Riordan Wiki
Advertisement
Riordan Wiki

The Virgin Goddesses (or maiden goddesses) are Artemis, Athena, and Hestia. This means that they do not marry and have children the usual way or not at all. Athena's children are literally born from her thoughts. It is the meeting of minds. Athena thinks that it is the purest kind of love. Artemis does not have children as she detests males. Hestia swore to Zeus that she would never marry.

Artemis

ArtemisGG

Artemis

The goddess of the hunt and the moon, Artemis does not have children because she was very affected with helping her mother, the Titaness Leto, to give birth to her twin brother, Apollo, after she was born. Seeing that it took days and nights to help her mother give birth to Apollo, Artemis was so affected by this that she swore to be a virgin goddess and that she didn't like men after that.

Her only male follower and romance was Orion, the great hunter, but Artemis accidentally killed him in a plan set up by Apollo. One example of her hating men is that of her and her huntresses bathing in a woodland pond when a prince named Aktaion , while hunting with his hounds, came upon them unknowingly and watched them bathe. Angered that the prince had watched them bathe, Artemis then turned him into a deer, ending his unfortunate life in sorrow when his hounds attacked him, believing him to be the prey of the hunt. In the series she says that she enjoys turning males into jackalopes, as she had done one time with a boy in Colorado. However, Percy Jackson earns her respect when he saves her from Atlas.

Athena

Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, was born from her father and the king of the gods, Zeus,

File:-Athena-.jpg

Athena

after he had swallowed her mother, Metis, when he heard the Oracle's prophecy that she would gave birth to not only Athena, but to a son who would one day overthrow him. This far, however, Zeus swallowed Metis in a form of a fly to prevent his own overthrow. Later, when he complained of a headache, Hephaestus, the god of the fire and the forges, took an axe and smacked it on Zeus' head. Soon, Athena came out already matured and in battle form. She also usurped her mother's position as goddess of wisdom.

Even though Athena is a virgin goddess, the only way her demigod children are born is from her thoughts combined with the mortal integrates of mortal men that she loves. Her demigod children are gifts to the men she favors. She always says that this is the meeting of minds, and that this is the purest kind of love that one could gave upon the men that she loves.

Hestia

File:250px-Hestia.jpg

Hestia

Hestia is the third and last virgin Olympian goddess after Artemis and Athena. She was sought after by both Apollo and Poseidon as a wife, but she rejected them and went to Zeus as she knew the rivalry would cause problems. He understood and blessed her oath of virginity.

Hestia is known as the Olympian goddess of the hearth after Dionysus, the god of wine and a son of Zeus, arrived on Olympus. At the time, there were not enough thrones for each god since it was the beginning days of the Fifth Age following the center of power of Western Civilization. Also, the Hall of the Gods on Mount Olympus was getting crowded with gods and goddesses. So to leave some room, Hestia gracefully gave up her throne to Dionysus and retreated into the background of Olympus, never to speak, but seen lighting up hearths in anywhere possible to be found. Hence why she is the goddess of the hearth. She is seen tending the campfire in the center of the cabins at Camp Half-Blood. 

Trivia

  • Athena is the only Virgin goddess in the series who doesn't (even occasionally) take on the form of a child.
  • Athena is the only one out of the three who has demigod children.
  • There are also other non-Olympian virgin goddesses, such as Hecate; although Hecate has demigod children in the series.
Advertisement