Short answers, pulled from the story.
Athena, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft. She was the patron and protectress of various Greek cities, particularly Athens, and was later syncretised with the Roman goddess Minerva.
Athena was born from the forehead of her father Zeus, often emerging fully grown and armed. In Hesiod's Theogony, this happened after Zeus swallowed his pregnant consort Metis, fearing her child would overthrow him.
Athena most likely received her name from Athens, since the city name Ἀθῆναι is a plural toponym and the ending -ene is common in place names but rare for personal names. She won the city's patronage by giving the Athenians the first domesticated olive tree, which Cecrops judged better than Poseidon's salt-water spring.
Athena's major symbols include owls, olive trees, snakes, and the gorgoneion. In art she is generally depicted wearing a helmet and holding a spear, often with a shield bearing the head of the gorgon at its centre.
Athena aided the heroes Perseus, Heracles, Bellerophon, and Jason. She guided Perseus to behead Medusa, helped Bellerophon tame Pegasus with a bit, advised the building of the Argo, and was the tutelary deity of Odysseus in the Odyssey.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Arachne claimed her weaving skill was greater than Athena's and challenged the goddess to a contest. Outraged at Arachne's tapestry depicting the gods' affairs, Athena destroyed it and struck her, and when Arachne hanged herself, Athena took pity and brought her back as a spider.