# Athena — The Eumenides character guide

> Athena in The Eumenides by Aeschylus.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Pallas, Athena Wise, O Pallas

**First appearance:** 0001-the-eumenides

## Snapshot

The city's goddess, who refuses to settle a blood-feud by oath or instinct and instead invents a court to hear the whole case.

## Who they are

Athena enters Athens to find Orestes at her image and the Furies closing in, each side certain of its claim. Where the Furies demand that the doer simply suffer, she insists on asking what motive drove him, a question their doctrine cannot absorb. By founding the Areopagus she shifts justice from blind retribution to reasoned inquiry, and her vote will decide whether mercy can coexist with law.

## In the story

### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_eumenides_se/chapters/endnotes)

Highlighted as the founder of the Areopagus and the mediator who persuades the Furies to accept a new role.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_eumenides_se/characters/athena
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_eumenides_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_eumenides_se/characters