Athena2.0109

George O'Connor, Athena: grey-eyed goddess, graphic novel in The Olympians (series). 2 (New York & London: First Second, 2010).

Frontispiece prologue: "All of us are born naked, helpless, and defenseless. ... Not so Pallas Athena." O'Connor engages several stories — Metis' silencing, Gigantomachy, Medusa... then Perseus and Medusa, Arachne; the Fates busily spinning throughout — into one coherent myth of Athena. Undertones of adolescent maturation which we see also in O'Connors Persephone are at work throughout in this very savy telling of the classical story.

In the image at right, the cover of O'Connor's graphic novel, Athena is battling against Pallas, the mythic Giant she killed in the Gigantomachy. Athena's childhood friend, Pallas, also appears in the novel, and O'Connor uses the narrative to disambiguate between the two homonymous mythological figures.