Emily Dickinson Lexicon

Athens, proper n. [Gk < Athene < pre-Hellenic ath, long-handled spear.]

Attica; ancient Greek city; center of culture named for Athena; metropolis whose citizens worshiped the goddess of wisdom (see Acts 17:22); [fig.] learning; study; education; philosophy; classical scholarship; arts and letters; [allusion] father of Odysseus in Homer; (see also Byron's “Maid of Athens”).