The Gods of Shake-Speare

Athena & Odin - Spear-Shaking Gods

Shakespeare. A compelling name that literally translates "to shake a spear," yet it also alludes to more nuanced metaphors, such as the act “writing with a quill.” Numerous theories propose that “William Shake-speare” could be a pseudonym for the actual author or authors—individuals who "will shake spears."

In discussions surrounding this name, many have linked it to the Greek goddess Pallas Athena, known as the spear-wielding goddess and patron of the arts, frequently referenced by contemporary writers of the time. Elizabethans would have known the Homeric Hymn: ‘Athena sprang quickly from the immortal head and stood before Zeus who holds the aegis, shaking a sharp spear.’

Homeric Hymn 39 to Athena :
"I begin to sing of Pallas Athena, the glorious goddess, bright-eyed, inventive, unbending of heart, pure virgin, saviour of cities, courageous, Tritogeneia. From his awful head wise Zeus himself bare her arrayed in warlike arms of flashing gold, and awe seized all the gods as they gazed. But Athena sprang quickly from the immortal head and stood before Zeus who holds the aegis, shaking a sharp spear: great Olympos began to reel horribly at the might of the grey-eyed goddess, and earth round about cried fearfully, and the sea was moved and tossed with dark waves, while foam burst forth suddenly: the bright Son of Hyperion [Helios the Sun] stopped his swift-footed horses a long while, until the maiden Pallas Athena had stripped the heavenly armour from her immortal shoulders. And wise Zeus was glad. Hail to you, daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis!"

Orphic Hymn 32 to Athena (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) :
"Only-begotten, noble race of Zeus, blessed and fierce, who joyest in caves to rove: O warlike Pallas, whose illustrious kind, ineffable, and effable we find : magnanimous and famed, the rocky height, and groves, and shady mountains thee delight: in arms rejoicing, who with furies dire and wild the souls of mortals dost inspire. Gymnastic virgin of terrific mind, dire Gorgon's bane, unmarried, blessed, kind: mother of arts, impetuous; understood as fury by the bad, but wisdom by the good. Female and male, the arts of war are thine, O much-formed, Drakaina (She-Dragon), inspired divine: over the Phlegraion Gigantes (Phlegraean Giants), roused to ire, thy coursers driving with destructive dire. Tritogeneia, of splendid mien, purger of evils, all-victorious queen. Hear me, O Goddess, when to thee I pray, with supplicating voice both night and day, and in my latest hour give peace and health, propitious times, and necessary wealth, and ever present be thy votaries aid, O much implored, art's parent, blue-eyed maid."

Shake-Speare - What better name could there be for a warrior poet?”

I do not dispute this claim; in fact, I hope to strengthen it by noting that another “warrior poet” shares a similar title—Odin, the Germanic pagan deity. Odin and other germanic deities like Thor did have a large presence in Anglo Saxon culture prior to Christianization but after Roman occupation, leaving England with a colorful cultural background In the 5th century, Brage referred to him as “Gungnir’s Shaker,” also known as “Spear-Shaker,” as Gungnir is the name of Odin’s spear, which means to sway or shake. .
Like Athena, Odin is also a god of poetry and is associated with the runes, signifying language – much of the same tropes that is connected to the Shakespeare archetype in our collective conscious. If you speak English, the word poet (or playwright) is essentially synonymous with Shakespeare, in our cells within cells, interlinked within one stem.

But Athena and Odin’s connections do not stop there, and although I do not posit they are the same deity, I think it is provocative to point out a number of their shared motifs, and relate them back to the Shake-Speare name.

Both gods are identified as previously mentioned with spears but also warfare and battle. Athena, born in battle armor, and also associated with helmets.
Odin presides over battles, swaying them this way or that, to collect souls of the greatest warriors, often depicted with the famous winged raven helmets.
The name William in William Shakespeare means “Helmet of Wil”, perhaps another nod to Athena’s helmet motif but it doubles back because William aka Wilhelm is a germanic name - returning to the Germanic/Saxon/Odinic heritage. If one believes William Shake-Speare is a name to hide behind....The name Wilhelm, “helmet of will”, in my interpretation, refers to the seat of agency of all thought and action, the head, the brain - where those misty thoughts form twain the shadows of our mind’s eye.

In the Illiad another name for Athena is Tritogeniea, literally “3rd born of the gods” from Zeus’s head with a mighty war-shout.
For some derive it from an ancient Cretan, Aeolic, or Boeotian word, tritô, signifying "head," so that it would mean " the goddess born from the head," - perhaps another reference to helmets/heads/brains.
Odin, like Athena, is also associated with a 3rd birth situation, as Odin has two brothers Villi and Ve. The word Vili translates directly to the word “will”, relevant to the discussion at hand.

In Ovid Metamorpheses, Minerva (aka Athena) animates man by breathing life into the clay shaped by Prometheus.

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 142 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.)
"Prometheus, son of Iapetus, first fashioned men from clay. Later Vulcanus [Hephaistos (Hephaestus)], at Jove's [Zeus'] command, made a woman's form from clay. Minerva [Athena] gave it life, and the rest of the gods each gave come other gift.”
There was also an account, stating that Prometheus had created men out of earth and water, at the very beginning of the human race, or after the flood of Deucalion, when Zeus is said to have ordered him and Athena to make men out of the mud, and the winds to breathe life into them (Apollod. i. 7. § 1; Ov. Met. i. 81; Etym. Mag. s. v. Promêtheus).

Odin in a similar fashion breaths life into driftwood to create the first man/woman, Askr and Embla.
“Until there came three from that company
powerful and pleasant Æsir to a house
They found on the shore, lacking power
Ash and Embla, free of fate/without destiny

They had no breath/spirit
They had no poetry/mind
They had no vitality, no beautiful colors;

Odin gave them breath/spirit
Hoenir/Vili gave them poetry/mind/inspiration
Lodur/Ve gave them vitality/

Note that although contested, some suggest Hoenir and Lodur are nicknames for Odin’s other brothers, Vili and Ve, respectively. Regardless, during this man creation process, the gift from Hoenir is “odr”, part of an etymological root to Odin’s name, meaning poetry. And even then it becomes even more potent for this discussion in that if Vili is indeed Hoenir, how fitting that “will” gave man “poetry”.

To revisit the theme of Shakespeare, particularly considering the epitaph of "Spear-Shaker," we can examine the play "Hamlet." Both Athena and Odin play significant roles in the spiritual origins of Hamlet, particularly in the narratives of Orestes and Amleth. It is evident that "Hamlet" draws inspiration from these two sources, crafted by an author who is nominally linked to the deities referenced within those tales. Could this be mere coincidence, or does it indicate a level of self-awareness on the part of the playwright? The print versions are clearly as Shake-Speare, not Shakspur. Watch our Shaky Signatures Stream Lecture on more contradictions with Shakspur’s name spelling but if you’re already bought into the SAQ, this might lead to more clues as to not just what sources the Shakespeare writer was using but also hints at a larger, unseen process.
In my view, the name "Shake-Speare" appears to be an inventive fusion of the archetypal figures Athena and Odin. This synthesis effectively distills two cultural archetypes into one, secularizing and managing collective unconscious motifs in the process. It represents the creation of a new cultural identity, utilizing the flexible medium of the English language as its vehicle, expressed in the works of those like William Shakespeare - delivered via a mass media endeavor like public theaters or mass print materials.

The Renaissance was known for reviving Greco Roman arts. Perhaps those Shakspur or other those behind the pen name are also digging in their backyard, as English is originally a germanic language, but its around this period we start to have the emergence of Early Modern English grammatic changes. Go back to our first podcast episode, where I lay out the logisitcs of previous empires using court poets to purposely flex and test a language, so as to better graft it onto a burgeoning culture.

There is also plenty of acknowledged innuendo in the plays, and one can’t help but notice the phallic pun with the name “willy shake-spear”. So whether its the man from Stratford or a marketing ploy by aristocratic dandies, there seems to be a lot of innate “magic” to the name William Shakespeare.

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