The ancient Greek goddess Athena is the emblematic mascot of our club. She is the goddess of wisdom, courage, strength, strategy and skill. Her divinity and all that she represents was the inspiration for those who established the Athena Soccer Club back in 1951.
In mythological sense, Athena provided protection and guidance to those of heroic endeavour. She helped many ancient heroes to greatness, including Heracles, Odysseus and Jason with his Argonauts.
Although Athena is also the goddess of war, she disliked fighting without purpose and preferred to use wisdom and strategy to resolve conflicts.
Also, as pictured above, was the use of the phrase ‘Molon Lave’ (written in Greek characters as ‘Molwn Labe’) meaning ‘come and take it’. This phrase was used as a means of defiant defence rather than aggressive attack by ancient Greek armies, particularly by the Spartans. It was used by King Leonidas in response to the Persian army’s demand that the Spartans lay down their weapons.
Having the goddess Athena as the club’s emblematic mascot provides a direct link and recognition of the club’s Greek heritage, but as local football moves into an era of commercialised opportunities, we believe the notions of what Athena represents gives us an engaging brand identity for the future as well as being true to our past. Also in use of the phrase ‘Molon Lave’, meaning that other sides will have to take victory from us as we will never give it up.
We want our club to embody Athena’s values. Our teams, players and coaches are assessed on those same values. We hope that our players develop into unique footballers that encapsulate those values:
- Wisdom
- Courage
- Strength
- Strategy
- Skill
Using Greek mythological figures is not unique in world sport - in fact, many of the world’s greatest footballing sides, not from Greece, use ancient Greek figures in their name and as their mascots. They include:
- Ajax FC of Amsterdam, the most successful side in Holland and winner of multiple UEFA cups, has the Greek mythological hero as their mascot.
- Hercules CF of Valencia who have played in the Premiera Liga over 20 times draw on the Greek god Hercules.
- Sparta Prague is the Czech Republic’s most successful club and uses the ancient Greek soldier in its name.
- Spartak Moscow of Russia also refer to the stoic Greek soldiers in their name
- Atalanta from Bergamo, Italy has a female athlete of Greek mythology as it’s name ands mascot.
So as you can see, Floreat Athena is in good company!