Who is Athena? Athena, or Minerva in the Roman myths, is the goddess of wisdom and war. She was born, fully armed, in the head of Zeus. Because Athena was born out of Zeus' head, she shares some of his things, like his thunderbolts or the Aegis.
The way she was born is very interesting. Athena is the daughter of Metis, the Titan of wisdom. After Zeus impregnated her, he worried about the consequences(that the offspring would be greater [from Zeus] and smarter [from Metis]) and swallowed Metis. Soon afterwards, Zeus began to sufferfrom headaches, so another god (usually Hephaestus from most myths) split his head open with an axe. Out comes Athena.
Gods and godesses have favorites, so you could say the Athena favored Hercules, not to mention that they were sort of siblings. However, Hercules had been mortal in his life, and according to the myths (not the movie) Hercules only became a god after he died, while Athena was 100% goddess, plus, she was smarter.
There aren't many myths about Athena, however, she does play roles in other hero stories, such as the Battle of Troy, and the story of Perseus.
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