Introduction
What is USS Athena?
Who is Athena?
Do you like science fiction? How about Star Trek® (any flavor will
do)? If you answered "yes" to either of those questions,
and would like to meet other people with like interests, then you
might want to join USS Athena, a science fiction, Star Trek fan club
and community service organization based in Reston, VA.
Some of our activities include socializing, enjoying Star Trek and
general science fiction, promoting fandom, doing security at
conventions, playing laser tag, performing community service, and
having fun.
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Pallas Athena (Minerva):
She was the daughter of Zeus alone. No mother bore her. Full-grown
and in full armor, she sprang from his head. In the earliest account
of her, the Iliad, she is a fierce and ruthless
battle-goddess, but elsewhere she is warlike only to defend the State
and the home from outside enemies. She was pre-eminently the Goddess
of the City, the protector of Civilized life, of handicrafts and
agriculture; the inventor of the bridle, who first tamed horses for
men to use.
She was Zeus's favorite child. He trusted her to carry the awful
aegis, his buckler, and his devastating weapon, the thunderbolt.
The word oftenest used to describe her is "grey-eyed", or,
as it is sometimes translated, "flashing-eyed". Of the
three virgin goddesses she was the chief and was called the Maiden,
Parthenos, and her temple the Parthenon. In later poetry she is the
embodiment of wisdom, reason, purity.
Athens was her special city; the olive created by her was her tree;
the owl her bird.
Except from Edith Hamilton's Mythology, Little Brown and
Company, 1969.
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