This document introduces the Athena framework for Java, which is an ORM that uses metadata instead of code annotations or XML for mapping. It allows developers to make changes quickly by updating the metadata instead of code. Key features include: - Metadata defines entities, attributes and relationships, and any changes made are automatically reflected in the database and generated code. - EJBQL queries can explicitly specify which relationships and attributes to load to control loading behavior. - It supports multi-tenancy so a single application can serve multiple client organizations by handling tenant isolation automatically. - Developers can switch between soft deletion and hard deletion of records easily through a configuration setting.