MINERVA

MINERVA

"But now another bard insisten call; 

Blest Hellas' train, each from his pedestal;

See Venus and Minerva spiteful vie 

To have the new arrival settled nigh."

H.P. Lovecraft, On Receiving a Portraiture Of Mrs. Berkeley, ye Poetess

"Minerva (the goddess of wisdom) was the offspring of Jupiter, without a mother. She sprang forth from his head completely armed. Her favourite bird was the owl."

"Minerva depicted herself with helmed head, her Aegis covering her breast." 

"He (Perseus) cut off her (Medusa) head and gave it to Minerva, who fixed it in the middle of her Aegis." 
Thomas Bullfinch, Bullfinch's Mythology 
 

"The serpent, the symbol of perpetual renovation, was sacred to her."

Sir William Smith, Dictionary Of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology