She Was Born After She Sprang From The Head Of Her Father Zeus

Greek mythology holds that Athena was conceived from the head of her father Zeus. The goddess Metis, who is referred to as the "wisest among gods and mortal men," was the spouse of Zeus. Given that Athena is the goddess of wisdom, this makes sense. Zeus heard a prophecy that Metis would give birth to children who would be wiser than him, and that his unborn progeny would attempt to remove him from the throne after finding that Metis was expecting. Zeus persuaded Metis into letting him swallow her in order to stop it, but it was too late because she had already conceived.

Zeus took six additional women after swallowing Metis before marrying Hera, his seventh and current wife. Zeus then woke up with a terrible headache. He was in so much anguish that he gave the order for the labrys, the double-headed Minoan axe, to be used to cut open his head by either Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ares, or Palaemon, depending on the sources that were looked at. Armed and fully grown, Athena jumped from Zeus's head. Given that she was Zeus's firstborn, it is said that Athena was his favorite child.