APHRODITE GODDESS AFRODITH
http://www.theoi.com/Summary/Aphrodite.html
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GENERAL INFO
I) What was Aphrodite the goddess of?
GODDESS OF SEX & PROCREATION
Patron of: Physical attraction; Sexual desire; Sex; Marital relations; Prostitution; Animal procreation
Favour: Sexual attraction
Curse: Sexual repulsion; Unnatural desires (incest, bestiality, etc)
GODDESS OF LOVE
Patron of: Romantic love; Lovers
Favour: Love reciprocated
Curse: Love unreciprocated
GODDESS OF SEDUCTION
Patron of: Seduction; Sweet-talk; Flirtatiousness
GODDESS OF BEAUTY
Patron of: Physical beauty
Favour: Beauty
Curse: Ugliness
GODDESS OF PLEASURE & HAPPINESS
Patron of: Happiness; Laughter; Pleasure; Joy; Parties and festivities
Favour: Pleasure and happiness
II) What were her symbols, attributes,
sacred plants and animals?
SYMBOLS
Eros; Dove; Apple
ATTRIBUTES
Eros; Dove; Apple; Myrtle-wreath; Flower
CHARIOT
Drawn by white doves or a pair of Erotes (winged love-gods)
SACRED PLANTS / FLOWERS
Red-Rose (Greek "rhodon" wink ; Anemone (Greek "anemone" wink ;
Apple (Greek "melon" wink ; Narcissus / Daffodil (Greek "narkissos" wink ;
Myrtle (Greek "myrrhina" wink ; Myrrh (Greek "smyrna" wink ;
Lettuce (Greek "thridax" wink ; Pomegranate (Greek "rhoa" wink
SACRED ANIMALS
Hare (Greek "lagos" wink
SACRED BIRDS
Turtle-dove (Greek "trugon" wink ; Sparrow (Greek "struthous" wink ;
Goose (Greek "khen" wink
PLANET OF APHRODITE
Venus (named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love identified with Aphrodite). The Greeks themselves called the planet "Aster Aphrodites" (Star of Aphrodite).
DAY OF APHRODITE
Friday (named after the Germanic goddess Freya, who was identified with Venus, the Roman Aphrodite). The Greeks called the day "Hemera Aphrodites" (Day of Aphrodite).
III) Who were the family & attendants of Aphrodite?
FATHER (VERSION 1)
OURANOS the Sky, Aphrodite grew from his castrated genitals when they were cast into the sea by his son Kronos
MOTHER (VERSION 1)
None (she was born from the castrated genitals of Ouranos the Sky)
FATHER (VERSION 2)
ZEUS King of the Gods, son of the Titanes Kronos and Rhea
MOTHER (VERSION 2)
DIONE Okeanis Titanis, daughter of the Titanes Okeanos and Tethys
HUSBAND
HEPHAISTOS God of Metalworking (divorced)
Her consort was ARES God of War (not married)
DIVINE CHILDREN
THE EROTES Gods of Love and Desire including: EROS God of Love; HIMEROS God of Desire; and POTHOS God of Sexual Longing
HARMONIA Goddess of Harmony (in relationships)
PHOBOS & DEIMOS Gods of Fear and Terror
PRIAPOS God of Fertile Gardens
HERMAPHRODITOS Daimon (Spirit), half male, half female
HERO CHILDREN
AENEAS Hero of Dardaneia, he was an ally of Troy in the Trojan War
ATTENDANTS & MINIONS
THE EROTES Gods of Love and Desire including: EROS God of Love; HIMEROS God of Desire; and POTHOS God of Sexual Longing
HARMONIA Goddess of Harmony (in relationships)
********* Goddess of Youth
PEITHO Goddess of Persuasion & Seduction
THE KHARITES Goddesses of Joy, Beauty and Mirth
NAIADES Nymphai of Springs and Fountains
IV) Where and how was she worshipped?
PATRON OF REGIONS
Kypros (or Cyprus), Greek Island; Kytherea, Greek Island;
Korinthos (Corinth) in Greece; Eryx in Sicily
HOLIEST SHRINE
Paphos, island of Kypros (her birth place & seat of her Mysteria)
OTHER SHRINES
Temples throughout Greece and Asia Minor
ASPECTS OF APHRODITE
Eros-Himeros (Love); Titanis Dione; Titanis Klymene (Fame); Pandora (All-Gifts); Kharis (Grace)
IDENTIFIED WITH
NON-GREEK GODS
Venus (Roman goddess); Hathor (Egyptian goddess); Freya (Germanic goddess); Astarte (Phoenician-Syrian goddess); Mylitta (Assyrian goddess); Mitra (Persian goddess); Alilat (Arabian goddess); Anaitis (Armenian goddess); Argimpasa (Scythian goddess)
V) What were some of the popular myths about Aphrodite?
SAGA OF THE GODS
* Aphrodite was born from the castrated genitals of the sky-god Ouranos when they were cast into the sea by his rebellious son Kronos.
* Aphrodite competed with Hera and Athena for the prize of a golden apple addressed "to the fairest" cast amongst the goddesses at the wedding of Thetis. Zeus commanded them seek out the judgement of Paris, who awarded the prize to Aphrodite, accepting her bribe of the hand of Helene in marriage. This led directly on to the Trojan War.
LOVE STORIES
* Aphrodite was caught in an invisible net by her husband Hephaistos, whilst engaging in an adulterous affair with the god Ares.
* She fell in love with the Cyprian prince Adonis in rivalry with Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. When the youth was felled by a boar she transformed his blood into flowering anenomes.
* Zeus made her fall in love with a mortal man, the shepherd Ankhises, as punishment for continually mating gods with mortals.
* Hermes obtained the sexual favours of Aphrodite as a reward for recovering her stolen sandal.
FAVOUR & BLESSINGS
* The goddess provided Melanion with three golden apples to cast before the maiden Atalanta in the race to win her hand in marriage.
* Aphrodite brought to life a marble statue which King Pygmalion of Kypros had fallen in love with.
WRATH & PUNISHMENT
* Aphrodite made the women of Lemnos to become sexually repellant to their husbands as punishment for scorning her worship.
* Aphrodite caused the Kyprian princess Myrrha fall in love with her own father, as punishment for her mother's boast that the girl was more beautiful than the goddess. Later Aphrodite, pitying the girl's fate, transformed her into a myrtle tree.
* She brought about the death of Athenian prince Hippolytos, who ridiculed her worship, by causing his step-mother Phaidra to fall in love and then rejected betray him.
* She imposed a harsh series of trials upon Psykhe as punishment for betraying the trust of her lover, Aphrodite's son Eros.
* She caused Narcissus to fall in love with his own reflection as punishment for spurning the love of others. When he pined away in unfulfilled desire, Aphrodite transformed him into a daffodil / narcissus.
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PICTURES
I) Depictions of Aphrodite in Greek Vase Painting
These images of Aphrodite come from Ancient Greek Vases, painted approximately 2,500 years ago. NB Click on thumbnails to view full-size images.
II) Other Classical Depictions of Aphrodite
Aphrodite was also depicted in classical statues, stone reliefs, frescoes and coins.
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SELECTED MYTHS (short versions)
I) The Birth of Aphrodite
"Ouranos (the Sky) came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Gaia (the Earth) spreading himself full upon her. Then the son [Kronos] from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him ... and so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she drew near holy Kythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Kypros, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and Aphrogeneia (the foam-born) because she grew amid the foam." Source: Hesiod, Theogony 176
II) Aphrodite and her Love for Adonis
"Because of Aphrodite’s wrath (for she did not honour Aphrodite), Smyrna developed a lust for her father, and with the help of her nurse slept with him for twelve nights without his knowing it. When he found out he drew his sword and started after her, and as he was about to overtake her, she prayed to the gods to become invisible. The gods took pity on her and changed her into the tree called the Smyrna. Nine months later the tree split open and the baby named Adonis was born. Because of his beauty, Aphrodite secreted him away in a chest, keeping it from the gods, and left him with Persephone. But when Persephone got a glimpse of Adonis, she refused to return him. When the matter was brought to Zeus for arbitration, he divided the year into three parts and decreed that Adonis would spent one third of the year by himself, one third with Persephone, and the rest with Aphrodite. But Adonis added his own portion to Aphrodite’s. Later on, while hunting, he was attacked by a boar and died." Source: Apollodorus 3.184-185
IV) Aphrodite and the Race of Atalanta
"You may perchance have heard how in the races a girl [Atalanta] outran the men who ran to win. That was no idle tale; she always won. Nor could one say her girt of glorious speed was more surpassing than her loveliness ... she lived alone, unwedded in the shady woods, and angrily repulsed the pressing throng of suitors with a challenge: ‘No man’s wife am I’, she said, ‘unless he wins the race. Contend with me in speed. For speed the prize is wife and wedlock; for the slow the price is death: upon that rule the race is run.’ Her heart was pitiless, yet, such power of beauty, on that rule rash lovers thronged. To watch the unequal race Hippomenes sat in his seat and scoffed ... But when he saw her face and, now unrobed, her body’s beauty - he marvelled and ... with his praise love burgeoned and he prayed that none would run faster than she ... ‘But why’, he thought, ‘do I not try myself my fortune in this rivalry? The gods help those who dare.’ ... And now her father and the townspeople called for the usual race, and Hippomenes, with anxious voice, invoked my [Aphrodite’s] help and prayed: ‘Come, lovely Cytherea [Aphrodite], prosper the deed I dare and with thy grace nourish the flame of love that thou has lit.’ A kindly breeze wafted his charming prayer; it moved me [Aphrodite], I admit, and little time was left to succour him ... On my way thence it chanced that in my hand I held three golden apples I had picked and I stood by Hippomenes, unseen except by him, and taught the apples’ use. The trumpets sound the start; both crouching low flash from their marks and skim the shady course with flying feet; it seemed that they could race dry-shod across the surface of the sea and over the standing heads of harvest corn ... Many a time she [Atalanta] slowed when she might pass and gazed into his eyes, and with heavy heart left him behind. And now he flagged, his breath came fast and dry and there was far to go; so then he threw one of the three gold apples from the tree. She was amazed and, eager to secure the gleaming fruit, swerved sideways from the track and seized the golden apple as it rolled. He passed her and the benches roared applause. She with a burst of speed repaired her waste and soon again left him behind. He threw the second apple and again she stopped, and followed, and again ran past. And so the last lap came. ‘Be with me now, Goddess’, he prayed, ‘who gavest me the gift.’ And then with all the strength of youth he threw the shining gold far out across the field, the longer to delay the girl; and she seemed undecided, but I [Aphrodite] made her chase the rolling apple and increased its weight, and by its weight alike and loss of speed I hindered her [and in the end Hippomenes won the race and won his bride]." Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.560
V) Aphrodite and the Judgement of Paris
"Eris tossed an apple [at the wedding of Thetis] to Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, in recognition of their beauty, and Zeus bade Hermes escort them to Alexandros
[Paris] on Ide, to be judged by him. They offered Alexandros gifts: Hera said if she were chosen fairest of all women, she would make him king of all men; Athena promised him victory in war; and Aphrodite promised him Helene in marriage. So he chose Aphrodite." Source: Apollodorus E3.2
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FURTHER INFO (16 detailed pages on Aphrodite)
PART 1: INDEX & ILLUSTRATIONS
Index of Aphrodite pages
Illustrations from Greek Vase Paintings
Quotes - Descriptions, Hymns
PART 2: APHRODITE GODDESS OF
Quotes - describing her various divine functions
PART 3A: MYTHS GENERAL 1
Quotes - general stories about Aphrodite
PART 3B: MYTHS GENERAL 2
Quotes - stories about Aphrodite and the Trojan War
PART 3C: MYTHS GENERAL 3
Quotes - stories about Aphrodite as the inspirer of love
PART 4A: MYTHS WRATH 1
List of those Punished
Quotes - stories of those punished by the goddess
PART 4B: MYTHS WRATH 2
List of those Punished
Quotes - stories of those punished by the goddess
PART 5: MYTHS BLESSINGS
List of those Blessed
Quotes - stories of heroes blessed or assisted by the goddess
PART 6A: MYTHS LOVES 1
List of Lovers
Quotes - stories of the gods loved by Aphrodite
PART 6B: MYTHS LOVES 2
List of Lovers
Quotes - stories of the men loved by Aphrodite
PART 6C: MYTHS CHILDREN
List of Children
Quotes - children of Aphrodite
PART 7: TREASURES
Lists of divine Possessions
Quotes - items owned by the goddess; sacred plants and animals
PART 8: ATTENDANTS
Lists of divine Attendants
Quotes - attendants of the goddess
PART 9A: CULT OF APHRODITE 1
Quotes - cult of the goddess organised by region
(southern Greece: Athens, Korinthos, Argos, Sparta, Messenia)
PART 9B: CULT OF APHRODITE 2
Quotes - cult of the goddess organised by region
(rest of Greece, Asia, Italy)
PART 10: TITLES & EPITHETS
List of Cult Titles and Poetic Epithets
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