American Philological Association
The Birth of Athena Author(s): Norman O. Brown Reviewed work(s): Source: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 83 (1952), pp. 130-143 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/283379 . Accessed: 08/10/2012 02:59 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
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130
Norman0. Brown
[1952
IX.-The Birthof Athena NORMAN 0. BROWN WESLEYAN
I.
UNIVERSITY
METHODOLOGY
A paper on the birthof Athena should tryto justifyits existence at the outset by stating the methodologicalprincipleswherebyit hopes to throwfreshlighton the subject. The author takes as his motto what Jaeger says apropos of myth in Hesiod in Paideia: "Myth is like an organism which undergoes incessant transformation and renovation. The poet completesthat transformation: but he does so not simply at his own whim. For it is he who the myth forhis age, and he reinterprets creates a new life-pattern to harmonize with his knowledge of that pattern. Only by the incessantmetamorphosisof its centralidea can the mythcontinue to live."' Translatingthis notionof mythinto a methodology,the author assumes that (1) the focus of attention in the study of Greek mythologyshou