The DARE-ing goddess Athena, alive and well in our modern world!
Christine Lagarde
“Athena’s strength comes from her ability to think rationally, and to be guided with the respect of others’ by her intellect and clear-headedness.” (From The Athena Center, Barnard)
DARE-ing goddess-energy in women is manifesting recently via the whole Shriver and IMF-leader scandals. Bottom line? Athena wins, and Aphrodite and Hera can learn from her.
Could there possibly be anything more said or learned from the incendiary headlines of the past few weeks regarding the nuclear decimation of the Shriver- Schwarzenegger marriage? Is there even a scintilla of space left in the celebrity gossip eco-system that is parsing every move – vertical and horizontal – that the disgraced IMF chairman has made over the past weeks, minute by minute, suicide false alarms included?
(In case you somehow missed it – you were on a fishing trip in northern Alaska – let me quickly fill you in. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as managing director of the IMF, the International Monetary Fund faces seven criminal charges of alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid and a possible prison term of 25 years or more if convicted).
Thank the Strategy Goddess Athena* there’s some good news from the stratosphere of other strong women who take their cue from her. I refer to Strauss-Kahn’s probable replacement, Christine Lagarde, the finance minister of France. This is a drop-dead brainy presence of a woman, a woman over 40 who is making the news more for her achievements, shrewd actions and the coming transitions in her very productive and constructive career  rather than the challenges of being victimized by or married to an ego-engorged satyr.
Lagarde is lawyer, financier, fluent in English, as conversant in D.C. spin as she is at ease with the language of finance.  More to the point, she is a leader and path-clearer extraordinaire for women. She is the first woman ever to become minister of Economic Affairs of a G8 country, the first woman chairman of the international law firm Baker & McKenzie, and in ’09, Forbes magazine ranked her the 17th most powerful woman in the world.
SHE IS A TRUE ATHENA, and a terrific role model for women of all ages.
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*For more on Athena the Goddess and her mythology, take a look at the excellent book by Jungian psychoanalyst, Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., called Goddesses in Everywoman – one of the most entertaining books I have ever read on female archetypes based on goddesses such as Athena. The book has fascinating detail and insights on all the well-known female goddesses, including: Hera (goddess of marriage), Aphrodite (goddess of love), Demeter (goddess of mothers) and many others.
