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"Pallas Athena" (1890-91) Gustav Klimt
That Athena should appear in a beauty contest does not jibe well with how Homer and Greek tragedians represent her. There she is, as in this depiction by Gustav Klimt, the clear-eyed pragmatist intent on victory of a different kind. (Victory, Nikê in Greek, is here shown in Athena's right hand.) "What Athena shows man, what she desires of him, and what she inspires him to is boldness, will to victory, courage. But all this is nothing without directing reason and illuminating clarity.... Dreaminess, yearning, languishing are alien to her. Of the tender raptures of love she knows nothing.... The divine precision of the well-planned deed, the readiness to be forceful and merciless, the unflagging will to victory—this, paradoxical as it may sound, is woman's gift to man, who by nature is indifferent to the momentary and strives for the infinite.... This too is implied in Athena's appearance.... She is oblivious to what we call tender-heartedness. Neither wisdom nor vision, neither devotion nor pleasure is her will. Consummation, the immediate present, action here and now—that is Athena." (Walter F. Otto, The Homeric Gods)
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