... would have reflected how the community of that polis wished to be perceived, both by their own citizens and by the other nations of the Greek world. Through symbols and rhetoric, the image of a patron deity could be manipulated to meet the image of the polis. Nowhere is this more apparent than in fifth century Athens, where the patron deity of Athena was deliberately and consciously directed in art, literature and cult to highlight Athens' identity as a patriarchal democracy and the leader of an Ionian Empire. However, it is important to keep in mind that although the goddess Athena and the Athenian polis were certainly closely associated with each other, Athena's role as the patron deity of Attica was by no means exclusive. Athena was widely worshipped across Greece, and, in her capacity of 'Athena Polias', the city-protecting goddess of the Acropolis, she was adopted as the ...

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