The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from an earlier Pre-Greek language.[2] The etiological myth explaining how Athens acquired this name through the legendary contest between Poseidon and Athena was described by Herodotus,[3] Apollodorus,[4] Ovid, Plutarch,[5] Pausanias and others. It even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. Both Athena and Poseidon requested to be patrons of the city and to give their name to it, so they competed with one another for the honour, offering the city one gift each.