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Athena has no single, official circle of friends in Greek myth. Her clearest named companion is Pallas, a childhood playmate in one tradition. Her other connections are different in kind: Artemis appears beside her in one scene of a Homeric hymn, Hera works with her as an ally in the Iliad, and Odysseus is a mortal hero she protects and advises across the Odyssey. Which answer fits depends on which ancient text you mean.
This article covers the Greek myths themselves. Video games often rework Athena’s relationships for their own storylines, and those versions are outside the scope of this guide.
Why there is no fixed friend list
Greek myth was passed down through poems, hymns, and later compilations written by different authors in different periods and places. They do not form one continuous biography of Athena, so they do not agree on who her companions were. When you describe a relationship, name the ancient source behind it. A companion in one author’s account may never appear in another.
Four questions help sort the candidates:
- Is the figure a personal companion, an ally, or a mortal protégé?
- Does the relationship appear in one scene or across a whole story?
- Which ancient work tells it?
- Is that work preserving one variant rather than a universal version?
The candidates, one by one
Pallas: the childhood companion
The most specific personal friendship comes from the mythographic compilation attributed to Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.144. In the translation reproduced by Theoi, the text says: “They say that after Athene’s birth, she was reared by Triton, who had a daughter named Pallas.” The two girls trained together in military life.
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The friendship ends in violence. During a dispute, Pallas was about to strike Athena. Athena was startled by the aegis of Zeus, struck Pallas, and killed her. Athena then made a wooden likeness of her companion and honored it. The Theoi compilation also carries Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.33.5, but this childhood account is one tradition, not a shared version of every ancient source.
Artemis and Persephone: a flower-gathering scene
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter places Athena and Artemis in a group with Persephone. Persephone recalls playing in a meadow and gathering flowers. In Gregory Nagy’s translation, Persephone says: “Also Pallas [Athena], the one who rouses to battle, and Artemis, who delights in arrows.” The passage then describes the group at play.
This is a single episode. The hymn does not present these three as an exclusive or lifelong circle. Nagy’s translation also marks gaps where the hymn survives in a single medieval manuscript that is damaged, so the surrounding lines are incomplete in places. Read the passage as one scene from a larger, partly damaged poem.
Hera: an ally at Troy
In Iliad Book 4, Hera and Athena sit together and oppose Zeus’s proposal to end the fighting. They act in alignment against Troy. This is a working alliance within one scene of the war, and the epic does not present it as a friendship between best friends.
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Odysseus: a protégé with a guest-friend claim
Athena is one of the most consistent helpers of Odysseus in the Odyssey. In Book 1, she appears disguised as the mortal Mentes and tells Telemachus that she is an old guest-friend of Odysseus’s household. That claim rests on hospitality and protection, not on divine peer friendship.
Side by side
| Figure | Type of tie | Ancient source | Scope | Status of the account |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pallas | Childhood companion; ends in her death | Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.144 | Childhood, ending in violence | One mythographic variant |
| Artemis | Fellow member of a flower-gathering group | Homeric Hymn to Demeter | One scene | Hymn text damaged in places |
| Persephone | Fellow member of the same group | Homeric Hymn to Demeter | One scene | Hymn text damaged in places |
| Hera | Ally against Troy | Iliad Book 4 | One scene of the war | Epic narrative |
| Odysseus | Mortal protégé; guest-friend claim | Odyssey Book 1 and later books | Sustained help across the epic | Epic narrative |
Reading the sources yourself
If you want to check these passages directly, start with the following:
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- Theoi’s compilation of Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.144, with Pausanias 9.33.5 for the Pallas account.
- The Perseus Digital Library’s text of Hymn 2 to Demeter, beginning around line 398, for the flower-gathering passage.
- The Perseus Digital Library’s text of Homer’s Iliad Book 4, especially from the opening lines, for Hera and Athena’s joint scene.
- Gregory Nagy’s translation of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter at the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, lines 420 to 429, which includes the note on manuscript gaps.
- Mythopedia’s “Athena” overview, which lists Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey among the central sources for her relationships with heroes.
- GreekMythology.com’s text of Odyssey Book 1, lines 96 to 199, for Athena’s visit to Telemachus as Mentes.
For a fuller reading of the hymn, a translated edition of the Homeric Hymns that includes the Hymn to Demeter is the most direct option. Check the edition’s translator and notes, since the damaged passages are handled differently across translations.
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