in a late-antique wall and subsequent Ottoman structure. Valuable both for divine images and for the complicated afterlives of ostensibly 'classical' museum objects.

  25. Adriano y el calendario imperial de juegos atléticos: propuesta sobre el tercer y cuarto año del ciclo olímpico

    Gordillo Hervás, Rocío. 2017. “Adriano y el calendario imperial de juegos atléticos: propuesta sobre el tercer y cuarto año del ciclo olímpico.” Gerión. Revista de Historia Antigua 35 (1): 119–142.

    The author reconstructs the third and fourth years of Hadrian’s international athletic schedule from the Alexandria Troas inscription and athletes’ victory records. Keeping the Panathenaia in its traditional place creates a scheduling conflict with the Asian circuit and the Pythia.