This has been taken as the veneration of allegorical figures from an early time, and the group of saints has become popular in Russian Orthodox iconography as such (the names of the daughters rendered as Вѣра, Надежда, Любовь). This led to some questioning whether who her father was, but most now claim that she was the daughter of Zeus and the adopted daughter of Triton. As a result, Vishnu proclaimed that one part of Saraswati would remain with him, that another would exist as a river on earth, and that another would later become the spouse of Brahma. All and all, it’s a bit more of a delicate story than just Zeus swallowing Metis because he was afraid.

Vishnu convinced Vadava that his best course of action would be to swallow the devas one by one, and that he should begin by consuming the primordial water of creation, which was the foremost of both the devas and the asuras. Thor keeps him from marrying his daughter by challenging him to a wisdom contest that lasts all night. Seshat is attested from the Second Dynasty, where she assists King Khasekhemwy with the " stretching the cord" ritual. On January 3 81 AD, as a part of the New Year vows, two cows were sacrificed to Minerva (among many others) to secure the well-being of the emperor Titus, Domitian Caesar, Julia Augusta, and their children.

In the Tiruvalluva Maalai, a collection of fifty-five Tamil verses praising the Kural literature and its author Valluvar, she is referred to as Nāmagal and is believed to have composed the second verse.

It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature. When Perseus approached Medusa he used her reflection in his shield to avoid contact with her eyes, and then beheaded her. She and Brahma are referred to in Cambodian epigraphy from the 7th century onwards, and she is praised by Khmer poets for being the goddess of eloquence, writing, and music. Within the Protestant tradition in England, Jane Leade, seventeenth-century Christian mystic, Universalist, and founder of the Philadelphian Society, wrote copious descriptions of her visions and dialogues with the "Virgin Sophia" who, she said, revealed to her the spiritual workings of the Universe.However, the first king of Athens, Cecrops – who was the judge of the contest – realized that the olive tree was much more beneficial, since it gave the Athenians fruit, oil and wood. In the midst of a conversation, Saraswati observed that Ganga playfully kept glancing at Vishnu, behind Lakshmi and her back.