County of statue: Johnson County
Location of statue: 300 N. Holden St., on top of courthouse dome, Warrensburg
Artist: Unknown
Madium: Sculpture: zinc and lead; Base: wood
Dedicated in 1897. Rededicated Oct. 13, 1995
"The courthouse was created in 1896. A year later, the $175 sculpture was mounted on its dome along with two smaller sculptures of Justice. The figure originally held a staff topped by a gold ball, in her proper right hand. At the time the figure was erected, there was a ongoing debate about whether the United States should abandon the gold standard and allow the free coinage of silver. The gold-colored ball angered the majority of Democrats who favored the coinage of silver. On September 4, 1897, the gold ball was torn down, and replaced by a silver one.
Over the years, the statue suffered damage from exposure to the elements and from a bullet. In August 1995, the sculpture underwent restoration, in conjunction with repairs to the courthouse roof and tower. A light was removed from the top of Minerva's head and the staff in her proper right hand was turned into a spear. Jim Myers (a sculptor) was responsible for the reconstruction. He was assisted by J. C. Carter, who sandblasted the sculpture, and Richard Adams, of Adams Welding and Manufacturing, who did the welding and helped reinforce the base. In addition, sections of the sculpture were bolted together, rivets were put into the sword, the inside support was repaired and some areas filled. The old paint was removed and the sculpture was epoxied, and painted with automotive paint and clear sealant."
~ Smithsonian American Art Museum
"Minerva (Etruscan: Menrva) was the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She was born with weapons from the godhead of Jupiter. From the 2nd century BC onwards, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena.[2] She was the virgin goddess of music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, and magic. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl usually named as the "owl of Minerva", which symbolizes that she is connected to wisdom.
"Etruscan Menrva:
"Stemming from an Italic moon goddess *Meneswa ('She who measures'), the Etruscans adopted the inherited Old Latin name, *Menerwa, thereby calling her Menrva. It is assumed that her Roman name, Minerva, is based on this Etruscan mythology, Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools and commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek Athena. Like Athena, Minerva was born from the head of her father, Jupiter (Greek Zeus).
"By a process of folk etymology, the Romans could have linked her foreign name to the root men- in Latin words such as mens meaning "mind", perhaps because one of her aspects as goddess pertained to the intellectual. The word mens is built from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- 'mind' (linked with memory as in Greek Mnemosyne/µ??µ?s??? and mnestis/µ??st??: memory, remembrance, recollection, manush in Sanskrit meaning mind).
"Worship in Rome:
"Menrva was part of a holy triad with Tinia and Uni, equivalent to the Roman Capitoline Triad of Jupiter-Juno-Minerva. Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter.
As Minerva Medica, she was the goddess of medicine and doctors. As Minerva Achaea, she was worshipped at Luceria in Apulia where votive gifts and arms said to be those of Diomedes were preserved in her temple.
In Fasti III, Ovid called her the "goddess of a thousand works". Minerva was worshiped throughout Italy, and when she eventually became equated with the Greek goddess Athena, she also became a goddess of war, although in Rome her warlike nature was less emphasized. Her worship was also taken out to the empire — in Britain, for example, she was conflated with the local wisdom goddess Sulis.
"The Romans celebrated her festival from March 19 to March 23 during the day which is called, in the neuter plural, Quinquatria, the fifth after the Ides of March, the nineteenth, an artisans' holiday . A lesser version, the Minusculae Quinquatria, was held on the Ides of June, June 13, by the flute-players, who were particularly useful to religion. In 207 BC, a guild of poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on the Aventine Hill. Among others, its members included Livius Andronicus. The Aventine sanctuary of Minerva continued to be an important center of the arts for much of the middle Roman Republic.
"Minerva was worshipped on the Capitoline Hill as one of the Capitoline Triad along with Jupiter and Juno, at the Temple of Minerva Medica, and at the "Delubrum Minervae" a temple founded around 50 BC by Pompey on the site now occupied by the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva facing the present-day Piazza della Minerva." ~ Wikipedia