<P> Athena was not only the patron goddess of Athens, but also other cities, including Argos, Sparta, Gortyn, Lindos, and Larisa . The various cults of Athena were all branches of her panhellenic cult and often proctored various initiation rites of Grecian youth, such as the passage into citizenship by young men or the passage of young women into marriage . These cults were portals of a uniform socialization, even beyond mainland Greece . </P> <P> Athena was frequently equated with Aphaea, a local goddess of the island of Aegina, originally from Crete and also associated with Artemis and the nymph Britomartis . In Arcadia, she was assimilated with the ancient goddess Alea and worshiped as Athena Alea . Sanctuaries dedicated to Athena Alea were located in the Laconian towns of Mantineia and Tegea . The temple of Athena Alea in Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece . The geographer Pausanias was informed that the temenos had been founded by Aleus . Votive bronzes at the site from the Geometric and Archaic periods take the forms of horses and deer; there are sealstone and fibulae . In the Archaic period, the nine villages that underlie Tegea banded together in a synoecism to form one city . </P> <P> Athena had a major temple on the Spartan Acropolis, where she was venerated as Poliouchos and Khalkíoikos ("of the Brazen House", often latinized as Chalcioecus). This epithet may refer to the fact that cult statue held there may have been made of bronze, that the walls of the temple itself may have been made of bronze, or that Athena was the patron of metal - workers . Bells made of terracotta and bronze were used in Sparta as part of Athena's cult . </P> <P> An Ionic - style temple to Athena Polias was built at Priene in the fourth century BC . It was designed by Pytheos of Priene, the same architect who designed the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus . The temple was dedicated by Alexander the Great and an inscription from the temple declaring his dedication is now held in the British Museum . </P>

Athena's birth and infancy as a baby