Athena2.0111_Tezukaan

Osamu Tezuka, character of Athena Parthenos (unnamed but iconographically recognizable) in Aporo no uta (Apollo's Song), serialized originally 1970 in Shukan Shonen Kingu (Tokyo).

In the image at right, from p. 21, the novel's protagonist, Shogo Chikaishi visits the shrine of the unnamed goddess in an electro-shock enhanced dream and receives her question: "Foolish Young Shogo Chikaishi... Answer my questions, and hide nothing."

The goddess returns in this same role twice later in the novel. However, she recurs surreptiously in several guises throughout the novel, in the form of Queen S, Hiromi, and others. It is worth noting that Tezuka brings Athena Parthenos into the anime version of the Magnificent Melmo, where the goddess presides over an austere panel of judges whose role is much like a committee for the Final Judgment (normally put by Christian myth in the hands of St Peter).