Athena

This first-century AD Roman statue of the Greek goddess Athena was displayed at Liverpool recently as part of a special exhibition. Donning a Corinthian military helmet, she was considered the goddess of wisdom, taking her name from the Attican city which is now the Greek capital. Patristic writers like Clement of Alexandria declared her to be a representative of all that was wrong with paganism, but during the Middle Ages, naturally, she was occasionally associated with the Virgin Mary. Paul, apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, preached true wisdom in her very city when he attended the Areopagus and proclaimed Him the Saviour of the world. Many ridiculed His message, but the day was coming when, notwithstanding medieval confusion, Athena would become an historical curiosity in northern England while Jesus Christ would be acknowledged by hundreds of millions as the King of the Cosmos.

Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” -Paul in Athens, Acts 17:29-31, NKJV

But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. -Paul to the Greek Christians at Corinth, 1:1:23-25, NKJV