Minerva

Also known as: Athena / Pallas Minerva / Trito-born / daughter of aegis-bearing Jove / daughter of great Jove / grey-eyed goddess · Family: gods · Role: goddess · First appears: BOOK I

🌐 Also appears in: Greek Mythology — A Family Orrery (as Athena) · The Odyssey (as Minerva) · The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Minerva) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Athena)

In Book I, Juno sends Minerva from heaven, and Jove addresses her as “daughter of aegis-bearing Jove.” She comes to Achilles to urge him to master his anger. In Book II, she orders Ulysses to stop the Achaeans from sailing home. In Book IV, Jove directs her to make the Trojans break their oaths; she disguises herself as Laodocus and persuades Pandarus to shoot Menelaus. In Book VIII, she and Juno abandon their attempt to fight when Jove orders them back.

In Book V, Minerva gives courage to Diomed, is said to have loved Phereclus, and fights Mars. In Book XI, she prevents Socus’s spear from piercing Ulysses’s entrails. In Book XVII, she descends at Jove’s command and urges Menelaus to stand firm. In Book XVIII, Achilles’s cry helps the Achaeans recover Patroclus’s body; in Book XIX, she gives Achilles nectar and ambrosia before battle. In Book XX, she enters the gods’ conflict, and in Book XXI she reassures Achilles with Neptune that he will survive the river, then strikes down Mars. In Book XXII, disguised as Deiphobus, she persuades Hector to stop fleeing and face Achilles. In Book XXIII, she restores Diomed’s whip and strengthens his horses, helping him win the chariot race.