Beneath the armor,
Athena's tunic is white, the edges
tatted with gold threads,

falling perhaps to mid-thigh.
Glaukopis* walks on leather
soles, her shins guarded,
greaved in gold to the knee.
The rest of the leg she leaves bare.

A fringe of serpents adorns
the goat-hide around her torso.
Medusa's face of precious metal
leers from the breastplate
Its eyes are rubies, matching the aegis.

To protect her legs the Pallas
tanned a simple skirt of leather
strips. She wears the sword
on her back, the battle cloak
she wraps sometimes
around her middle.

The sun bright helm, ornament over
three hands high, covers
black waves of curls, but often
her eyes, silvery, metallic, are
the only feature heroes notice.

All goddesses are perfect
in their beauty, but some, it's
said, possess more gifts
than others.

Her spear,
of gold and jeweled like the sword,
bears an inscription:
the fairest.

© 2012, Amy Hart.

*Athena Promachos [H PromacoV: "first fighter" or "she who fights at the front"] was the ivory and bronze statue of Athena, sculpted by Phidias, that stood in the Parthenon until it was moved to Constantinople, where it was finally destroyed by paranoid, crusading Christians. Forgive me, but I forget the year...sometime between 11th and 12th centuries, perhaps.

*Glaukopis [glaukwpiV]: combination of glaukos [glaukoV], meaning bright or silvery, and ops [wy], eye or face. Athena's most common epithet is "bright-eyed" or "bright-eyes."