Athana
Messapian · deity · iron age to roman messapia · Recorded classification
Athana is Athena as the Messapians said her name and kept her cult. She is recorded in her own right for the same reason Aprodita already is in this registry, and for the same reason Etruscan Menrva stands apart from Greek Athena: the local cult is the thing attested, and the borrowed name does not make the worship Greek. What the Iapygians asked of her is not recorded, and the record does not invent it.
Domains
- war
- craft
Sources
- Athana is the Messapic form of Athena, worshipped in Iapygia alongside Aprodita.: Reference treatment of Messapic religion: Aphrodite and Athena were worshipped in Iapygia as Aprodita and Athana. (secondary)