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Actually, both Microsoft and your wife are correct! Athena and Athene are simply alternative spellings of the name of the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, battle strategy, warfare and arts & crafts, patron goddess and protectress of the city of Athens (and others).
Think of them as dialectal forms - Ἀθηνᾶ (Athēnâ) is the name’s Attic form, the Ancient Greek dialect that was spoken in and around Athens and thus over time became the most prestigious form of Greek (basically what we call Classical Greek today), whereas Ἀθήνη (Athḗnē) is Ionic Greek, a linguistically closely related sister dialect of Attic.
Homer, the presumed author of the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, is said to have been a native of Ionia; his works are written in an artificial literary dialect, nowadays called Homeric or Epic Greek, which is predominantly based on Ionic but uses yet another version of the goddess‘s name: the so-called epic form Ἀθηναίη (Athēnaíē). By now it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that - believe it or not - I am going to pull one more dialect version out of Dr. Google’s hat, namely the Doric Ἀθάνα (Athā́nā).
In the Iliad and Odyssey, Athena/Athene/Athenaie/Athana, who is described as Zeus‘s favourite offspring, acts as divine counsellor to the Greek heroes (having a particular soft spot for Odysseus aka Ulysses) and heroically fights alongside them, favouring rational strategy, diplomacy and cunning over brute force, unlike her war god brother Ares, the personification of sheer brutality, bloodlust and slaughter, who is fighting on the side of the Trojans.
Well, we all know how the acceptance of that mythical colossal wooden gift horse is said to have sealed the Trojans‘ fate.
When ancient Greeks entered into combat, some of them are said to have worn breastplates with an image of Athena/Athene as their protectress, believing that she would fight alongside them, invisible to their eyes. That, in my opinion, could have been another reason for Microsoft to have picked that particular name for their very own AI chip besides the brainy symbolism of Athena‘s unusual birth, springing from her father Zeus‘s forehead fully grown and and in full armour: the hope of ultimately emerging victorious from the AI race with assistance of their tutelary deity, the patroness of heroes and warriors.
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I'm sure you've given me a few fire icons before 
and here I was thinking you liked the posts in question. 
in it
