Athena

Impression of Angela Merkel

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Amanta Scott, encaustic on canvas on cradled panel, 40 x 40 in/102 x 102 cm, Eyeing Medusa series, 2020. Read more

Athena is the Olympian goddess of wisdom, war, peace, the arts and weaving.

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany since 2005, has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and, since 2016, the “leader of the free world.”

“The question is not whether we are able to change but whether we are changing fast enough.”

— Angela Merkel

Bellona, Rembrandt (1633). Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Friedsam Collection — *Bellona*, Rembrandt (1633). Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Friedsam Collection

Old Babylonian relief, The Queen of the Night (c 1800-1750 BC). Photograph: British Museum

Athena

Athena is the Olympian goddess of wisdom and war, and the patroness of the city of Athens. She is also associated with peace, the arts and weaving. It was said that she sprang fully formed from Zeus’ thigh.

Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel is a German politician who has been the chancellor of Germany since 2005. She was been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and, since 2016, the “leader of the free world.”

Markel was born in Hamburg, then-West Germany, but shortly afterwards her family relocated to East Germany where she grew up. She was awarded a doctorate in Quantum chemistry in 1986. She entered politics in 1989 and, in 2005, became the first female, first East German, and, at age 51, the youngest person to hold the office of chancellor of Germany.

Merkel has emphasized international cooperation and transatlantic economic relations; and has sought to phase out nuclear power in Germany, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase renewable energy sources.