ATHEISM

term applied to disbelief in God, though often used vaguely and as term of abuse flung at those whose belief is different from the conventional; Be hee en yen, per ceed Who definitely Soaies ¢ district, Somersets hire, England; formerly island; Alfred found safety here, 879. | cal myth.), one of the chief Olympian | deities, called by Romans Minerva. | No satisfactory explanation of name | Athena, or Athene, is known, and Pallas is variously derived from name of a giant slain by A., from shield which she carried and used to swing about her (pallo, I swing) to ward off antagonistic influences, or from Attic district of | Pallene, which was one seat of her | Worship. She is said to have sprung | fully armed from head of Zeus, who had the|SWallowed her mother, Metis, then pregnant. She was protector of heroes war, patron of arts of peace, and guardian deity of city of Athens, which Wa Probably named after her. The Par the non, at Athens, was her chief temple, and contained world-renowned ae the eae were sacred to her, as x was the olive tree. THENZUM, name given originally | to buildings dedicated to the worship of Athena; later, a place where poets and scholars used to meet for reading purposes, and to instruct their pupils, such | an institution having been built at Rome by the Emperor Hadrian. In modern times it is a name given to many clubs and literary institutions, and forms the title of a well-known literary journal. lived about time of Commodus (II. cent.), and wrote Diepnosophisie, 2 dialogue containing a vast amount of information upon a_ great variety of subjects connected with social life.