The Birth of Athena: Gods and Natural Disasters in Ancient Greece (Part I)

The ancient city of Iconium is now known as Konya. It is located in central Turkey. The city lies at an elevation of about 1,027 meters (3,370 feet) on the southwest edge of the central Anatolian Plateau and is surrounded by a narrow fertile plain.

The original settlement dates back to 6000-5000 BC. It is one of the oldest in Anatolia. Its name is believed to correspond to the Late Bronze Age toponym  Ikkuwaniya known from Hittite records.

Medusa’s Head and the Naming of Iconium

Greek sources equated the name Iconium with the Greek word ikon, meaning effigy or image. Hence Stephanus of Byzantium (fl.?6th century AD) maintained that the name ought to be spelt  Eikonion. This was the form actually adopted by other Byzantine writers, and it is also found on some coins.

According to Eustathius (c1115– c1195/6 AD) the city was named after an image of the head of Medusa, the Gorgon. It had been been carried there by Perseus prior to his founding the city. 

Classical Greek gorgoneion featuring the head of Medusa; fourth century BC, Pushkin Museum (shakko/CC BY-SA 3.0).

According to the Suida, his display of the Gorgon’s head enabled him to vanquish the native population. Subsequent to this event the city became known as Iconion. From here Perseus is said to have flown the head south eastwards where with the aid of the head he founded the city of Tarsus – which was St Paul’s native city.

Perseus, the Flaming Meteor

The story of Perseus, according to the ancient chronography, would place the event (at the very end of his adventures) in approximately the same time frame as the air burst over Ephesus, which occurred c1327 BC. This air burst over Ephesus heralded what ultimately became the Greek takeover of the western seaboard of Asia Minor. It should be evident therefore, in the current context, that the story is ultimately a metaphor for an air burst or flaming bolide passing overhead.

Flaming bolide meteor. (Author).

The event is possibly recorded by Mursilli II in one of his prayers relating to his experiencing hysterical aphasia as a result of a serious scare during a sudden deafening overhead  ‘thunderstorm‘ sent by the  ‘storm’ god.

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Tears of Nannakus and the Flood of Ogyges

However, accompanying mythology related to the city is also indicative of another catastrophic event.

This second Iconium narrative refers to a much earlier mythical ruler named Nannakos or Annakos. His name was a metaphor for remote antiquity. The myth places him some 300 years before the Flood of Deucalion.

The names Nannakos/ Annakos are in fact reminiscent of another middle eastern pre-Greek deity, the Mesopotamian  ‘moon’ god called Nanna in Sumerian.  He was equated with the Mesopotamian ‘moon’ god Sin.

Victory of Naram-Sin over the mountain tribe of the Lullubi and their king Satuni. Dated to c2300 BC. This is an alter ego of Nanna currently interpreted as an Akadian ruler in the guise of the moon god Sin. (Shonagon/CC0).

Even though currently interpreted as a lunar deity, was Nanna with his bull’s horns actually a metaphor for a comet and the original prototype for Nannakos?

The 300 year chronological link to Deucalion’s Flood in the Nannakos myth rules out any direct link to that of Noah’s Flood c2345 BC in this instance. However it does place it in close proximity to the event known as the Flood of Ogyges.

The Flood of Deucalion according to Greek chronographers occurred c1552/1525 BC, which would produce dates in the c1852-1825 range for the commencement of Nannakos’ reign that would therefore encompass as noted the major event delineated as the birth of Athene c1796 or the Flood of Ogyges rather than Noah’s Flood.

This is amplified by inclusion of Athene (Athena) and Prometheus in the narrative. Stephanus of Byzantium who calls him Annakos rather than Nannakos wrote:

“They say that there was a certain Annakos, who lived for over three hundred years. Those around him practiced divination, to find out how long his life would be. The oracle came back that when it would end, everyone would be destroyed. When the Phrygians heard that, they cried loudly.

That is where the proverb “crying for Annakos” comes from, used when someone laments a lot. After the deluge of Deucalion happened, everyone was destroyed. Then, when the earth had dried up, Zeus ordered Prometheus and Athena to form images out of clay and, summoning the winds to blow on/into all of them and so finished making them alive.

Because the icons were designed there, it is called Iconium. Therefore, it should have a diphthong. The citizens are Iconians.

The narrative certainly bears traces of other near eastern mythologies. See for example the Epic of Gilgamesh (18th century BC).

Prometheus and Athena

In terms of Greek mythology Prometheus is coupled with Athena not only at the time of Deucalion’s Flood in the 1500s but also at the time of the Flood of Ogyges and the Birth of Athena in c1796 BC. In Hesiod’s Theogony it is Prometheus, rather than Hephaestus, who cracks open Zeus’ skull in order to bring about Athena’s birth. Likewise there was also an account, stating that Prometheus had created men out of earth and water, either at the very beginning of the human race, or after the flood of Deucalion, when Zeus is said to have ordered him and Athena to make men out of the mud, and the winds to breathe life into them.

Roman fresco depicting Prometheus creating man in the presence of Athena, from the arcosolium of a tomb near the Basilica of St. Paul, 3rd century AD, Museo della Via Ostiense, Rome. (World History Encyclopedia).

The Aegis

Perseus’ journey with the Gorgon’s head is reminiscent of Athene’s fight with the Aegis, which was also symbolised by the Gorgon’s head which  “produced a sound as from a myriad of roaring dragons” _{(Iliad, 4.17)}.

Diodorus writes: 

“Athena, who a short while before had been born of the earth…slew the Aegis, as it was called, a certain frightful monster which was a difficult antagonist to overcome. For it was sprung from the earth and in accordance with its nature breathed forth terrible flames of fire from its mouth, and its first appearance it made about Phrygia and burned up the land, which to this day is called “Burned Phrygia”;? and after that it ravaged unceasingly the lands about the Taurus mountains and burned up the forests extending from that region as far as India.

Thereupon, returning again towards the sea round about Phoenicia, it sent up in flames the forests on Mt. Lebanon, and making its way through Egypt it passed over Libya to the regions of the west and at the end of its wanderings fell upon the forests about Ceraunia. And since the country round about was going up in flames and the inhabitants in some cases were being destroyed and in others were leaving their native countries in their terror and removing to distant regions, Athena, they say, overcoming the monster partly through her intelligence and partly through her courage and bodily strength, slew it, and covering her breast with its hide bore this about with her, both as a covering and protection for her body against later dangers, and as a memorial of her valour and of her well-merited fame.” _{(Book III, 70-74)}

Athena in Anatolia

In his 2016 article entitled  Athena in Anatolia, Robert Parker in Pallas, Revue d’études antiques, notes the penetration of the cult of Athena into Anatolia beyond the old-established Greek cities of the coastline. He writes:  “A major problem is how to treat numismatic evidence; whereas in inscriptions in many regions, Phrygia above all, Athena is almost unattested as a recipient of cult, she appears on the coinage of many cities.”

Athena evidently became synthesized with earlier indigenous deities who acted as markers for the traumatic event. Parker notes that on imperial coinage her image appears almost everywhere in Anatolia.

Coin featuring Antoninus Pius AE19; Iconium, Lycaonia, 138-161 AD, with helmeted image of Athena on the back side. (Savoca Coins).

Thecla

Interestingly one aftermath of Paul’s visit to Iconium was the creation of an apocryphal new virgin saint named Thecla (God’s glory). She was in many ways a Christianised doublet of the goddess Athene whose worship she ultimately replaced. 

According to Tertullian (c155 AD- post 220 AD) the story of Thecla was nothing more than a fabrication, but regardless of this she was destined to have a wide following in subsequent years. She was presented as a women’s martyr who maintained her virginity and died for her faith thereby empowered the self image of countless women.

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Shivlilik

Modern Konya is host to an annual celebration known as Shivlilik. It is celebrated on the evening of Regaip Kandili (the Night of Wishes) and is specific only to Konya.

Lanterns at Shivilik Festival, Konya. (Author).,

In this tradition, children, carry bags and go door-to-door chanting  “shivlilik, shivlilik, may God grant abundance” in order to collect candies and various gifts. It provenance as an Muslim festival linked to Mohamed is considered dubious by many Islamic scholars. It is thought that the festival has its roots in ancient Phrygia, long before the advent of Islam.  While the word  Shivlilik is thought to be derived either from an original Phrygian word, or from the Arabic for  ‘satisfying hunger’.

There is a children’s chant which they sing at this time to a bird known in the local dialect as the  Cüllülük. It is described as a predatory migratory bird, thereby making it reminiscent of the  konrul, the Turkish equivalent of the cyclically regenerated Phoenix- which is itself a cometary metaphor.

The Konrul. (QuirkyBestiary)

While the festival appears to be benign in its current form, it is evidently a commemoration of some major traumatic natural event from the past. It culminates in the lighting of torches and bonfires, and the burning of tyres, through which the young participants are meant to leap unharmed. It is actually a very dangerous practice and many are injured every year.

Plato, Atlantis and Athena

To recap, the ancient Greeks cited c1796 BC as the year in which the goddess Athene was born from the head of Zeus. This event is said to have happened at the same time as the mythical Flood of Ogyges. Mythology additionally speaks of Athene’s battle over Anatolia against an airborne monster named the Aegis, aka the Gorgon Medusa. Plato’s Atlantis conversation took place at the same time as the annual festival in Athens, which commemorated the goddess’ birth and it was dedicated to her. It is perhaps in this context that one must interpret the presence of Plato in the folklore of Iconium which shall be explored shortly.

The city of Konya, as noted, was the focal point of two myths- the one featuring an airborne monster’s head- that of Medusa the Gorgon, and the other a devastating flood which happened in the same time frame, known as the Flood of Ogyges and the Birth of Athene. Additionally, as noted, modern scholarship has discovered that even though not native to the region the goddess Athene was equated with local ‘catastrophic’ deities and was ubiquitous in classical times on coinage throughout the affected regions. As the virgin Thecla of Iconium she survived long after the fall of paganism as a Christian icon.

To be continued …

Top image: Illustration of the birth of Athena from Zeus’ head, 570-560 BC, decorating a pyxis (ancient Greek jewelry box).

Source: Egisto Sani/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0.

By Nicholas Costa

Nic Costa is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. He is a freelance writer, lecturer, and artist who boasts the unique distinction of having discovered the site of a hitherto unknown crusader castle in the west of Cyprus. He is the author of Searching for Joanna- the Real Arodafnousa: Pierre I de Lusignan and Joanna L'Aleman and  Atlantis, the Amazons, and the Birth of Athene: The True Story