WHO IS MINERVA?

BY GABBY DINUCCI

MINERVA
The Roman goddess of wisdom, handicrafts, medicine,
and later, war
She is similar in many ways to the Greek goddess Athena.
Her name derives from meminisse which means to
remember
Also could have derived from the Indo-European root
men from which mental and mind come from.

 She was a part of the Capitoline Triad in Rome

along with Jupiter and Juno
Often depicted with her sacred creature, and
owl usually named as the owl of Minerva

WHAT IS A MYTH?
is a traditional story, especially one concerning the
early history of people or explaining some natural or
social phenomenon, and typically involving
supernatural beings or events.
In Roman mythology, a myth is a story about a god
or goddess that has been passed down through
many of people over a long period of time.

MINERVAS MYTHS
In the famous story presented in Ovids Metamorohoses, Minerva is the main character. In
this myth, a Lydian girl named Arachne unwisely boasts that her weaving skills are even
better than Minervas. Now Minerva was not pleased to hear such claims and so she
challenged Arachne to a weaving competition. They sat down and grabbed their looms and
set out to each make a wonderful tapestry that could outdo their rivals best efforts.
Minervas masterpiece showed al the great gods and had Minerva herself standing centrestage in the act of winning the competition to become patron of Athens. On the very edge
of Minervas tapestry depicted all those mortals who had infamously challenged the gods
and failed to deliver their skills because they were beaten by the gods. Meanwhile,
Arachnes less pious work displayed various gods taking on different forms and doing
different activities and trying to make the mortals look like gods. The work itself was truly
magnificent piece of weaving, but as expected, Minerva, nevertheless, declared herself the
winner and punished Arachne for her audacity by hitting her on the head 3 times and
changing her into a spider. This tale is a cautionary tale of how unwise it is for the mortals
to consider themselves the equals of the gods.

-In

ancient times, each town would have a god that would rule over
them
-Neptune the god of the seas, and Minerva both wanted to claim the
same coastal village
-But the towns people didnt know who to pick
-so Minerva thought of a great idea
- they would both bring the town a gift and the townspeople would
decide whose gift was better
NEPTUNE- tapped the side of a mountain and out flowed a beautiful
stream of water, that he believed to be fresh. The townspeople were
sure he was going to win, but when they tasted it they couldnt even
swallow, they had to spit it out! It was salt water.
MINERVA- waved her hands and p grew an olive tree. This olive tree
could be used for food, oil, water, decoration, and shelter. Due to all
the great benefits of Minervas olive tree, she was the obvious winner
and ruled over the town

MINERVA

GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY

Greek and Roman gods and goddesses often have the same
gods but with different names because many Roman Gods are
borrowed from Greek mythology, but often with different
traits.
For example, Minerva (roman) and Athena (greek)