<P> The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of early Western civilization . The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of Ottoman monuments . </P> <P> Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery . Landmarks of the modern era, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, include the Hellenic Parliament and the so - called "architectural trilogy of Athens", consisting of the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Academy of Athens . Athens is also home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum . Athens was the host city of the first modern - day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics . </P> <P> In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι (Athēnai, pronounced (a. thɛ̂ː. nai̯) in Classical Attic) a plural . In earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη (Athēnē). It was possibly rendered in the plural later on, like those of Θῆβαι (Thêbai) and Μυκῆναι (Μukênai). The root of the word is probably not of Greek or Indo - European origin, and is possibly a remnant of the Pre-Greek substrate of Attica . In antiquity, it was debated whether Athens took its name from its patron goddess Athena (Attic Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnā, Ionic Ἀθήνη, Athēnē, and Doric Ἀθάνα, Athānā) or Athena took her name from the city . Modern scholars now generally agree that the goddess takes her name from the city, because the ending - ene is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names . During the medieval period, the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα . However, after the establishment of the modern Greek state, and partly due to the conservatism of the written language, Ἀθῆναι (aˈθine) became again the official name of the city and remained so until the abandonment of Katharevousa in the 1970s, when Ἀθήνα, Athína, became the official name . </P> <P> According to the ancient Athenian founding myth, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, competed against Poseidon, the god of the seas, for patronage of the yet - unnamed city; they agreed that whoever gave the Athenians the better gift would become their patron and appointed Cecrops, the king of Athens, as the judge . According to the account given by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring welled up . In an alternative version of the myth from Vergil's Georgics, Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse . In both versions, Athena offered the Athenians the first domesticated olive tree . Cecrops accepted this gift and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens . </P>

Who was the city of athens named after