Episode 174: Irascible Immortals: Athena

The folklore of Athena in a nutshell and how I reimagined it for my writing.

Written and narrated by Ronel Janse van Vuuren.

Copyright 2025 Ronel Janse van Vuuren — All rights reserved.

Learn more about Athena here.

Get the transcript here.

Links mentioned in the episode:

• Newsletter: https://ronel-the-mythmaker.kit.com/671d4c97de
• Audiobooks of the podcast: https://payhip.com/RonelJansevanVuuren/collection/faeries-and-folklore-podcast-audiobooks
• Irascible Immortals books: https://www.ronelthemythmaker.com/my-books/the-irascible-immortals-series/

Learn more about the author and her writing here.

Music: Secrets by David Fesliyan (FesliyanStudios.com) and Dramatic Heartbeat by FesliyanStudios.com

Transcript

You’re listening to the Faeries and Folklore podcast by Ronel.

I’m dark fantasy author Ronel Janse van Vuuren. With nearly a decade of digging around in dusty folklore books, researching creatures of imagination that ignited my curiosity, I’m here to share the folklore in a nutshell and how I reimagined it for my writing in an origin of the fae.

This is the Faeries and Folklore podcast.

Hi, I’m your host Ronel Janse van Vuuren. You can just call me Ronel. In today’s episode, we’re continuing our exploration of the fae realm.

This episode is brought to you by my Irascible Immortals series, available in ebook, paperback, hardback and audiobook. They’ve been alive forever. They’ve been bored for some time. And now they’re showing it. Go to ronelthemythmaker.com/my-books/the-irascible-immortals-series for more.

We’re continuing our exploration of the Immortals.

Today’s immortal: Athena

Folklore in a nutshell by Ronel

Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom. In Roman mythology, she is known as Minerva. As both, she is the daughter of Zeus/Jupiter and had sprung forth from his mind. Her sacred animal is the owl. As a goddess of battle strategy, she is known as a fierce protector instead of the aggressor. Her brother Ares is the one to run in hot into battle.

But Athena is also the one who invented spinning, needlework, weaving and earthenware. And, of course, the olive tree when she had a competition with Poseidon to decide to whom the city Athens would belong – Poseidon created the horse, which is quite awesome in its own right. I like olives and olive oil well enough, but I love horses to distraction, so if I were the judge of that competition, Athens would have had a different name altogether with a different winner.

Athena is also known as a maiden goddess, meaning that she protected her virtue as well – if not better – than her city. She also has quite the temper. At one point, a young woman claimed to be a better weaver than even Athena. So the two had a competition and the young woman, Arachne, won. Athena got so angry, she turned the girl into a spider. 

It’s probably better to not get on the bad side of the warrior goddess.

Origin of the fae: Athena

Athena is the goddess of battle strategy, mathematics, weaving and more. She enjoys a good game of Rummikub or chess. She hasn’t been as active as other immortals in the mortal realm, rather spending her time at the various rest homes for immortals sharpening her board game strategies.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this episode of the faeries and folklore podcast and that you’ve learned something new about faeries.

Remember that you can get a transcript of this episode in the description. If you’re new to the podcast, why not go and grab your free copy of Unseen, the second book in the Faery Tales series, on my website ronelthemythmaker.com? Loads of folklore, magic and danger await! Take care!

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