Two gods wanted the same city. Athena, goddess of wisdom, and Poseidon, god of the sea, both looked at the same rocky hilltop in Greece — the future Acropolis of Athens — and each said: that one’s mine. Neither would back down. So Zeus, king of the gods, set up what might be the highest-stakes contest in all of mythology: each god would offer the city a gift, and the people would pick a winner. Whoever gave the better gift would become the city’s protector — forever.
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Gods & Monsters·1/7·1′
The place
Acropolis of Athens
The Contest of Athena and Poseidon
The divine rivalry that gave Athens its name
Mythological EraAcropolis of Athens
Moral of the Story
“Wisdom outlasts brute force. Athens chose the quiet gift over the loud one, and it made them one of the greatest civilizations in history.”
Characters
A
AthenaP
PoseidonK
King CecropsT
The AtheniansSource
Apollodorus's Bibliotheca, Pausanias's Description of Greece (Book 1), Herodotus's Histories, Ovid's Metamorphoses