What Would You Say In A Thank You Letter To Athena

What are the greek letters for Athena?

Do you mean modern or ancient Greek?  For modern Greek, see Nicholas King's answer below.  Ancient Greek is more complicated.  Ancient Greek accentuation was tonal, i.e. distinguishing pitch of voice (as in Cantonese, Mandarin, and many other languages); modern Greek accentuation is different. The new monotonic system uses only the acute accent to denote the stressed syllable, as in Spanish; the traditional polytonic system,  with acute (´), grave (`) and circumflex (^), is still used in some publications, e.g. by the Greek Orthodox Church.So the ancient Attic spelling of Athena was "Athenaia", later shortened to Athena ('Αθηναια - add ´on the ι, 'Αθηνα - add ^ on the final α.  Sorry -- I don't have an ancient Greek font on this computer.  I tend to use Homer's spelling, 'Αθηνη - ´on first η.  BTW: Clever name, Metis Eimi: "I am Wisdom" in Greek.  Metis was also a goddess, Athena's "mother".

What do foreigners think of Korean “characters”?

The 22 characters of the Korean alphabet are easy to learn and to pronounce, even if one doesn’t always know what one is saying.I think the older an alphabet is, the more the rules for its use change and the more exceptions pile up.In English, we have the ‘GHOTI’= ‘Fish’ mess: Ghoti - WikipediaThe word is intended to be pronounced in the same way (/fɪʃ/), using these sounds:gh, pronounced [f] as in enough [ɪˈnʌf] or tough [tʌf];o, pronounced [ɪ] as in women [ˈwɪmɪn]; andti, pronounced [ʃ] as in nation [ˈneɪ̯ʃən] or motion [ˈməʊʃən].But the Korean alphabet is used by only one language group and has been in use for only five hundred years so there are few sources of confusion. The only one I am aware of (and I am only a novice in my Korean language abilities) is the way two vowel combinations make the same sound. Transliterated into our alphabet, they are: AI and EuI. Both these vowel combinations make the ‘ay’ sound in say, way, or play.One fun bit of confusion -or contrived confusion - between English and Korean alphabets is the name of this apartment complex:There is a Korean letter combination:pronounced “Nae”.So I often call the apartment complex “ Nae Apartments” but they are actually the English letters “L” and “H”.

In Greek mythology, did Athena turn Medusa into a gorgon totally out of spite and jealousy, or was she also (partially) motivated by a desire to protect humanity?

Pretty much spite, but a justified spite according to the moral code of the ancient Greeks.See, Medusa was super hot, so hot that she gave Poseidon a raging God boner. Since nothing good ever happens in Greek mythology when gods and mortals mix - not counting lame modern YA retreads - we already know this is going to end in disaster, but let's keep watching, as if it were a really good car crash. Medusa figures she'll run to the temple of Athena for asylum, but will Posey's libido be checked by his butch little niece? Of course not.Understandably, doing the nasty in her holy of holies pisses Athena off to no good end (See: Oliean Ajax). One could make a case it's because of jealousy because the goddess doesn't seem to get any, or pure anger because the temple uses a lot of black lights and, well, you know, but the fact is that there were four major transgressions highlighted in Greek mythology, which reflected the ethos of its original audience:Violence against one's family.Violating the code of hospitality.Daring to assume a role above your station (hubris).Disrespecting the gods.So somebody needs to be spanked, and hard. Athena certainly can't touch dear Daddy's older bro, so Medusa takes the blame a la Masonry Eyes and Snakes on a Page. Imagine that, a woman getting screwed over, even way back then…

Why is the God of the Bible and Quran so bothered by polytheism and idolatry? What does it harm anyone if I pray to the Greek goddess Athena or the Norse god Thor? Or for that matter, to Jesus or Mary?

Imagine you have a family who you love and dote on. You provide for them, and they want for nothing. You are always there with them, you protect them, you teach and train them, and you give them every good thing they will ever need. You love them with all your heart.Now imagine that your family does nothing but talk about how cool Hannah Montana is. They spend all their time watching HM reruns, they dress like her, they thank her for all the gifts you give them, and they ignore you and mock you because you are not like Hannah Montana.Something’s wrong with this picture, right? Hanna Montana doesn’t even exist, yet your family is devoted to her. You would be upset, concerned, and even jealous that a nonexistent character gets the love and devotion you deserve. But this analogy does not even begin to do justice to what idolatry is.The Bible describes your family not as watching Hannah Montana reruns but as adulterers and prostitutes. Imagine your daughter openly selling herself to the neighbor and then talking about what a great father he is as she eats the dinner you lovingly prepared for her, and the rest of your family chiming in and agreeing because they do the same thing.You would have a problem with that, I hope. If you do not, then you’re not a very loving or concerned father.This is a very simple analogy, and it falls apart and limps in many places, so please don’t make the mistake of taking it to every extreme to get it to break down in order to argue against it. God created us, He loves us, and he provides literally everything in our lives for us, and yet we go chasing after idols. Of course He hates that. He wants us to have the greatest thing in the universe, which is God Himsrlf, and instead we seek lies and vain imaginations. He would not be loving if He was okay with that.

Why do Americans say "aluminium" weirdly?

Aluminum and aluminium are both correct.As you can see from Athena Gliddon’s answer and David Hansel’s comment, both the name and the element have a confusing history. Many people, from several countries, were involved.According to the Online Etymology Dictionary English chemist Sir Humphry Davy named the element alumium in 1808 and then changed it to aluminum in 1812. British editors changed it to aluminium to be more in keeping with other elements such as potassium and sodium, while the Americans retained the spelling as aluminum.Aluminium"historical information [WebElements Periodic Table] tells a similar story and says that it was the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry that adopted the aluminium spelling as the international standard. This article says that the U.S. went with that until 1925 when the American Chemical Society officially reverted to the aluminum spelling. I would guess that we had been using the term aluminum in the U.S. and the ACS simply made it official.History of Aluminum/AluminiumTypically naming rights are given to the discover. Aluminium, The History, Discovery and Development as a Product gives us a timeline of the history of the element. Here is a short summary.Sir Humphry Davy is credited with the discovery in 1807 although he was not able to actually produce the element, Thus he has the naming rights.The Danish scientist, Hans Christian Ørsted produced the first aluminum in 1825.The German chemist, Friedrich Wöhler made further advances in our knowledge of the element in 1845.The French chemist, Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville - developed a new reduction process in 1854.In 1886 the American inventor Charles Martin Hall and French metallurgist Paul Héroult each independently developed a smelting process which came to be known as the Hall–Héroult process. Hall developed the process in a shed in Ohio (which is where I live) and went on to found Alcoa which is currently the third largest producer of aluminum in the world.Austrian Carl Josef Bayer created the more economical Bayer process - Wikipedia in 1888.