It was discovered on 22 July 1917, by astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany.

[6][9] In August 2006, a rotational lightcurve of Athene was obtained from photometric observations by Roberto Crippa and Federico Manzini at the Sozzago Astronomical Station (A12), Italy, and by Jean-Gabriel Bosch at the Collonges Observatory (178), France.

Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 13.895±0.003 hours with a high brightness variation of 0.53±0.01 magnitude, indicative of a non-spherical, elongated shape (U=3−).

In September 2010, French amateur astronomer René Roy measured a similar period of 13.881±0.001 hours and an amplitude of 0.39±0.02 (U=2+).

[7][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard Eunomian albedo of 0.21 and calculates a diameter of 12.66 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.8.