Athena Statue

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In 1996, this statue of Athena was dedicated in front of the Athens Classic Center in Athens, Ga. It bears the inscription:

THE ATHENIAN OATH

We will never bring disgrace

on this our City by an act of

dishonesty or cowardice.

We will fight for the ideals

and Sacred Things of the City

both alone and with many.

We will revere and obey the

City's laws and will do our best to

incite a like reverence and respect

in those above us who are prone to

annul them or set them at naught.

We will strive increasingly to

quicken the public's sense of

civic duty.

Thus in all these ways we

will transmit this City, not only

not less, but greater and more

beautiful than it was transmitted

to us.

This oath was taken by the youth

of ancient Athens when they reached

the age of seventeen.

Photograph by Ed Jackson

(c) Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia