Do You Think Athena Ever Resents Zeus For Robbing Her Of The Chance Of Having Had A "normal Birth" And

do you think athena ever resents Zeus for robbing her of the chance of having had a "normal birth" and a mother like everyone else has? does athena ever imagine what being a child would have felt like? what holding her mom's hands and hiding behind her dress would have felt like? i wonder if hera is nice to athena because she knows athena never had a mother. she was born before Zeus and her got married, after all, so Hera has no real reason to hold grudges like she held against Apollo, Artemis and Dionysus (all born out of affairs and not out of a previous union). Hera and Athena are often in the same side, they supported the acheans against troy and seem to generally respect each other.

Am I thinking all this just because of that "Hey, baby" in Hera's level in God Games? YEAH ABSOLUTELY.

ohh you came to the right person because mother-daughter dynamics drive me wild actually

i think there’s something to be said about a girl raised by her father because her father had his will that she would not have a mother. a girl who was born adorned in armour because her mother crafted it for her. athena was born a warrior of the mind (quite literally), and though zeus may shaped her and taught her as she grew, a lot of who she is can be attested to her birth. to her mother. so i think, yes, although athena is loyal to zeus, although she is his favourite, pe4ect daughter - there is still going to be a part of her that grieve for the mother she didn’t get to have, an resents the father who bears the reason.

i do like the idea that hera has a maternal dynamic with athena, then, because i think it would be good for both of them. athena finally gaining a mother-like presence in her life, and hera making a conscious choice of treating her as a daughter, knowing that the decision is hers, the girl is hers, and this isn’t like the other children of zeus. i think the “hey baby” line is quite telling, i definitely interpreted it as a sort of maternal-inflection, mother greeting daughter (in a sense). also just the whole way that hera interacts with athena in god games is really interesting. specifically her lines:

Try harder

and:

You can do better than that

it’s almost like she wants athena to win. where all the other gods presents their own arguments against odysseus, hera is giving way for athena to presents hers for him. she’s actively encouraging her to persuade her; she knows what athena - goddess of wisdom - is capable of, and she’s waiting to be hit with the wit that she knows athena posses. she knows athena “can do better than that”, she wants her to. she’s by far the most relaxed and causal of the gods throughout the games, i think to her this is just for fun and she sort of just wants to play around with athena for a bit. i like the interpretation that they’re locked in a dance during their conversation, like hers is using this as an excuse to just have some fun. maybe just for her own sake, but also maybe to spend sone time with athena.

headcanon wise, i do like the idea that hera is the one to take athena away after zeus’ wrath, or at least is the first to go to her. like i said, she seems to see the games as a very casual thing and doesn’t show any real contempt towards athena like the other gods do. she probably didn’t expect things to ever actually get dangerous. and of course, she also has her own qualms with zeus, so seeing him do something so heinous to his own daughter - i feel like that would kick in some kind of material instinct within her. she’d want to keep athena safe.

i should preface this all with the fact that this is all based solely in the context of epic. i’m sure the gods and their dynamics are different within wider mythology, but looking solely at the musical, these are some of my takes

Ody: What was that?

Zeus: A vision, of what is to come, cannot be outrun, can only be dealt with right here and now.

Ody: Tell me how

Zeus: I don't think you're ready.

Ody: Bitch what, then why are you telling me.

Zeus: Cause if you do this we will punish you for your decade back home.

Ody: But you just said it was the will of the gods

Zeus: Oh it is.

Ody: But I'll be...punished for it?

Zeus: mhmm.

Ody: Fuck that I'm raising this baby

Zeus: NO WAIT

Athena: *nods* For once, don't kill the thing

Zeus: ATHENAAAAA!

Aphrodite: I'm going to accidentally/On Purpose start the trojan war over something dumb

Also Aphrodite: Athena you telling me this guy is suffering cause of the war I caused??? Ew no get out.

And here we seen the Gen Z Telemachus in his natural environment

Hi hello art request!!! Some silly Athena and Telemachus mayhaps???

no telemachus, it was not “swag”.

Oh my god you guys broke tumblr

I found this camera on the subway and look what was inside...

Hiii!!! I love the idea of Athena making herself shorter when interacting with Telemachus, does she make herself taller when interacting with, say, Zeus or Ares (to make them take her seriously?)

thank u!! To Ares, she def makes herself taller. and she also gets unconsciously taller when shes angry (which happens a lot when she is with Ares xd)

to Zeus though I dont know if she would risck, considering how mentally unstable he is when it comes to being the most powerfull and better and all of that so he would probably get it as an insult and fry here a lil bit. basically, she stays in her usual height (that i imagen to be around 1.80m- 1.90m (for me Gods have usually normal human heights except when they want to impose themselves. except Zeus. he goes around 4m all the time)