III.
ATHENA ERGANE.*
(Athena in the Heart.)
* "Athena the worker, or having rule over work." The name was first give
to her by the Athenians.
VARIOUS NOTES RELATING TO THE CONCEPTION OF ATHENA AS THE DIRECTRESS OF
THE IMAGINATION AND WILL.
101. I have now only a few words to say, bearing on what seems to me
present need, respecting the third function of Athena, conceived as the
directress of human passion, resolution, and labor.
Few words, for I am not yet prepared to give accurate distinction between
the intellectual rule of Athena and that of the Muses; but, broadly, the
Muses, with their king, preside over meditative, historical, and poetic
arts, whose end is the discovery of light or truth, and the creation of
beauty; but Athena rules over moral passion, and practically useful art.
She does not make men learned, but prudent and subtle; she does not teach
them to make their work beautiful, but to make it right.
In different places of my writings, and though many years of endeavor to
define the laws of art, I have insisted on this rightness in work, and on
its connection with virtue of character, in so many partial ways, that
the impression left on the reader's mind--if, indeed, it was ever
impressed at all--has been confused and uncertain.
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