Address delivered at the Quarter-Centennial Celebration of the
Admission of Kansas, Topeka, January 29, 1886.
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
Enceladus, 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.