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ATHEISM 325 ATHENS ATHEISM, literally, disbelief in a God, if such an attainment is possible; or, more loosely, doubt of the existence of a God; practically, a denial that any- thing can be known about the super- natural, supposing it to exist. Among the Greeks atheism consisted in a denial or non-recognition of the gods of the state. The atheism of the 18th century was a protest against the persecution of fanaticism; and, like its predecessors, put forward little or nothing to replace the system it attempted to destroy. The atheism of the 19th century may be taken to include every philosophic system which rejects the notion of a personal Creator; in this sense it ranks as a genus, of which Atomism, Pantheism, Positivism, etc., are species. Strictly, it is the doctrine chat sees in matter the sole principle of the universe. ATHEL, or JETHEL, an Old English word meaning noble, eminent not only in blood or by descent but in mind ; frequent- ly a part of Anglo-Saxon proper names. ATHELING, a title of honor among the Anglo-Saxons, meaning one who is of noble blood. The title was gradually confined to the princes of the blood royal, and in the 9th and 10th centuries is used exclusively for the sons or brothers of the reigning king. It was first conferred on Edgar by Edward the Confessor, his grand-uncle, who bestowed it when he designed to make him successor to him- self on the throne. ATHELNEY, formerly an island in the midst of fens and marshes, now drained and cultivated, in Somersetshire, England, about 7 miles S. E. of Bridge- water. Alfred the Great took refuge in it during a Danish invasion, and after- ward founded an abbey there. ATHELSTAN, ADELSTAN, iETHEL- STAN, or EALSTAN, an Anglo-Saxon King, the son and successor of Edward the Elder, and grandson of Alfred the Great; born in 895, and on Edward's death, in 925, was chosen king by the people of Mercia and Wessex. North- umbria, Scotland, and the British states of Cumberland, Wales, and Cornwall, acknowledged him as their superior lord, and his alliance was courted by all the princes of western Europe. Louis IV. of France was protected by Athelstan during the usurpation of Raoul, and re- covered the throne by his aid. The Em- peror Otho the Great married his sister Elgiva, In 937, Constantine of Scotland, and other princes, formed a league against Athelstan, who totally defeated them. He died at Gloucester, A, D. 941, ATHENA (ath-e'na), or ATHENE, a Greek goddess, identified by the Romans with Minerva, According to the legend, before her birth Zeus swallowed her mother, and Athena afterward sprang from the head of Zeus with a mighty war shout and in complete armor. In her character of a wise and prudent warrior she was contrasted with the fierce Ares (Mars). In the wars of the giants she slew the famed Enceladus. The sculptor, the architect, and the painter, as well as the philosopher, the orator and the poet, considered her their tutelar deity. She is also represented among the healing gods. In the images of the goddess a manly gravity and an air of reflection are united with female beauty in her features. As a warrior she is represented completely armed, her head covered with a gold helmet. As the goddess of peaceful arts she appears in the dress of a Grecian matron. To her insignia belong the segis, the Gorgon's head, the round argive buckler; and the owl, the cock, the serpent, an olive branch, and a lance were sacred to her. All Attica, particularly Athens, was sacred to her, and she had numerous temples there. Her most brilliant festival at Athens was the Panathenaea, participated in by all the tribes of the city-state. ATHENS, anciently the capital of Attica and center of Greek culture, now the capital of the Kingdom of Greece. It is situated in the central plain of At- tica, about 4 miles from the Saronic Gulf or Gulf of ^gina, an arm of the ^gean Sea running in between the mainland and the Peloponnesus, It is said to have been founded about 1550 B. C, by Cecrops, the mythical Pelasgian hero; and to have borne the name Cecropia until under Erechtheus it received the name of Athens in honor of Athene, Topography. — The Acropolis, an ir- regular oval crag, 150 feet high, with a level summit 1,000 feet long by 500 in breadth, was the original nucleus of the city. The three chief eminences near the Acropolis — the Areopagus to the N. W., the Pnyx to the S. W., and the Mu- seum to the S. of the Pnyx — were in- cluded within the city boundary as the sites of its chief public buildings, the city itself, however, afterward taking a northerly direction. On the E. ran the Ilissus and on the W. the Cephissus, while to the S. W. lay three harbors — Phalerum, the oldest and nearest; the Pirseus, the most important; and Munychia, the Piraean Acropolis. At the height of its prosperity the city was connected with its harbors by three massive walls (the "long walls").