Athelstan
ADELSTAN, ETHEL- STAN, or EALSTAN, an Anglo-Saxon King, the on and successor of Edward the Elder, and grandson of Alfred the Great; born in 895, and on Edward's death, in 925, was chosen king by the people of Mercia and Wessex. Northumbria, Scotland, and the British states of Cumberland, Wales, and Cornwall, acknowledged him as their superior lord, and his alliance was courted by all the princes of western Europe. Louis IV. of France was protected by Athelstan during the usurpation of Raoul, and recovered the throne by his aid. The Emperor Otho the Great married his sister Elgiva. In 937, Constantine of Scotland, and other princes, formed a league against Athelstan, who totally defeated them. He died at Gloucester, A. D. 941.
ATHENS In ATHENA (ath-ē'na), or ATHENE, a Greek goddess, identified by the Romans with Minerva. According to the legend, before her birth Zeus swallowed her mother, and Athena afterward sprang from the head of Zeus with a mighty war shout and in complete armor. her character of a wise and prudent warrior she was contrasted with the fierce Ares (Mars). In the wars of the giants she slew the famed Enceladus.
The sculptor, the architect, and the painter, as well as the philosopher, the orator and the poet, considered her their tutelar deity. She is also represented among the healing gods. In the images of the goddess a manly gravity and an air of reflection are united with female beauty in her features. As a warrior she is represented completely armed, her head covered with a gold helmet. As the the dress of a Grecian matron. To her goddess of peaceful arts she appears in insignia belong the ægis, the Gorgon's head, the round argive buckler; and the owl, the cock, the serpent, an olive branch, All and a lance were sacred to her.
Attica, particularly Athens, was sacred there. Her most brilliant festival at to her, and she had numerous temples Athens was the Panathenæa, participated in by all the tribes of the city-state.