AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE QUARTER-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE
ADMISSION OF KANSAS, TOPEKA, JANUARY 29, 1886,
BY GOVERNOR JOHN A. MARTIN.
_Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen_:
In Grecian mythology it is related that Zeus, warned by an oracle that
the son of his spouse, Metis, would snatch supremacy from him, swallowed
both Metis and her unborn child. When the time of birth arrived, Zeus
felt a violent pain in his head, and in his agony requested Hephæstus to
cleave the head open with an ax. His request was complied with, and from
the brain of the great god sprang Athena, full-armed, and with a mighty
war-shout. She at once assumed a high place among the divinities of
Olympus. She first took part in the discussions of the gods as an
opponent of the savage Ares. She gave counsel to her father against the
giants; and she slew Enceládus, the most powerful of those who conspired
against Zeus, and buried him under Mt. Ætna. She became the patron of
heroism among men, and her active and original genius inspired their
employment. The agriculturist and the mechanic were under her special
protection, and the philosopher, the poet and the orator delighted in
her favor. The ægis was in her helmet, and she represented the
ether—pure air. She was worshipped at Athens because she caused the
olive to grow on the bare rock of the Acropolis. She was also the
protectress of the arts of peace among women. She bore in her hand the
spool, the spindle, and the needle, and she invented and excelled in all
the work of women. She was the goddess of wisdom and the symbol of
thought; she represented military skill and civic prudence. In war she
was heroic and invincible; in peace she was wise, strong, inventive, and
industrious.