Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Minerva

originally Menerva (Etruscan, Menfra). One of the great Roman divinities, the goddess of wisdom; identified with the Greek Athené (q.v.). Her name contains the same root as mens, me-min-i, mentio, etc., and she is accordingly the thinking, calculating, and inventive power personified. Iupiter was the first, Iuno the second, and Minerva the third in the number of the Capitoline divinities. Tarquin, the son of Demaratus, was believed to have united the three divinities in one common temple, and hence, when repasts were prepared for the gods, these three always went together. She was the daughter of Iupiter, and is said to have sometimes wielded the thunderbolts of her father. As Minerva was a virgin divinity, and her father the supreme god, the Romans easily identified her with the Greek Athené, and accordingly all the attributes of Athené were gradually transferred to the Roman Minerva; but we confine ourselves at present to those which were peculiar to the Roman goddess. Being a maiden

Minerva. (Gem in the King Collection.)

goddess, her sacrifices consisted of calves which had not borne the yoke. She is said to have invented numbers; and it is added that the law respecting the driving in of the annual nail was for this reason attached to her temple. (See Clavus.) She was worshipped as the patroness of all the arts and trades, and at her festival she was particularly invoked by all who desired to distinguish themselves in any art or craft, such as painting, poetry, the art of teaching, medicine, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and the like. This character of the goddess may be perceived also from the proverbs “to do a thing pingui Minerva,” i. e. to do a thing in an awkward or clumsy manner; and sus Minervam (docet) of a stupid person who presumed to set right an intelligent one. Minerva, however, was the patroness, not only of women, on whom she conferred skill in sewing, spinning, weaving, etc., but she also guided men in the dangers of war, where victory is gained by cunning, prudence, courage, and perseverance. Hence she was represented with a helmet, shield, and a coat of mail; and the booty made in war was frequently dedicated to her. Minerva was further believed to be the inventor of musical instruments, especially wind instruments, the use of which was very important in religious worship, and which were accordingly subjected to a sort of purification every year on the last day of the festival of Minerva. This festival lasted five days, from the 19th to the 23d of March, and was called Quinquatrus, because it began on the fifth day after the Ides of the month. On this date the Roman boys brought to their teachers the school fee (Minerval). This number of days was not accidental, for we are told that the number five was sacred to Minerva. The most ancient temple of Minerva at Rome was probably that on the Capitol; another existed on the Aventine; and she had a chapel at the foot of the Caelian Hill, where she bore the surname of Capta-- a title borrowed from the Faliscans, but of doubtful import (Ovid, Fasti, iii. 843).

This text is based on the following book(s):
Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898.