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One day Zeus complained of a headache. Nothing the other gods did eased him of the intense pain, so he asked his son, Hephaestus (Vulcan), to cut his head open with an axe. Once Zeus’s head was split open, a fully armored woman bearing a spear appeared. This was Athene (Pallas, Minerva) to the Romans. She was the patroness of needlework, peace and defensive war. Athene was also the incarnation of wisdom and in this from held the owl sacred. Athene was a virgin goddess, which means that like her half-sister Artemis (Diana) she would not take a lover, remaining chaste and pure.