The ATHENA submarine cable system is a private cable subsystem wholly owned by Cyta, connecting Cyprus with Greece, through Cyta’s submarine landing station in Yeroskipos and MedNautilus Backbone landing station in Athens.

The ATHENA subsystem is the first direct fully redundant ring-configured network between Cyprus and Greece consisting of two integrated segments, one between Yeroskipos and Chania, the other between Chania and Athens, accessing additional international destinations via MedNautilus landing station in Athens.

Cyta, the premier telecommunications provider in Cyprus, and Telecom Italia Sparkle concluded agreement for the construction of the ATHENA submarine cable system in June, 2011, to build the ATHENA submarine cable system as a subsystem of the MedNautllus submarine system.

In 2007, Cyta and Telecom Italia Sparkle signed agreement for the construction of the Minerva cable system, also a subsystem of the MedNautllus submarine system, using a dedicated express fibre pair on the MedNautllus submarine system, directly connecting Cyprus and Italy. As part of the ATHENA agreement, the MINERVA cable system was upgraded to reach over 80Gbps of active protected capacity. Furthermore, the MINERVA cable system was extended through terrestrial connections up to Marseilles, in order to enhance Cyta’s protection capacity for its private ALEXANDROS submarine cable between Cyprus-France-Egypt, which is a subsystem of TE North.