Minerva

Minerva is the Roman Goddess whom, from the 2nd century BC onwards, the Romans equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving and crafts. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl, which symbolizes her ties to wisdom. As a war deity she`s only favorable to defensive wars. Though Romans considered owls to be bad or evil they were considered to be Minerva`s symbol.

History
Minerva was the Goddess of wisdom and crafts. This Goddess represented the application of intellect to everyday tasks. As the Goddess of wisdom she was accredited with inventing spinning, weaving, numbers and music. She is also the patron of Goddess of medicine. Ovid described her as the "Goddess of a thousand works."

Some scholars believe that her cult was that of Athena introduced at Rome from Etruria. This is reinforced by the fact that she was one of the Capitoline triad, in association with Jupiter and Juno. Her shrine on the Aventine in Rome was a meeting place for guilds of craftsmen, including at one time dramatic poets and actors. Her shrine on the Aventine in Rome was a meeting place for guilds of craftsmen, including at one time dramatic poets and actors.

Under the emperor Domitian, who claimed her special protection, the worship of Minerva attained its greatest vogue in Rome.

The Son of Neptune
Minerva is mentioned by Vitellius when talking about gorgons blood, as she gave a vial from the right side to Vitellius's ancestor, Aesculapius.

Representation
She is described by the poets, and represented by the sculptors and painters in a standing attitude, completely armed, with a composed but smiling countenance, bearing a golden breast-plate, a spear in her right hand, and the Aegis in her left, having on it the head of Medusa, entwined with snakes. Her helmet was usually encompassed with olives, to denote that peace is the end of war, or rather because that tree was sacred to her: at her feet is generally placed the owl or the cock, the former being the emblem of wisdom, and the latter of war.

Trivia

 * According to John Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy (1798), the third degree of the Bavarian Illuminati was called Minerval or Brother of Minerva, in honor of the goddess of learning. Later, this title was adopted for the first initiation of Aleister Crowley's OTO rituals.
 * Minerva is the logo of the world famous German "Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science" (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft).
 * The helmet of Minerva serves as the crest of the distinctive unit insignia for Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
 * The Seal of California depicts the Goddess Minerva having sprung full grown from the brain of Jupiter. This was interpreted as analogous to the political birth of the State of California without having gone through the probation period of being a Territory.