The Bee of Wisdom

The great god Zeus was worried. He loved his Titan wife, Metis, because she was very clever and gave him good advice. But Mother Earth had  told him that if Metis ever bore him a son, then Zeus would be overthrown. Now Zeus liked being king of the gods, and he did not want that to happen, so he challenged Metis to a game of shape changing. Metis agreed, and as she turned into a bee and buzzed about the room, he sniffed a great sniff with his right nostril, and sucked Metis up into his head.

There she sat, giving him advice when he needed it, and tickling his brain with her tiny feet when he didn’t. It was rather uncomfortable, but Zeus just had to put up with it. What Zeus didn’t know was that Metis was pregnant when he turned her into a bee. Soon Metis got very bored inside Zeus's head, and she decided to make some things for her new baby. She magicked herself a loom and some thread, and started  to weave a beautiful robe. Thumpety-thump, clickety-click went the loom, and soon Zeus had a headache.

"Stop that!" he grumbled, but Metis carried on. As soon as she had finished the robe, she magicked herself a little hammer and anvil, and started to make a wonderful silver helmet. Bashety-bash, crashety-crash went the hammer.

"Ouch!" roared Zeus, clutching his forehead.

Soon his headache was so bad that he called to his son Hephaestus the blacksmith to help him.

"Hum," said Hephaestus. "You've got something in there. The only "thing to do is to cut it out." So he took his sharpest chisel and split Zeus's head right open down the middle. Out sprang a beautiful goddess, wearing a shimmering silver robe and a winged silver helmet. She kissed Zeus.

"Sorry about the headache," she said. "I'm your daughter Athene." As soon as Zeus had mended his head (with Metis the bee still safely inside). He invited all the gods to a feast to meet his newest daughter. He was very proud of her, and wanted to give her a present.

"I shall make her the goddess of wisdom and give her a city," he decided. "Perhaps that little one down there will do”. Zeus had just chosen the one place which Poseidon wanted to be his city. When Poseidon heard about Zeus's gift to Athene he was very angry. But there was nothing he could do to challenge his powerful brother's decision, so he decided to challenge Athene instead.

"Let us have a competition, dear niece," he said. "We shall both give the people of this place a gift, and they shall decide which is the most useful to them. Whoever wins shall keep the city." Athene agreed at once, and they both flew down to the city, landing on the flat rock the people called the Acropolis.

"My people of Poseidia.'" cried Poseidon. "See what I give you!" And he struck a rock with his trident. A stream of water gushed out and the people rushed forward to taste it.

"Ugh!" they said, spitting and coughing. "What horrible salty water! This is no good to us at all.'"

"My people of Athens!" cried Athene. "See what I give you!" And she pointed her finger at the ground. Up rose a beautiful tree, with silvery leaves and little hard round fruits. The fruits fell into a wooden barrel on the ground, and the people rushed to look in.

"Oh!" they cried in wonder as they scooped out oil and olives.

"How useful! How delicious! Thank you, Athene." Poseidon dived into the sea in a fury, and ever since then, the city of Athens has belonged to the goddess Athene.