#you can bring up SEVERAL well-documented instances of Athena doing people dirty

[areopagusimp]

Every time I see the "So I turn to Ares" comic, I am filled with glee as a blatant Ares simp, but I swear some people cannot hold two ideas in their head at once, it's one or the other. So many people are like "you're tearing down Athena in order to praise Ares :(((" as if she could be torn down.

Disclaimer, I'm not a Hellenistic pagan, but it's clear that worshiping Ares includes looking to Athena and having feelings about her and what she represents in relation to Ares. It's natural because they are two sides of the same coin. They are famously pit against each other in practically every piece of media involving Greek mythology.

I have ideas and feelings about Athena that a lot of people would call slander. But I think it's because people cannot imagine anything more complex than Athena = Good War and Ares = Bad War.

And that is just so insulting, isn't it? Do not fucking declaw Athena. Do not paint her as fair and graceful simply because she is a woman. And you knooow that's part of it. Athena keeps a clean reputation, but she fights dirty. The Trojan Horse was built and used in worship of her, but people like to claim that the violence that destroyed Troy was all Ares.

Give credit where credit is due. Put some respect to Athena's name if you're gonna try to white knight for her. Some actual worship. She's not a damsel at the mercy of big bad Ares. She smashed his head in with a rock once.