{001. olive seeds}
.the mundane;
» Name: Arden
» Journal: dancinpenguins
» Contact: kiwi4ever13[at]hotmail[dot]com
.the myth;
» God(dess): Athena.
» Reference: Wikipedia. Not Wikipedia. Even more.
» Family: {mother & father} Zeus, Metis ;{spouse} She’s a virgin, though Hephaestus certainly tried.
» Played By: Famke Janssen.
» Human Alias: Dara Andrews
» Human Age: 31.
» God of...: Wisdom and War
» Flair: Athena has a way of helping people to discover truths about themselves. Often, when speaking to others, her slight conversational nudges will send them in a direction that allows them to uncover information about themselves, or find themselves a step closer to the answers they were seeking. This is related to her Wisdom portfolio. Athena doesn’t solve others’ problems for them: but she helps them uncover wisdom they didn’t know they had. When a group is trying to create a plan or strategy, and Athena is present, ideas rise more cohesively to the surface than they might have without her around.
Athena also possesses a sharp intelligence, which she relies on to give her an edge, even when it comes to a fight.
» Flair Type: Continuous
» Fitting in: Athena currently works in the capacity of a judge, as a justice for the Supreme Court of New York (which is actually the lower courts of NY; things are inverted there)
» Weakness: Though some may not consider it a weakness, others might find Athena cold, given her immunity to amorous emotions. Her virginity is unassailable, and she is unable to develop romantic attachments to others. She views herself as above crude physical couplings. This, however, also means that she has no real understanding of love, which only serves to drive her more logical, strategic nature.
Athena is also incredibly jealous when it comes to the skills in which she is deemed accomplished: as evidenced by her impatience with Arachne’s arrogance, when she proclaimed herself better at weaving. This demonstrates that though Athena is an incredibly benevolent being, she is not immune to being remarkably proud, and if anyone points our her weaknesses, she is often quick to anger. Though she excels at arts, and invented several instruments she is not particularly musically inclined, on account of this pride: when her attempts to play the flute brought laughter from the Olympians, she cursed the instrument and ceased her efforts entirely. There seem to be some layers of insecurity here, as she is only ever incited to such violent reactions when she is personally insulted.
Athena’s strict ethical code, and inability to recognize time in any progression besides a linear one, unlike some gods, is representative of her control freak nature, which extends to her new human life as well. She has to have orderly surroundings, and prefers to have her time planned out accordingly. Deviations from this order can both frustrate her, and even bring her to the point of expressed anger.
Athena is also almost entirely out of touch with her feminine side, and even veers down the path of being misogynistic, preferring both the company and stereotypical habits of males. Given that she sprung forth from her father’s head, after he swallowed her mother in an angry fit, it seems only natural that she would be chuck full of father issues anyways, which obviously have an impact on her emphasis on masculinity.
» History: Birth.When Metis became pregnant with Zeus’ child, and the realization sunk in that just as Zeus was destined to be mightier than his father, his son would be mightier than he was, Zeus did the Zeus-thing and overreacted. He tricked her into turning into a fly and swallowed her, thinking he’d solved the problem completely. However, not long afterwards, Zeus started suffering severe migraines, so eventually he caved and begged Hephaestus to open his head. When he obliged, chopping Zeus’ head open with a big double headed Minoan axe, they were both surprised when Zeus’ fully grown and fully armed daughter, Athena, popped out in all her glory and let loose a war cry.
Athens.Athena’s relation to the city of Athens is obviously an important part of her history. During the reign of Athen’s first King, a half snake guy named Cecrops, Athena and Poseidon held a contest to decide who would be patron of the city, rather than resort to blows, as Athena found it a wiser route to try and resolve the situation without attacking one another. Cecrops would decide which could provide the city with a greater gift. Poseidon went first, driving his trident into a rock, and bringing forth a stream. Impressive looking, but it only yielded salt water, which wasn’t exactly practical. Athena took the less flashy route, kneeling down and planting an olive tree. Given that this provided wood, oil, and food, she won the contest, easily, even when the Gods were put to a vote (Zeus abstained), taking the city and giving it her name.
Attempted rape by Hephaestus. During the Trojan War, Athena thought it logical to ask ol’ Hephaestus for some assistance in making a new set of armor and weapons. She said that she’d willingly pay for his services, and he replied that the only payment he required was love. Chaste Athena completely and entirely read this wrong, thinking he meant this in a brother-sisterly way, or a ‘hey we all love each other’ way, and said sure, why not. He made her the goods, and Poseidon, maybe still a little pissy about that whole Athens thing, thought it was funny to tell Hephaestus that Athena was heading over, hoping to do the dirty deed with him. She showed up, and he pounced, which set her running, determined to protect her chastity. He caught up with her and they sparred, but due to her superior warrior skills, he wasn’t able to violate her, though his seed dripped all over the earth (Here’s hoping the mortals remembered their umbrellas that day). The seed became the child, Erichthonius, and Athena, upon learning that the Earth (Gaia) refused to bring up this boy, because she was revolted by his conception, took it upon herself to raise him in secret. She put him in a basket, and gave him to Cecrops’ daughters (the snake-King mentioned earlier) and said ‘Don’t open this’. Naturally, one of them did and they freaked out because a snake was curled up inside. Athena drove them crazy, and they threw themselves off the Acropolis. Moral: Don’t mess with Athena. When the little boy grew up from being a little snake, he became the King of Athens. Aw.
Role on Olympus.. Athena kept busy, certainly, given that she was the Goddess of everything and the kitchen sink. Along with wisdom and war (and strategic, victorious, peace-inducing war, not just Ares’ hot headed slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am fighting center war), she also ruled over arts and crafts, which encompassed many things that she invented herself. The flute, trumpet, pot, plough, rake, ox-yoke, horse-bridle, chariot, ship, numbers (yes, numbers), weaving, cooking, spinning, and more. She was constantly helping out the people, teaching them new skills.
>History, con.Various and sundry. Athena shows up in quite a few myths, because, as a warrior and protector of others, she often got herself wrapped up in various heroes’ exploits. She helped out Hercules time and again, giving him support, or items to help him in his labors. She even assisted Perseus in his battle against the Medusa. She gave Bellerophon the golden bridle with which he tamed the Pegasus. She protected Ulysses on his way home from Troy, and helped him reunite with his family. She’s definitely the sort of goddess who gets involved with things firsthand, when she sees the cause as noble and just.
Temper, temper. As mentioned above, sometimes Athena can get exceptionally pissed off. When Arachne claimed herself as good at weaving as Athena, the goddess tricked her into a contest. Though Arachne’s attempt was so good that Athena had to admire it, it was also markedly arrogant, and Athena got even more pissed off, and destroyed her machine, filling Arachne’s head with guilt and shame that drove the woman to hang herself. Athena felt guilty, and turned her into a spider. Yeah. Much better. Very nice. See, also, the above mentioned incident with the flute.
» Personality: Athena really is a very kind person, modest, and certainly incredibly generous, always willing to spare whatever she can to assist others in doing the right thing. She has an incredibly stable personality, only shaken by the usual bouts of the usual rage found in the divine when she finds herself personally insulted, especially in terms of her skills. She’s sought and sought her father’s respect, subconsciously, and to have her skills looked down on is as bad as suffering Zeus’ rejection. She is strong, both internally and externally, with will power that can last to the point of extreme stubbornness, balanced out by her reliance on logic and strategy, to keep herself from falling into the trap of belligerence.
Athena craves balance and order in all areas of her life, and so will go out of her way to restore things to a peaceful harmony when they are altered. Nothing irks her more than an off-kilter status quo. She uses her keen intellect to decide what the best way of achieving this is: whether through assisting others, waging war, finding compromise, or using her many skills. On Olympus, she was exceptionally powerful, and on Earth, she finds herself expecting a certain degree of respect, as befits her sense of pride. She’s a particularly active goddess, who finds herself restless if she can’t be involved with something, which translates in any realm into a tendency to overcommit herself to things, spreading herself incredibly thin. But if anyone can keep it all straight, it’s Athena - who, in this world, keeps a PDA with up-to-date schedule, close to her heart. This, however, is the only thing she lets anywhere near there: any attempts to woo her will inevitably result in a great deal of disappointment, as she has no interest whatsoever in romance. She’s a career woman, through and through: and secretly looks down on women who forsake their own strengths to stay at home and pop out the babies (This goes for goddesses who do the same as well). Often times, people tell Athena that she reminds them of a man, in terms of the way she thinks and acts, which she takes as a complete compliment. (Not to mention, that as one of the boys, she wouldn’t have to worry about fending off sexist advances, either).
» Sample Journal:
Check-list for today:
-Sign court reports; review for inconsistencies in judgments
-Reorganize apartment for maximum balanced feng shui effect.
-Help Perseus with his report [Give him Golden Pen that highlights bad grammar? Possible.]
-Jog.
-Change newspaper in owl cage.
-Alphabetize bookshelf.
-Call Aphrodite and tell her to stop signing me up for e-newsletters to matchmaking sites.
» Sample Roleplay: Her gavel crashed down against the stand with a crisp, curt final crack. “Dismissed,” she said simply, and then shuffled her own papers, sliding the glasses that she didn’t actually need off from her nose, and slipping them into the black and tan case awaiting them. The jury rose, filing out swiftly, as the crowd erupted into the usual mumbles, arguments over whether what she’d said was fair and just, or whether she’d ‘screwed’ the old man out of five hundred dollars plus court costs that he shouldn’t have to pay in the first place, because ‘the jury was stacked’.
It was all irritatingly tiring. She rose from her seat, escorted out the door by a policeman, and made her way to her own private office, where she slid into the leather chair, and pinched her nose between thumb and forefinger. The mumbles echoed in her brain. They mocked her.
They were doubt materialized.
Of all the things she was forced to deal with, wrapped in this mortal coil abruptly, that was one of the worst. The way things should be, the way they always had been, any mortal who dared to express doubt at the proclamations of Pallas Athena would be not only alienated and seen as an object of contempt by the other mortals around him, but would be looked upon with ill favor by the gods - nothing to shake any size stick at. However, here, she was just another of them, and her decisions could be discussed, weighed, and found wanting.
She took some small measure of comfort in knowing that at least, in her current position, her decisions were final enough, whether they met with popular opinion or not. Most of their doubt stemmed from anger, she reminded herself, their own personal sense that a world that did not tilt in their favor was an unjust world, lacking in rhyme or reason.
The world has become soft, she thought to herself, with a hint of sadness, Spoiled even. She wondered if such a pampered society could ever really find peace. She suspected instead that this atmosphere would only invoke a sense of discontent, mired in greed, and she shook at her head slowly at the implications.
Somewhere, in this softer, self-centered world, there must be heroes left.
She left her office, determined to find them.
.
» Name: Arden
» Journal: dancinpenguins
» Contact: kiwi4ever13[at]hotmail[dot]com
.the myth;
» God(dess): Athena.
» Reference: Wikipedia. Not Wikipedia. Even more.
» Family: {mother & father} Zeus, Metis ;{spouse} She’s a virgin, though Hephaestus certainly tried.
» Played By: Famke Janssen.
» Human Alias: Dara Andrews
» Human Age: 31.
» God of...: Wisdom and War
» Flair: Athena has a way of helping people to discover truths about themselves. Often, when speaking to others, her slight conversational nudges will send them in a direction that allows them to uncover information about themselves, or find themselves a step closer to the answers they were seeking. This is related to her Wisdom portfolio. Athena doesn’t solve others’ problems for them: but she helps them uncover wisdom they didn’t know they had. When a group is trying to create a plan or strategy, and Athena is present, ideas rise more cohesively to the surface than they might have without her around.
Athena also possesses a sharp intelligence, which she relies on to give her an edge, even when it comes to a fight.
» Flair Type: Continuous
» Fitting in: Athena currently works in the capacity of a judge, as a justice for the Supreme Court of New York (which is actually the lower courts of NY; things are inverted there)
» Weakness: Though some may not consider it a weakness, others might find Athena cold, given her immunity to amorous emotions. Her virginity is unassailable, and she is unable to develop romantic attachments to others. She views herself as above crude physical couplings. This, however, also means that she has no real understanding of love, which only serves to drive her more logical, strategic nature.
Athena is also incredibly jealous when it comes to the skills in which she is deemed accomplished: as evidenced by her impatience with Arachne’s arrogance, when she proclaimed herself better at weaving. This demonstrates that though Athena is an incredibly benevolent being, she is not immune to being remarkably proud, and if anyone points our her weaknesses, she is often quick to anger. Though she excels at arts, and invented several instruments she is not particularly musically inclined, on account of this pride: when her attempts to play the flute brought laughter from the Olympians, she cursed the instrument and ceased her efforts entirely. There seem to be some layers of insecurity here, as she is only ever incited to such violent reactions when she is personally insulted.
Athena’s strict ethical code, and inability to recognize time in any progression besides a linear one, unlike some gods, is representative of her control freak nature, which extends to her new human life as well. She has to have orderly surroundings, and prefers to have her time planned out accordingly. Deviations from this order can both frustrate her, and even bring her to the point of expressed anger.
Athena is also almost entirely out of touch with her feminine side, and even veers down the path of being misogynistic, preferring both the company and stereotypical habits of males. Given that she sprung forth from her father’s head, after he swallowed her mother in an angry fit, it seems only natural that she would be chuck full of father issues anyways, which obviously have an impact on her emphasis on masculinity.
» History: Birth.When Metis became pregnant with Zeus’ child, and the realization sunk in that just as Zeus was destined to be mightier than his father, his son would be mightier than he was, Zeus did the Zeus-thing and overreacted. He tricked her into turning into a fly and swallowed her, thinking he’d solved the problem completely. However, not long afterwards, Zeus started suffering severe migraines, so eventually he caved and begged Hephaestus to open his head. When he obliged, chopping Zeus’ head open with a big double headed Minoan axe, they were both surprised when Zeus’ fully grown and fully armed daughter, Athena, popped out in all her glory and let loose a war cry.
Athens.Athena’s relation to the city of Athens is obviously an important part of her history. During the reign of Athen’s first King, a half snake guy named Cecrops, Athena and Poseidon held a contest to decide who would be patron of the city, rather than resort to blows, as Athena found it a wiser route to try and resolve the situation without attacking one another. Cecrops would decide which could provide the city with a greater gift. Poseidon went first, driving his trident into a rock, and bringing forth a stream. Impressive looking, but it only yielded salt water, which wasn’t exactly practical. Athena took the less flashy route, kneeling down and planting an olive tree. Given that this provided wood, oil, and food, she won the contest, easily, even when the Gods were put to a vote (Zeus abstained), taking the city and giving it her name.
Attempted rape by Hephaestus. During the Trojan War, Athena thought it logical to ask ol’ Hephaestus for some assistance in making a new set of armor and weapons. She said that she’d willingly pay for his services, and he replied that the only payment he required was love. Chaste Athena completely and entirely read this wrong, thinking he meant this in a brother-sisterly way, or a ‘hey we all love each other’ way, and said sure, why not. He made her the goods, and Poseidon, maybe still a little pissy about that whole Athens thing, thought it was funny to tell Hephaestus that Athena was heading over, hoping to do the dirty deed with him. She showed up, and he pounced, which set her running, determined to protect her chastity. He caught up with her and they sparred, but due to her superior warrior skills, he wasn’t able to violate her, though his seed dripped all over the earth (Here’s hoping the mortals remembered their umbrellas that day). The seed became the child, Erichthonius, and Athena, upon learning that the Earth (Gaia) refused to bring up this boy, because she was revolted by his conception, took it upon herself to raise him in secret. She put him in a basket, and gave him to Cecrops’ daughters (the snake-King mentioned earlier) and said ‘Don’t open this’. Naturally, one of them did and they freaked out because a snake was curled up inside. Athena drove them crazy, and they threw themselves off the Acropolis. Moral: Don’t mess with Athena. When the little boy grew up from being a little snake, he became the King of Athens. Aw.
Role on Olympus.. Athena kept busy, certainly, given that she was the Goddess of everything and the kitchen sink. Along with wisdom and war (and strategic, victorious, peace-inducing war, not just Ares’ hot headed slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am fighting center war), she also ruled over arts and crafts, which encompassed many things that she invented herself. The flute, trumpet, pot, plough, rake, ox-yoke, horse-bridle, chariot, ship, numbers (yes, numbers), weaving, cooking, spinning, and more. She was constantly helping out the people, teaching them new skills.
>History, con.Various and sundry. Athena shows up in quite a few myths, because, as a warrior and protector of others, she often got herself wrapped up in various heroes’ exploits. She helped out Hercules time and again, giving him support, or items to help him in his labors. She even assisted Perseus in his battle against the Medusa. She gave Bellerophon the golden bridle with which he tamed the Pegasus. She protected Ulysses on his way home from Troy, and helped him reunite with his family. She’s definitely the sort of goddess who gets involved with things firsthand, when she sees the cause as noble and just.
Temper, temper. As mentioned above, sometimes Athena can get exceptionally pissed off. When Arachne claimed herself as good at weaving as Athena, the goddess tricked her into a contest. Though Arachne’s attempt was so good that Athena had to admire it, it was also markedly arrogant, and Athena got even more pissed off, and destroyed her machine, filling Arachne’s head with guilt and shame that drove the woman to hang herself. Athena felt guilty, and turned her into a spider. Yeah. Much better. Very nice. See, also, the above mentioned incident with the flute.
» Personality: Athena really is a very kind person, modest, and certainly incredibly generous, always willing to spare whatever she can to assist others in doing the right thing. She has an incredibly stable personality, only shaken by the usual bouts of the usual rage found in the divine when she finds herself personally insulted, especially in terms of her skills. She’s sought and sought her father’s respect, subconsciously, and to have her skills looked down on is as bad as suffering Zeus’ rejection. She is strong, both internally and externally, with will power that can last to the point of extreme stubbornness, balanced out by her reliance on logic and strategy, to keep herself from falling into the trap of belligerence.
Athena craves balance and order in all areas of her life, and so will go out of her way to restore things to a peaceful harmony when they are altered. Nothing irks her more than an off-kilter status quo. She uses her keen intellect to decide what the best way of achieving this is: whether through assisting others, waging war, finding compromise, or using her many skills. On Olympus, she was exceptionally powerful, and on Earth, she finds herself expecting a certain degree of respect, as befits her sense of pride. She’s a particularly active goddess, who finds herself restless if she can’t be involved with something, which translates in any realm into a tendency to overcommit herself to things, spreading herself incredibly thin. But if anyone can keep it all straight, it’s Athena - who, in this world, keeps a PDA with up-to-date schedule, close to her heart. This, however, is the only thing she lets anywhere near there: any attempts to woo her will inevitably result in a great deal of disappointment, as she has no interest whatsoever in romance. She’s a career woman, through and through: and secretly looks down on women who forsake their own strengths to stay at home and pop out the babies (This goes for goddesses who do the same as well). Often times, people tell Athena that she reminds them of a man, in terms of the way she thinks and acts, which she takes as a complete compliment. (Not to mention, that as one of the boys, she wouldn’t have to worry about fending off sexist advances, either).
» Sample Journal:
Check-list for today:
-Sign court reports; review for inconsistencies in judgments
-Reorganize apartment for maximum balanced feng shui effect.
-Help Perseus with his report [Give him Golden Pen that highlights bad grammar? Possible.]
-Jog.
-Change newspaper in owl cage.
-Alphabetize bookshelf.
-Call Aphrodite and tell her to stop signing me up for e-newsletters to matchmaking sites.
» Sample Roleplay: Her gavel crashed down against the stand with a crisp, curt final crack. “Dismissed,” she said simply, and then shuffled her own papers, sliding the glasses that she didn’t actually need off from her nose, and slipping them into the black and tan case awaiting them. The jury rose, filing out swiftly, as the crowd erupted into the usual mumbles, arguments over whether what she’d said was fair and just, or whether she’d ‘screwed’ the old man out of five hundred dollars plus court costs that he shouldn’t have to pay in the first place, because ‘the jury was stacked’.
It was all irritatingly tiring. She rose from her seat, escorted out the door by a policeman, and made her way to her own private office, where she slid into the leather chair, and pinched her nose between thumb and forefinger. The mumbles echoed in her brain. They mocked her.
They were doubt materialized.
Of all the things she was forced to deal with, wrapped in this mortal coil abruptly, that was one of the worst. The way things should be, the way they always had been, any mortal who dared to express doubt at the proclamations of Pallas Athena would be not only alienated and seen as an object of contempt by the other mortals around him, but would be looked upon with ill favor by the gods - nothing to shake any size stick at. However, here, she was just another of them, and her decisions could be discussed, weighed, and found wanting.
She took some small measure of comfort in knowing that at least, in her current position, her decisions were final enough, whether they met with popular opinion or not. Most of their doubt stemmed from anger, she reminded herself, their own personal sense that a world that did not tilt in their favor was an unjust world, lacking in rhyme or reason.
The world has become soft, she thought to herself, with a hint of sadness, Spoiled even. She wondered if such a pampered society could ever really find peace. She suspected instead that this atmosphere would only invoke a sense of discontent, mired in greed, and she shook at her head slowly at the implications.
Somewhere, in this softer, self-centered world, there must be heroes left.
She left her office, determined to find them.
.