Editorial Standards & Source Policy

How Sacred Athena distinguishes ancient evidence, scholarly interpretation and modern devotional writing, with transparent sources and editorial standards.

Sources and claims

Historical statements should identify the evidence that supports them. References should include a passage, inscription number, object identifier, or page reference whenever that level of detail is available. A related reading list is useful, but it does not replace a citation for a particular claim.

Different kinds of evidence

Ancient poetry, inscriptions, archaeological remains, museum interpretations, and modern scholarship answer different questions. Entries should make those differences visible. An ancient account of a dream or divine appearance is presented as testimony preserved by its source.

Variants and uncertainty

When ancient versions differ, they should be named and compared. Damaged inscriptions, debated dates, and uncertain attributions should retain the qualifications that matter to their interpretation.

Quotations and translations

Quoted wording must match its identified source. Translators and editions should be named. Adapted wording should be described as a paraphrase or new composition, not placed in quotation marks as an ancient sentence.

Contemporary material

New prayers, exercises, and devotional reflections should carry a clear modern authorship label. Personal experience may be presented as personal experience. Claims about a community, office, lineage, or public event require evidence appropriate to that claim.

Images and objects

An object’s date, attribution, collection, and accession number should accompany its interpretation. Image credits and reuse conditions should remain attached to the specific image. Later representations and modern reconstructions should be identified in their own right.

Review and correction

Original site essays should not be called peer reviewed unless a documented scholarly review process has occurred. When an error changes a substantive claim, the corrected entry should explain the change. Careful revision is part of the work of maintaining a useful resource.