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Aphrodite

April 23, 2023

"Cypris" redirects here. For other uses, see Aphrodite (disambiguation) and Cypris (disambiguation).

Aphrodite (/ˌæfrəˈdaɪtiː/ (listen) AF-rə-DY-tee; Greek: Ἀφροδίτη, translit. Aphrodítē; Attic Greek pronunciation: [a.pʰro.dǐː.tɛː], Koine Greek: [a.ɸroˈdi.te̝], Modern Greek: [a.froˈði.ti]) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretized Roman goddess counterpart Venus, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. Aphrodite's major symbols include seashells, myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows, and swans. The cult of Aphrodite was largely derived from that of the Phoenician goddess Astarte, a cognate of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar, whose cult was based on the Sumerian cult of Inanna. Aphrodite's main cult centers were Cythera, Cyprus, Corinth, and Athens. Her main festival was the Aphrodisia, which was celebrated annually in midsummer. In Laconia, Aphrodite was worshipped as a warrior goddess. She was also the patron goddess of prostitutes, an association which led early scholars to propose the concept of "sacred prostitution" in Greco-Roman culture, an idea which is now generally seen as erroneous.

Aphrodite
Goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality
Member of the Twelve Olympians
The Ludovisi Cnidian Aphrodite, Roman marble copy (torso and thighs) with restored head, arms, legs and drapery suppor
AbodeMount Olympus
PlanetVenus
Animalsdolphin, sparrow, dove, swan, hare, goose, bee, fish, butterfly
Symbolrose, seashell, pearl, mirror, girdle, anemone, lettuce, narcissus
Treemyrrh, myrtle, apple, pomegranate
DayFriday (hēméra Aphrodítēs)
Personal information
ParentsZeus and Dione (according to Homer)[1]
Uranus (according to Hesiod)[2]
SiblingsThe Titans, the Hecatoncheires, the Cyclopes, The Meliae, the Erinyes, the Giants (as daughter of Uranus) or
Aeacus, Angelos, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Eileithyia, Enyo, Eris, Ersa, Hebe, Helen of Troy, Hephaestus, Heracles, Hermes, Minos, Pandia, Persephone, Perseus, Rhadamanthus, the Graces, the Horae, the Litae, the Muses, the Moirai (as daughter of Zeus)
ConsortHephaestus (divorced)
Ares (unmarried consort)
ChildrenEros, Phobos, Deimos, Harmonia, Pothos, Anteros, Himeros, Hermaphroditus, Rhodos, Eryx, Peitho, The Graces, Priapus, Aeneas
Equivalents
Roman equivalentVenus
Norse equivalentFreyja
Etruscan equivalentTuran
Hinduism equivalentRati
Canaanite equivalentAstarte
Indo-European equivalentPriyah
Babylonian equivalentIshtar
Sumerian equivalentInanna
Zoroastrian equivalentAnahita
Egyptian equivalentHathor

In Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite is born off the coast of Cythera from the foam (ἀφρός, aphrós) produced by Uranus's genitals, which his son Cronus had severed and thrown into the sea. In Homer's Iliad, however, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Plato, in his Symposium, asserts that these two origins actually belong to separate entities: Aphrodite Ourania (a transcendent, "Heavenly" Aphrodite) and Aphrodite Pandemos (Aphrodite common to "all the people").[3] Aphrodite had many other epithets, each emphasizing a different aspect of the same goddess, or used by a different local cult. Thus she was also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus), because both locations claimed to be the place of her birth.

In Greek mythology, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the god of fire, blacksmiths and metalworking. Aphrodite was frequently unfaithful to him and had many lovers; in the Odyssey, she is caught in the act of adultery with Ares, the god of war. In the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, she seduces the mortal shepherd Anchises. Aphrodite was also the surrogate mother and lover of the mortal shepherd Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar. Along with Athena and Hera, Aphrodite was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War and she plays a major role throughout the Iliad. Aphrodite has been featured in Western art as a symbol of female beauty and has appeared in numerous works of Western literature. She is a major deity in modern Neopagan religions, including the Church of Aphrodite, Wicca, and Hellenismos.

Etymology

Hesiod derives Aphrodite from aphrós (ἀφρός) "sea-foam",[4] interpreting the name as "risen from the foam",[5][4] but most modern scholars regard this as a spurious folk etymology.[4][6] Early modern scholars of classical mythology attempted to argue that Aphrodite's name was of Greek or Indo-European origin, but these efforts have now been mostly abandoned.[6] Aphrodite's name is generally accepted to be of non-Greek, probably Semitic, origin, but its exact derivation cannot be determined.[6][7]

Scholars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, accepting Hesiod's "foam" etymology as genuine, analyzed the second part of Aphrodite's name as *-odítē "wanderer"[8] or *-dítē "bright".[9][10] More recently, Michael Janda, also accepting Hesiod's etymology, has argued in favor of the latter of these interpretations and claims the story of a birth from the foam as an Indo-European mytheme.[11][12] Similarly, Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak proposes an Indo-European compound *abʰor- "very" and *dʰei- "to shine", also referring to Eos,[13] and Daniel Kölligan has interpreted her name as "shining up from the mist/foam".[14] Other scholars have argued that these hypotheses are unlikely since Aphrodite's attributes are entirely different from those of both Eos and the Vedic deity Ushas.[15][16]

A number of improbable non-Greek etymologies have also been suggested. One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian barīrītu, the name of a female demon that appears in Middle Babylonian and Late Babylonian texts.[17] Hammarström[18] looks to Etruscan, comparing (e)prθni "lord", an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as πρύτανις.[19][7][20] This would make the theonym in origin an honorific, "the lady".[19][7] Most scholars reject this etymology as implausible,[19][7][20] especially since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru (from Greek Aphrō, clipped form of Aphrodite).[7] The medieval Etymologicum Magnum (c. 1150) offers a highly contrived etymology, deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodíaitos (ἁβροδίαιτος), "she who lives delicately", from habrós and díaita. The alteration from b to ph is explained as a "familiar" characteristic of Greek "obvious from the Macedonians".[21]

Origins

Near Eastern love goddess

 
Late second-millennium BC nude figurine of Ishtar from Susa, showing her wearing a crown and clutching her breasts
 
Early fifth-century BC statue of Aphrodite from Cyprus, showing her wearing a cylinder crown and holding a dove

The cult of Aphrodite in Greece was imported from, or at least influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia,[22][23][24][25] which, in turn, was influenced by the cult of the Mesopotamian goddess known as "Ishtar" to the East Semitic peoples and as "Inanna" to the Sumerians.[26][24][25] Pausanias states that the first to establish a cult of Aphrodite were the Assyrians, followed by the Paphians of Cyprus and then the Phoenicians at Ascalon. The Phoenicians, in turn, taught her worship to the people of Cythera.[27]

Aphrodite took on Inanna-Ishtar's associations with sexuality and procreation.[28] Furthermore, she was known as Ourania (Οὐρανία), which means "heavenly",[29] a title corresponding to Inanna's role as the Queen of Heaven.[29][30] Early artistic and literary portrayals of Aphrodite are extremely similar on Inanna-Ishtar.[28] Like Inanna-Ishtar, Aphrodite was also a warrior goddess;[28][23][31] the second-century AD Greek geographer Pausanias records that, in Sparta, Aphrodite was worshipped as Aphrodite Areia, which means "warlike".[32][33] He also mentions that Aphrodite's most ancient cult statues in Sparta and on Cythera showed her bearing arms.[32][33][34][28] Modern scholars note that Aphrodite's warrior-goddess aspects appear in the oldest strata of her worship[35] and see it as an indication of her Near Eastern origins.[35][36]

Nineteenth century classical scholars had a general aversion to the idea that ancient Greek religion was at all influenced by the cultures of the Near East,[37] but, even Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker, who argued that Near Eastern influence on Greek culture was largely confined to material culture,[37] admitted that Aphrodite was clearly of Phoenician origin.[37] The significant influence of Near Eastern culture on early Greek religion in general, and on the cult of Aphrodite in particular,[38] is now widely recognized as dating to a period of orientalization during the eighth century BC,[38] when archaic Greece was on the fringes of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[39]

Indo-European dawn goddess

Some early comparative mythologists opposed to the idea of a Near Eastern origin argued that Aphrodite originated as an aspect of the Greek dawn goddess Eos[40][41] and that she was therefore ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess *Haéusōs (properly Greek Eos, Latin Aurora, Sanskrit Ushas).[40][41] Most modern scholars have now rejected the notion of a purely Indo-European Aphrodite,[6][42][16][43] but it is possible that Aphrodite, originally a Semitic deity, may have been influenced by the Indo-European dawn goddess.[43] Both Aphrodite and Eos were known for their erotic beauty and aggressive sexuality[41] and both had relationships with mortal lovers.[41] Both goddesses were associated with the colors red, white, and gold.[41] Michael Janda etymologizes Aphrodite's name as an epithet of Eos meaning "she who rises from the foam [of the ocean]"[12] and points to Hesiod's Theogony account of Aphrodite's birth as an archaic reflex of Indo-European myth.[12] Aphrodite rising out of the waters after Cronus defeats Uranus as a mytheme would then be directly cognate to the Rigvedic myth of Indra defeating Vrtra, liberating Ushas.[11][12] Another key similarity between Aphrodite and the Indo-European dawn goddess is her close kinship to the Greek sky deity,[43] since both of the main claimants to her paternity (Zeus and Uranus) are sky deities.[44]

Forms and epithets

 
Aphrodite Ourania, draped rather than nude, with her foot resting on a tortoise (Louvre)
 
Ancient Greek herma of Aphroditus, a male form of Aphrodite,[45][46][47] currently held in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm
See also: Category:Epithets of Aphrodite

Aphrodite's most common cultic epithet was Ourania, meaning "heavenly",[48][49] but this epithet almost never occurs in literary texts, indicating a purely cultic significance.[50] Another common name for Aphrodite was Pandemos ("For All the Folk").[51] In her role as Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite was associated with Peithō (Πείθω), meaning "persuasion",[52] and could be prayed to for aid in seduction.[52] The character of Pausanias in Plato's Symposium, takes differing cult-practices associated with different epithets of the goddess to claim that Ourania and Pandemos are, in fact, separate goddesses. He asserts that Aphrodite Ourania is the celestial Aphrodite, born from the sea foam after Cronus castrated Uranus, and the older of the two goddesses. According to the Symposium, Aphrodite Ourania is the inspiration of male homosexual desire, specifically the ephebic eros, and pederasty. Aphrodite Pandemos, by contrast, is the younger of the two goddesses: the common Aphrodite, born from the union of Zeus and Dione, and the inspiration of heterosexual desire and sexual promiscuity, the "lesser" of the two loves.[53][54] Paphian (Παφία), was one of her epithets, after the Paphos in Cyprus where she had emerged from the sea at her birth.[55]

Among the Neoplatonists and, later, their Christian interpreters, Ourania is associated with spiritual love, and Pandemos with physical love (desire). A representation of Ourania with her foot resting on a tortoise came to be seen as emblematic of discretion in conjugal love; it was the subject of a chryselephantine sculpture by Phidias for Elis, known only from a parenthetical comment by the geographer Pausanias.[56]

One of Aphrodite's most common literary epithets is Philommeidḗs (φιλομμειδής),[57] which means "smile-loving",[57] but is sometimes mistranslated as "laughter-loving".[57] This epithet occurs throughout both of the Homeric epics and the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite.[57] Hesiod references it once in his Theogony in the context of Aphrodite's birth,[58] but interprets it as "genital-loving" rather than "smile-loving".[58] Monica Cyrino notes that the epithet may relate to the fact that, in many artistic depictions of Aphrodite, she is shown smiling.[58] Other common literary epithets are Cypris and Cythereia,[59] which derive from her associations with the islands of Cyprus and Cythera respectively.[59]

On Cyprus, Aphrodite was sometimes called Eleemon ("the merciful").[49] In Athens, she was known as Aphrodite en kopois ("Aphrodite of the Gardens").[49] At Cape Colias, a town along the Attic coast, she was venerated as Genetyllis "Mother".[49] The Spartans worshipped her as Potnia "Mistress", Enoplios "Armed", Morpho "Shapely", Ambologera "She who Postpones Old Age".[49] Across the Greek world, she was known under epithets such as Melainis "Black One", Skotia "Dark One", Androphonos "Killer of Men", Anosia "Unholy", and Tymborychos "Gravedigger",[47] all of which indicate her darker, more violent nature.[47]

She had the epithet Automata because, according to Servius, she was the source of spontaneous love.[60]

A male version of Aphrodite known as Aphroditus was worshipped in the city of Amathus on Cyprus.[45][46][47] Aphroditus was depicted with the figure and dress of a woman,[45][46] but had a beard,[45][46] and was shown lifting his dress to reveal an erect phallus.[45][46] This gesture was believed to be an apotropaic symbol,[61] and was thought to convey good fortune upon the viewer.[61] Eventually, the popularity of Aphroditus waned as the mainstream, fully feminine version of Aphrodite became more popular,[46] but traces of his cult are preserved in the later legends of Hermaphroditus.[46]

Worship

Classical period

 
Ruins of the temple of Aphrodite at Aphrodisias

Aphrodite's main festival, the Aphrodisia, was celebrated across Greece, but particularly in Athens and Corinth. In Athens, the Aphrodisia was celebrated on the fourth day of the month of Hekatombaion in honor of Aphrodite's role in the unification of Attica.[62][63] During this festival, the priests of Aphrodite would purify the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos on the southwestern slope of the Acropolis with the blood of a sacrificed dove.[64] Next, the altars would be anointed[64] and the cult statues of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho would be escorted in a majestic procession to a place where they would be ritually bathed.[65] Aphrodite was also honored in Athens as part of the Arrhephoria festival.[66] The fourth day of every month was sacred to Aphrodite.[67]

Pausanias records that, in Sparta, Aphrodite was worshipped as Aphrodite Areia, which means "warlike".[32][33] This epithet stresses Aphrodite's connections to Ares, with whom she had extramarital relations.[32][33] Pausanias also records that, in Sparta[32][33] and on Cythera, a number of extremely ancient cult statues of Aphrodite portrayed her bearing arms.[34][49] Other cult statues showed her bound in chains.[49]

Aphrodite was the patron goddess of prostitutes of all varieties,[68][49] ranging from pornai (cheap street prostitutes typically owned as slaves by wealthy pimps) to hetairai (expensive, well-educated hired companions, who were usually self-employed and sometimes provided sex to their customers).[69] The city of Corinth was renowned throughout the ancient world for its many hetairai,[70] who had a widespread reputation for being among the most skilled, but also the most expensive, prostitutes in the Greek world.[70] Corinth also had a major temple to Aphrodite located on the Acrocorinth[70] and was one of the main centers of her cult.[70] Records of numerous dedications to Aphrodite made by successful courtesans have survived in poems and in pottery inscriptions.[69] References to Aphrodite in association with prostitution are found in Corinth as well as on the islands of Cyprus, Cythera, and Sicily.[71] Aphrodite's Mesopotamian precursor Inanna-Ishtar was also closely associated with prostitution.[72][73][71]

Scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries believed that the cult of Aphrodite may have involved ritual prostitution,[73][71] an assumption based on ambiguous passages in certain ancient texts, particularly a fragment of a skolion by the Boeotian poet Pindar,[74] which mentions prostitutes in Corinth in association with Aphrodite.[74] Modern scholars now dismiss the notion of ritual prostitution in Greece as a "historiographic myth" with no factual basis.[75]

Hellenistic and Roman periods

 
Greek relief from Aphrodisias, depicting a Roman-influenced Aphrodite sitting on a throne holding an infant while the shepherd Anchises stands beside her.

During the Hellenistic period, the Greeks identified Aphrodite with the ancient Egyptian goddesses Hathor and Isis.[76][77][78] Aphrodite was the patron goddess of the Lagid queens[79] and Queen Arsinoe II was identified as her mortal incarnation.[79] Aphrodite was worshipped in Alexandria[79] and had numerous temples in and around the city.[79] Arsinoe II introduced the cult of Adonis to Alexandria and many of the women there partook in it.[79] The Tessarakonteres, a gigantic catamaran galley designed by Archimedes for Ptolemy IV Philopator, had a circular temple to Aphrodite on it with a marble statue of the goddess herself.[79] In the second century BC, Ptolemy VIII Physcon and his wives Cleopatra II and Cleopatra III dedicated a temple to Aphrodite Hathor at Philae.[79] Statuettes of Aphrodite for personal devotion became common in Egypt starting in the early Ptolemaic times and extending until long after Egypt became a Roman province.[79]

The ancient Romans identified Aphrodite with their goddess Venus,[80] who was originally a goddess of agricultural fertility, vegetation, and springtime.[80] According to the Roman historian Livy, Aphrodite and Venus were officially identified in the third century BC[81] when the cult of Venus Erycina was introduced to Rome from the Greek sanctuary of Aphrodite on Mount Eryx in Sicily.[81] After this point, Romans adopted Aphrodite's iconography and myths and applied them to Venus.[81] Because Aphrodite was the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas in Greek mythology[81] and Roman tradition claimed Aeneas as the founder of Rome,[81] Venus became venerated as Venus Genetrix, the mother of the entire Roman nation.[81] Julius Caesar claimed to be directly descended from Aeneas's son Iulus[82] and became a strong proponent of the cult of Venus.[82] This precedent was later followed by his nephew Augustus and the later emperors claiming succession from him.[82]

This syncretism greatly impacted Greek worship of Aphrodite.[83] During the Roman era, the cults of Aphrodite in many Greek cities began to emphasize her relationship with Troy and Aeneas.[83] They also began to adopt distinctively Roman elements,[83] portraying Aphrodite as more maternal, more militaristic, and more concerned with administrative bureaucracy.[83] She was claimed as a divine guardian by many political magistrates.[83] Appearances of Aphrodite in Greek literature also vastly proliferated, usually showing Aphrodite in a characteristically Roman manner.[84]

Mythology

Birth

 
Early fourth-century BC Attic pottery vessel in the shape of Aphrodite inside a shell from the Phanagoria cemetery in the Taman Peninsula
 
Petra tou Romiou ("The rock of the Greek"), Aphrodite's legendary birthplace in Paphos, Cyprus

Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship, Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, which is why she is sometimes called "Cyprian", especially in the poetic works of Sappho. The Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia, marking her birthplace, was a place of pilgrimage in the ancient world for centuries.[86] Other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera, hence another of her names, "Cytherea".[87] Cythera was a stopping place for trade and culture between Crete and the Peloponesus,[88] so these stories may preserve traces of the migration of Aphrodite's cult from the Middle East to mainland Greece.[89]

According to the version of her birth recounted by Hesiod in his Theogony,[90][91] Cronus severed Uranus' genitals and threw them behind him into the sea.[91][92][93] The foam from his genitals gave rise to Aphrodite[4] (hence her name, which Hesiod interprets as "foam-arisen"),[4] while the Giants, the Erinyes (furies), and the Meliae emerged from the drops of his blood.[91][92] Hesiod states that the genitals "were carried over the sea a long time, and white foam arose from the immortal flesh; with it a girl grew." After Aphrodite was born from the sea-foam, she washed up to shore in the presence of the other gods. Hesiod's account of Aphrodite's birth following Uranus's castration is probably derived from The Song of Kumarbi,[94][95] an ancient Hittite epic poem in which the god Kumarbi overthrows his father Anu, the god of the sky, and bites off his genitals, causing him to become pregnant and give birth to Anu's children, which include Ishtar and her brother Teshub, the Hittite storm god.[94][95]

In the Iliad,[96] Aphrodite is described as the daughter of Zeus and Dione.[4] Dione's name appears to be a feminine cognate to Dios and Dion,[4] which are oblique forms of the name Zeus.[4] Zeus and Dione shared a cult at Dodona in northwestern Greece.[4] In Theogony, Hesiod describes Dione as an Oceanid,[97] but Apollodorus makes her the thirteenth Titan, child of Gaia and Uranus.[98]

Marriage

 
First-century AD Roman fresco of Mars and Venus from Pompeii

Aphrodite is consistently portrayed as a nubile, infinitely desirable adult, having had no childhood.[99] She is often depicted nude.[100] In the Iliad, Aphrodite is the apparently unmarried consort of Ares, the god of war,[101] and the wife of Hephaestus is a different goddess named Charis.[102] Likewise, in Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite is unmarried and the wife of Hephaestus is Aglaea, the youngest of the three Charites.[102]

In Book Eight of the Odyssey,[103] however, the blind singer Demodocus describes Aphrodite as the wife of Hephaestus and tells how she committed adultery with Ares during the Trojan War.[102][104] The sun-god Helios saw Aphrodite and Ares having sex in Hephaestus's bed and warned Hephaestus, who fashioned a net of gold.[104] The next time Ares and Aphrodite had sex together, the net trapped them both.[104] Hephaestus brought all the gods into the bedchamber to laugh at the captured adulterers,[105] but Apollo, Hermes, and Poseidon had sympathy for Ares[106] and Poseidon agreed to pay Hephaestus for Ares's release.[107] Humiliated, Aphrodite returned to Cyprus, where she was attended by the Charites.[107] This narrative probably originated as a Greek folk tale, originally independent of the Odyssey.[108] In a much later interpolated detail, Ares put the young soldier Alectryon, by their door to warn them of Helios's arrival as Helios would tell Hephaestus of Aphrodite's infidelity if the two were discovered, but Alectryon fell asleep on guard duty.[109] Helios discovered the two and alerted Hephaestus, as Ares in rage turned Alectryon into a rooster, which always crows at dawn when the sun is about to rise announcing its arrival.[110]

After exposing them, Hephaestus asks Zeus for his wedding gifts and dowry to be returned to him;[111] by the time of the Trojan War, he is married to Charis/Aglaea, one of the Graces, apparently divorced from Aphrodite.[102][112] Afterwards, it was generally Ares who was regarded as the husband or official consort of the goddess; on the François Vase, the two arrive at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis on the same chariot, as do Zeus with Hera and Poseidon with Amphitrite; moreover poets such as Pindar and Aeschylus explicitly refer to Ares as Aphrodite's husband.[113]

Later stories were invented to explain Aphrodite's marriage to Hephaestus. In the most famous story, Zeus hastily married Aphrodite to Hephaestus in order to prevent the other gods from fighting over her.[114] In another version of the myth, Hephaestus gave his mother Hera a golden throne, but when she sat on it, she became trapped and he refused to let her go until she agreed to give him Aphrodite's hand in marriage.[115] Hephaestus was overjoyed to be married to the goddess of beauty, and forged her beautiful jewelry, including a strophion (στρόφιον) known as the kestos himas (κεστὸς ἱμάς),[116] a saltire-shaped undergarment (usually translated as "girdle"),[117] which accentuated her breasts[118] and made her even more irresistible to men.[117] Such strophia were commonly used in depictions of the Near Eastern goddesses Ishtar and Atargatis.[117]

Attendants

 
Satala Aphrodite, discovered in Satala, Armenia Minor (present-day Gümüşhane Province, Turkey) in 1873, British Museum[119][120]

Aphrodite is almost always accompanied by Eros, the god of lust and sexual desire.[121] In his Theogony, Hesiod describes Eros as one of the four original primeval forces born at the beginning of time,[121] but, after the birth of Aphrodite from the sea foam, he is joined by Himeros and, together, they become Aphrodite's constant companions.[122] In early Greek art, Eros and Himeros are both shown as idealized handsome youths with wings.[123] The Greek lyric poets regarded the power of Eros and Himeros as dangerous, compulsive, and impossible for anyone to resist.[124] In modern times, Eros is often seen as Aphrodite's son,[125] but this is actually a comparatively late innovation.[126] A scholion on Theocritus's Idylls remarks that the sixth-century BC poet Sappho had described Eros as the son of Aphrodite and Uranus,[127] but the first surviving reference to Eros as Aphrodite's son comes from Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica, written in the third century BC, which makes him the son of Aphrodite and Ares.[128] Later, the Romans, who saw Venus as a mother goddess, seized on this idea of Eros as Aphrodite's son and popularized it,[128] making it the predominant portrayal in works on mythology until the present day.[128]

Aphrodite's main attendants were the three Charites, whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome and names as Aglaea ("Splendor"), Euphrosyne ("Good Cheer"), and Thalia ("Abundance").[129] The Charites had been worshipped as goddesses in Greece since the beginning of Greek history, long before Aphrodite was introduced to the pantheon.[102] Aphrodite's other set of attendants was the three Horae (the "Hours"),[102] whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Themis and names as Eunomia ("Good Order"), Dike ("Justice"), and Eirene ("Peace").[130] Aphrodite was also sometimes accompanied by Harmonia, her daughter by Ares, and Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera.[131]

The fertility god Priapus was usually considered to be Aphrodite's son by Dionysus,[132][133] but he was sometimes also described as her son by Hermes, Adonis, or even Zeus.[132] A scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica[134] states that, while Aphrodite was pregnant with Priapus, Hera envied her and applied an evil potion to her belly while she was sleeping to ensure that the child would be hideous.[132] In another version, Hera cursed Aphrodite's unborn son because he had been fathered by Zeus.[135] When Aphrodite gave birth, she was horrified to see that the child had a massive, permanently erect penis, a potbelly, and a huge tongue.[132] Aphrodite abandoned the infant to die in the wilderness, but a herdsman found him and raised him, later discovering that Priapus could use his massive penis to aid in the growth of plants.[132]

Anchises

 
Venus and Anchises (1889 or 1890) by William Blake Richmond
Main article: Anchises

The First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (Hymn 5), which was probably composed sometime in the mid-seventh century BC,[136] describes how Zeus once became annoyed with Aphrodite for causing deities to fall in love with mortals,[136] so he caused her to fall in love with Anchises, a handsome mortal shepherd who lived in the foothills beneath Mount Ida near the city of Troy.[136] Aphrodite appears to Anchises in the form of a tall, beautiful, mortal virgin while he is alone in his home.[137] Anchises sees her dressed in bright clothing and gleaming jewelry, with her breasts shining with divine radiance.[138] He asks her if she is Aphrodite and promises to build her an altar on top of the mountain if she will bless him and his family.[139]

Aphrodite lies and tells him that she is not a goddess, but the daughter of one of the noble families of Phrygia.[139] She claims to be able to understand the Trojan language because she had a Trojan nurse as a child and says that she found herself on the mountainside after she was snatched up by Hermes while dancing in a celebration in honor of Artemis, the goddess of virginity.[139] Aphrodite tells Anchises that she is still a virgin[139] and begs him to take her to his parents.[139] Anchises immediately becomes overcome with mad lust for Aphrodite and swears that he will have sex with her.[139] Anchises takes Aphrodite, with her eyes cast downwards, to his bed, which is covered in the furs of lions and bears.[140] He then strips her naked and makes love to her.[140]

After the lovemaking is complete, Aphrodite reveals her true divine form.[141] Anchises is terrified, but Aphrodite consoles him and promises that she will bear him a son.[141] She prophesies that their son will be the demigod Aeneas, who will be raised by the nymphs of the wilderness for five years before going to Troy to become a nobleman like his father.[142] The story of Aeneas's conception is also mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony and in Book II of Homer's Iliad.[142][143]

Adonis

 
Attic red-figure aryballos by Aison (c. 410 BC) showing Aphrodite consorting with Adonis, who is seated and playing the lyre, while Eros stands behind him
 
Fragment of an Attic red-figure wedding vase (c. 430–420 BC), showing women climbing ladders up to the roofs of their houses carrying "gardens of Adonis"
Main article: Adonis

The myth of Aphrodite and Adonis is probably derived from the ancient Sumerian legend of Inanna and Dumuzid.[144][145][146] The Greek name Ἄδωνις (Adōnis, Greek pronunciation: [ádɔːnis]) is derived from the Canaanite word ʼadōn, meaning "lord".[147][146] The earliest known Greek reference to Adonis comes from a fragment of a poem by the Lesbian poet Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BC), in which a chorus of young girls asks Aphrodite what they can do to mourn Adonis's death.[148] Aphrodite replies that they must beat their breasts and tear their tunics.[148] Later references flesh out the story with more details.[149] According to the retelling of the story found in the poem Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17/18 AD), Adonis was the son of Myrrha, who was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus, after Myrrha's mother bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than the goddess.[150] Driven out after becoming pregnant, Myrrha was changed into a myrrh tree, but still gave birth to Adonis.[151]

Aphrodite found the baby and took him to the underworld to be fostered by Persephone.[152] She returned for him once he was grown and discovered him to be strikingly handsome.[152] Persephone wanted to keep Adonis, resulting in a custody battle between the two goddesses over whom should rightly possess Adonis.[152] Zeus settled the dispute by decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year with Aphrodite, one third with Persephone, and one third with whomever he chose.[152] Adonis chose to spend that time with Aphrodite.[152] Then, one day, while Adonis was hunting, he was wounded by a wild boar and bled to death in Aphrodite's arms.[152] In a semi-mocking work, the Dialogues of the Gods, the satirical author Lucian comedically relates how a frustrated Aphrodite complains to the moon goddess Selene about her son Eros making Persephone fall in love with Adonis and now she has to share him with her.[153]

In different versions of the story, the boar was either sent by Ares, who was jealous that Aphrodite was spending so much time with Adonis, or by Artemis, who wanted revenge against Aphrodite for having killed her devoted follower Hippolytus.[154] In another version, Apollo in fury changed himself into a boar and killed Adonis because Aphrodite had blinded his son Erymanthus when he stumbled upon Aphrodite naked as she was bathing after intercourse with Adonis.[155] The story also provides an etiology for Aphrodite's associations with certain flowers.[154] Reportedly, as she mourned Adonis's death, she caused anemones to grow wherever his blood fell and declared a festival on the anniversary of his death.[152] In one version of the story, Aphrodite injured herself on a thorn from a rose bush and the rose, which had previously been white, was stained red by her blood.[154] According to Lucian's On the Syrian Goddess,[103] each year during the festival of Adonis, the Adonis River in Lebanon (now known as the Abraham River) ran red with blood.[152]

The myth of Adonis is associated with the festival of the Adonia, which was celebrated by Greek women every year in midsummer.[146] The festival, which was evidently already celebrated in Lesbos by Sappho's time, seems to have first become popular in Athens in the mid-fifth century BC.[146] At the start of the festival, the women would plant a "garden of Adonis", a small garden planted inside a small basket or a shallow piece of broken pottery containing a variety of quick-growing plants, such as lettuce and fennel, or even quick-sprouting grains such as wheat and barley.[146] The women would then climb ladders to the roofs of their houses, where they would place the gardens out under the heat of the summer sun.[146] The plants would sprout in the sunlight but wither quickly in the heat.[156] Then the women would mourn and lament loudly over the death of Adonis,[157] tearing their clothes and beating their breasts in a public display of grief.[157]

Divine favoritism

 
Pygmalion and Galatea (1717) by Jean Raoux, showing Aphrodite bringing the statue to life

In Hesiod's Works and Days, Zeus orders Aphrodite to make Pandora, the first woman, physically beautiful and sexually attractive,[158] so that she may become "an evil men will love to embrace".[159] Aphrodite "spills grace" over Pandora's head[158] and equips her with "painful desire and knee-weakening anguish", thus making her the perfect vessel for evil to enter the world.[160] Aphrodite's attendants, Peitho, the Charites, and the Horae, adorn Pandora with gold and jewelry.[161]

According to one myth, Aphrodite aided Hippomenes, a noble youth who wished to marry Atalanta, a maiden who was renowned throughout the land for her beauty, but who refused to marry any man unless he could outrun her in a footrace.[162][163] Atalanta was an exceedingly swift runner and she beheaded all of the men who lost to her.[162][163] Aphrodite gave Hippomenes three golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides and instructed him to toss them in front of Atalanta as he raced her.[162][164] Hippomenes obeyed Aphrodite's order[162] and Atalanta, seeing the beautiful, golden fruits, bent down to pick up each one, allowing Hippomenes to outrun her.[162][164] In the version of the story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Hippomenes forgets to repay Aphrodite for her aid,[165][162] so she causes the couple to become inflamed with lust while they are staying at the temple of Cybele.[162] The couple desecrate the temple by having sex in it, leading Cybele to turn them into lions as punishment.[165][162]

The myth of Pygmalion is first mentioned by the third-century BC Greek writer Philostephanus of Cyrene,[166][167] but is first recounted in detail in Ovid's Metamorphoses.[166] According to Ovid, Pygmalion was an exceedingly handsome sculptor from the island of Cyprus, who was so sickened by the immorality of women that he refused to marry.[168][169] He fell madly and passionately in love with the ivory cult statue he was carving of Aphrodite and longed to marry it.[168][170] Because Pygmalion was extremely pious and devoted to Aphrodite,[168][171] the goddess brought the statue to life.[168][171] Pygmalion married the girl the statue became and they had a son named Paphos, after whom the capital of Cyprus received its name.[168][171] Pseudo-Apollodorus later mentions "Metharme, daughter of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus".[172]

Anger myths

 
First-century AD Roman fresco from Pompeii showing the virgin Hippolytus spurning the advances of his stepmother Phaedra, whom Aphrodite caused to fall in love with him in order to bring about his tragic death.[173]

Aphrodite generously rewarded those who honored her, but also punished those who disrespected her, often quite brutally.[174] A myth described in Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica and later summarized in the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus tells how, when the women of the island of Lemnos refused to sacrifice to Aphrodite, the goddess cursed them to stink horribly so that their husbands would never have sex with them.[175] Instead, their husbands started having sex with their Thracian slave-girls.[175] In anger, the women of Lemnos murdered the entire male population of the island, as well as all the Thracian slaves.[175] When Jason and his crew of Argonauts arrived on Lemnos, they mated with the sex-starved women under Aphrodite's approval and repopulated the island.[175] From then on, the women of Lemnos never disrespected Aphrodite again.[175]

In Euripides's tragedy Hippolytus, which was first performed at the City Dionysia in 428 BC, Theseus's son Hippolytus worships only Artemis, the goddess of virginity, and refuses to engage in any form of sexual contact.[175] Aphrodite is infuriated by his prideful behavior[176] and, in the prologue to the play, she declares that, by honoring only Artemis and refusing to venerate her, Hippolytus has directly challenged her authority.[177] Aphrodite therefore causes Hippolytus's stepmother, Phaedra, to fall in love with him, knowing Hippolytus will reject her.[178] After being rejected, Phaedra commits suicide and leaves a suicide note to Theseus telling him that she killed herself because Hippolytus attempted to rape her.[178] Theseus prays to Poseidon to kill Hippolytus for his transgression.[179] Poseidon sends a wild bull to scare Hippolytus's horses as he is riding by the sea in his chariot, causing the horses to bolt and smash the chariot against the cliffs, dragging Hippolytus to a bloody death across the rocky shoreline.[179] The play concludes with Artemis vowing to kill Aphrodite's own mortal beloved (presumably Adonis) in revenge.[180]

Glaucus of Corinth angered Aphrodite by refusing to let his horses for chariot racing mate, since doing so would hinder their speed.[181] During the chariot race at the funeral games of King Pelias, Aphrodite drove his horses mad and they tore him apart.[182] Polyphonte was a young woman who chose a virginal life with Artemis instead of marriage and children, as favoured by Aphrodite. Aphrodite cursed her, causing her to have children by a bear. The resulting offspring, Agrius and Oreius, were wild cannibals who incurred the hatred of Zeus. Ultimately, he transformed all the members of the family into birds of ill omen.[183]

According to Apollodorus, a jealous Aphrodite cursed Eos, the goddess of dawn, to be perpetually in love and have insatiable sexual desire because Eos once had lain with Aphrodite's sweetheart Ares, the god of war.[184]

According to Ovid in his Metamorphoses (book 10.238 ff.), Propoetides who are the daughters of Propoetus from the city of Amathus on the island of Cyprus denied Aphrodite's divinity and failed to worship her properly. Therefore, Aphrodite turned them into the world's first prostitutes.[185] According to Diodorus Siculus, when the Rhodian sea nymphe Halia's six sons by Poseidon arrogantly refused to let Aphrodite land upon their shore, the goddess cursed them with insanity. In their madness, they raped Halia. As punishment, Poseidon buried them in the island's sea-caverns.[186]

Xanthius, a descendent of Bellerophon, had two children: Leucippus and an unnamed daughter. Through the wrath of Aphrodite (reasons unknown), Leucippus fell in love with his own sister. They started a secret relationship but the girl was already betrothed to another man and he went on to inform her father Xanthius, without telling him the name of the seducer. Xanthius went straight to his daughter's chamber, where she was together with Leucippus right at the moment. On hearing him enter, she tried to escape, but Xanthius hit her with a dagger, thinking that he was slaying the seducer, and killed her. Leucippus, failing to recognize his father at first, slew him. When the truth was revealed, he had to leave the country and took part in colonization of Crete and the lands in Asia Minor.[187]

Queen Cenchreis of Cyprus, wife of King Cinyras, bragged that her daughter Myrrha was more beautiful than Aphrodite. Therefore, Myrrha was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus and he slept with her unknowingly in the dark. she eventually transformed into the myrrh tree and gave birth to Adonis in this form.[188][150][151][189] Cinyras also had three other daughters: Braesia, Laogora, and Orsedice. These girls by the wrath of Aphrodite (reasons unknown) cohabited with foreigners and ended their life in Egypt.[190]

The Muse Clio derided the goddess' own love for Adonis. Therefore, Clio fell in love with Pierus, son of Magnes and bore Hyacinth.[191]

Aegiale was a daughter of Adrastus and Amphithea and was married to Diomedes. Because of anger of Aphrodite, whom Diomedes had wounded in the war against Troy, she had multiple lovers, including a certain Hippolytus.[192][193] when Aegiale went so far as to threaten his life, he fled to Italy.[193][194] According to Stesichorus and Hesiod while Tyndareus sacrificing to the gods he forgot Aphrodite, therefore goddess made his daughters twice and thrice wed and deserters of their husbands. Timandra deserted Echemus and went and came to Phyleus and Clytaemnestra deserted Agamemnon and lay with Aegisthus who was a worse mate for her and eventually killed her husband with her lover and finally, Helen of Troy deserted Menelaus under the influence of Aphrodite for Paris and her unfaitfulness eventually causes the War of Troy.[195] As a result of her actions, Aphrodite caused the War of Troy in order to take Priam's kingdom and pass it down to her descendants.[196]

In one of the versions of the legend, Pasiphae did not make offerings to the goddess Venus [Aphrodite]. Because of this Venus [Aphrodite] inspired in her an unnatural love for a bull[197] or she cursed her because she was Helios's daughter who revealed her adultery to Hephaestus.[198][199] For Helios' own tale-telling, she cursed him with uncontrollable lust over the mortal princess Leucothoe, which led to him abandoning his then-lover Clytie, leaving her heartbroken.[200]

Lysippe was the mother of Tanais by Berossos. Her son only venerated Ares and was fully devoted to war, neglecting love and marriage. Aphrodite cursed him with falling in love with his own mother. Preferring to die rather than give up his chastity, he threw himself into the river Amazonius, which was subsequently renamed Tanais.[201]

According to Hyginus, At the behest of Zeus, Orpheus's mother, the Muse Calliope, judged the dispute between the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone over Adonis and decided that both shall possess him half of the year. This enraged Venus [Aphrodite], because she had not been granted what she thought was her right. Therefore, Venus [Aphrodite] inspired love for Orpheus in the women of Thrace, causing them to tear him apart as each of them sought Orpheus for herself.[202]

Aphrodite personally witnessed the young huntress Rhodopis swear eternal devotion and chastity to Artemis when she joined her group. Aphrodite then summoned her son Eros, and convinced him that such lifestyle was an insult to them both. So under her command, Eros made Rhodopis and Euthynicus, another young hunter who had shunned love and romance just like her, to fall in love with each other. Despite their chaste life, Rhodopis and Euthynicus withdrew to some cavern where they violated their vows. Artemis was not slow to take notice after seeing Aphrodite laugh, so she changed Rhodopis into a fountain as a punishment.[203][204]

Judgment of Paris and Trojan War

 
Ancient Greek mosaic from Antioch dating to the second century AD, depicting the Judgement of Paris
Main articles: Judgement of Paris and Trojan War

The myth of the Judgement of Paris is mentioned briefly in the Iliad,[205] but is described in depth in an epitome of the Cypria, a lost poem of the Epic Cycle,[206] which records that all the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles).[205] Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited.[206] She was annoyed at this, so she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "for the fairest"), which she threw among the goddesses.[207] Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.[207]

The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Trojan prince.[207] After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, the goddesses appeared before Paris for his decision.[207] In the extant ancient depictions of the Judgement of Paris, Aphrodite is only occasionally represented nude, and Athena and Hera are always fully clothed.[208] Since the Renaissance, however, Western paintings have typically portrayed all three goddesses as completely naked.[208]

All three goddesses were ideally beautiful and Paris could not decide between them, so they resorted to bribes.[207] Hera tried to bribe Paris with power over all Asia and Europe,[207] and Athena offered wisdom, fame and glory in battle,[207] but Aphrodite promised Paris that, if he were to choose her as the fairest, she would let him marry the most beautiful woman on earth.[209] This woman was Helen, who was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta.[209] Paris selected Aphrodite and awarded her the apple.[209] The other two goddesses were enraged and, as a direct result, sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War.[209]

Aphrodite plays an important and active role throughout the entirety of Homer's Iliad.[210] In Book III, she rescues Paris from Menelaus after he foolishly challenges him to a one-on-one duel.[211] She then appears to Helen in the form of an old woman and attempts to persuade her to have sex with Paris,[212] reminding her of his physical beauty and athletic prowess.[213] Helen immediately recognizes Aphrodite by her beautiful neck, perfect breasts, and flashing eyes[214] and chides the goddess, addressing her as her equal.[215] Aphrodite sharply rebukes Helen, reminding her that, if she vexes her, she will punish her just as much as she has favored her already.[216] Helen demurely obeys Aphrodite's command.[216]

In Book V, Aphrodite charges into battle to rescue her son Aeneas from the Greek hero Diomedes.[217] Diomedes recognizes Aphrodite as a "weakling" goddess[217] and, thrusting his spear, nicks her wrist through her "ambrosial robe".[218] Aphrodite borrows Ares's chariot to ride back to Mount Olympus.[219] Zeus chides her for putting herself in danger,[219][220] reminding her that "her specialty is love, not war."[219] According to Walter Burkert, this scene directly parallels a scene from Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh in which Ishtar, Aphrodite's Akkadian precursor, cries to her mother Antu after the hero Gilgamesh rejects her sexual advances, but is mildly rebuked by her father Anu.[221] In Book XIV of the Iliad, during the Dios Apate episode, Aphrodite lends her kestos himas to Hera for the purpose of seducing Zeus and distracting him from the combat while Poseidon aids the Greek forces on the beach.[222] In the Theomachia in Book XXI, Aphrodite again enters the battlefield to carry Ares away after he is wounded.[219][223]

Offspring

 
The so-called "Venus in a bikini", depicts her Greek counterpart Aphrodite as she is about to untie her sandal, with a small Eros squatting beneath her left arm, 1st-century AD[a]

Sometimes poets and dramatists recounted ancient traditions, which varied, and sometimes they invented new details; later scholiasts might draw on either or simply guess.[224][225] Thus while Aeneas and Phobos were regularly described as offspring of Aphrodite, others listed here such as Priapus and Eros were sometimes said to be children of Aphrodite but with varying fathers and sometimes given other mothers or none at all.

Iconography

Symbols

Rich-throned immortal Aphrodite,
scheming daughter of Zeus, I pray you,
with pain and sickness, Queen, crush not my heart,
but come, if ever in the past you heard my voice from afar and hearkened,
and left your father's halls and came, with gold
chariot yoked; and pretty sparrows
brought you swiftly across the dark earth
fluttering wings from heaven through the air.

— Sappho, "Ode to Aphrodite", lines 1–10, translated by M. L. West[239]
 
The Aphrodite of Fréjus statue on display. Aphrodite holds in her left hand an apple

Aphrodite's most prominent avian symbol was the dove,[240] which was originally an important symbol of her Near Eastern precursor Inanna-Ishtar.[241][242] (In fact, the ancient Greek word for "dove", peristerá, may be derived from a Semitic phrase peraḥ Ištar, meaning "bird of Ishtar".[241][242]) Aphrodite frequently appears with doves in ancient Greek pottery[240] and the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos on the southwest slope of the Athenian Acropolis was decorated with relief sculptures of doves with knotted fillets in their beaks.[243] Votive offerings of small, white, marble doves were also discovered in the temple of Aphrodite at Daphni.[243] In addition to her associations with doves, Aphrodite was also closely linked with sparrows[240] and she is described riding in a chariot pulled by sparrows in Sappho's "Ode to Aphrodite".[243] According to myth, the dove was originally a nymph named Peristera who helped Aphrodite win in a flower-picking contest over her son Eros; for this Eros turned her into a dove, but Aphrodite took the dove under her wing and made it her sacred bird.[244][245]

Because of her connections to the sea, Aphrodite was associated with a number of different types of water fowl,[246] including swans, geese, and ducks.[246] Aphrodite's other symbols included the sea, conch shells, and roses.[247] The rose and myrtle flowers were both sacred to Aphrodite.[248] A myth explaining the origin of Aphrodite's connection to myrtle goes that originally the myrtle was a maiden, Myrina, a dedicated priestess of Aphrodite. When her previous betrothed carried her away from the temple to marry her, Myrina killed him, and Aphrodite turned her into a myrtle, forever under her protection.[249] Her most important fruit emblem was the apple,[250] and in myth, she turned Melus, childhood friend and kin-in-law to Adonis, into an apple after he killed himself, mourning over Adonis' death. Likewise, Melus's wife Pelia was turned into a dove.[251] She was also associated with pomegranates,[252] possibly because the red seeds suggested sexuality[253] or because Greek women sometimes used pomegranates as a method of birth control.[253] In Greek art, Aphrodite is often also accompanied by dolphins and Nereids.[254]

In classical art

 
Wall painting from Pompeii of Venus rising from the sea on a scallop shell, believed to be a copy of the Aphrodite Anadyomene by Apelles of Kos
 
Birth of Venus from a shell, c. 50–79 AD, fresco from Pompeii
 
Phryne at the Poseidonia in Eleusis (c. 1889) by Henryk Siemiradzki, showing the scene of the courtesan Phryne stripping naked at Eleusis, which allegedly inspired both Apelles's painting and the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles[255][256]

A scene of Aphrodite rising from the sea appears on the back of the Ludovisi Throne (c. 460 BC),[257] which was probably originally part of a massive altar that was constructed as part of the Ionic temple to Aphrodite in the Greek polis of Locri Epizephyrii in Magna Graecia in southern Italy.[257] The throne shows Aphrodite rising from the sea, clad in a diaphanous garment, which is drenched with seawater and clinging to her body, revealing her upturned breasts and the outline of her navel.[258] Her hair hangs dripping as she reaches to two attendants standing barefoot on the rocky shore on either side of her, lifting her out of the water.[258] Scenes with Aphrodite appear in works of classical Greek pottery,[259] including a famous white-ground kylix by the Pistoxenos Painter dating the between c. 470 and 460 BC, showing her riding on a swan or goose.[259] Aphrodite was often described as golden-haired and portrayed with this color hair in art.[260]

In c. 364/361 BC, the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles carved the marble statue Aphrodite of Knidos,[261][256] which Pliny the Elder later praised as the greatest sculpture ever made.[261] The statue showed a nude Aphrodite modestly covering her pubic region while resting against a water pot with her robe draped over it for support.[262][263] The Aphrodite of Knidos was the first full-sized statue to depict Aphrodite completely naked[264] and one of the first sculptures that was intended to be viewed from all sides.[265][264] The statue was purchased by the people of Knidos in around 350 BC[264] and proved to be tremendously influential on later depictions of Aphrodite.[265] The original sculpture has been lost,[261][263] but written descriptions of it as well several depictions of it on coins are still extant[266][261][263] and over sixty copies, small-scale models, and fragments of it have been identified.[266]

The Greek painter Apelles of Kos, a contemporary of Praxiteles, produced the panel painting Aphrodite Anadyomene (Aphrodite Rising from the Sea).[255] According to Athenaeus, Apelles was inspired to paint the painting after watching the courtesan Phryne take off her clothes, untie her hair, and bathe naked in the sea at Eleusis.[255] The painting was displayed in the Asclepeion on the island of Kos.[255] The Aphrodite Anadyomene went unnoticed for centuries,[255] but Pliny the Elder records that, in his own time, it was regarded as Apelles's most famous work.[255]

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, statues depicting Aphrodite proliferated;[267] many of these statues were modeled at least to some extent on Praxiteles's Aphrodite of Knidos.[267] Some statues show Aphrodite crouching naked;[268] others show her wringing water out of her hair as she rises from the sea.[268] Another common type of statue is known as Aphrodite Kallipygos, the name of which is Greek for "Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks";[268] this type of sculpture shows Aphrodite lifting her peplos to display her buttocks to the viewer while looking back at them from over her shoulder.[268] The ancient Romans produced massive numbers of copies of Greek sculptures of Aphrodite[267] and more sculptures of Aphrodite have survived from antiquity than of any other deity.[268]

  •  

    The Ludovisi Throne (possibly c. 460 BC) is believed to be a classical Greek bas-relief, although it has also been alleged to be a 19th-century forgery.

  •  

    Attic white-ground red-figured kylix of Aphrodite riding a swan (c. 46-470) found at Kameiros (Rhodes)

  •  

    Aphrodite and Himeros, detail from a silver kantharos (c. 420-410 BC), part of the Vassil Bojkov collection, Sofia, Bulgaria

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    Red-figure vase painting of Aphrodite and Phaon (c. 420-400 BC)

  •  

    Apuleian vase painting of Zeus plotting with Aphrodite to seduce Leda while Eros sits on her arm (c. 330 BC)

  •  

    Aphrodite Leaning Against a Pillar (third century BC)

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    Aphrodite Kallipygos ("Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks")

  •  

    Aphrodite Binding Her Hair (second century BC)

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    Aphrodite of Milos (c. 100 BC), Louvre

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    Aphrodite statue at the Museum Willet-Holthuysen

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    Aphrodite Heyl (second century BC)

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    Greek sculpture group of Aphrodite, Eros, and Pan (c. 100 BC)

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    Aphrodite of Menophantos (first century BC)

  •  

    The Ludovisi Aphrodite of Knidos

  •  

    The Lely Venus (c. second century AD)

Post-classical culture

 
Fifteenth century manuscript illumination of Venus, sitting on a rainbow, with her devotees offering her their hearts

Middle Ages

Early Christians frequently adapted pagan iconography to suit Christian purposes.[269][270][271] In the Early Middle Ages, Christians adapted elements of Aphrodite/Venus's iconography and applied them to Eve and prostitutes,[270] but also female saints and even the Virgin Mary.[270] Christians in the east reinterpreted the story of Aphrodite's birth as a metaphor for baptism;[272] in a Coptic stele from the sixth century AD, a female orant is shown wearing Aphrodite's conch shell as a sign that she is newly baptized.[272] Throughout the Middle Ages, villages and communities across Europe still maintained folk tales and traditions about Aphrodite/Venus[273] and travelers reported a wide variety of stories.[273] Numerous Roman mosaics of Venus survived in Britain, preserving memory of the pagan past.[247] In North Africa in the late fifth century AD, Fulgentius of Ruspe encountered mosaics of Aphrodite[247] and reinterpreted her as a symbol of the sin of Lust,[247] arguing that she was shown naked because "the sin of lust is never cloaked"[247] and that she was often shown "swimming" because "all lust suffers shipwreck of its affairs."[247] He also argued that she was associated with doves and conchs because these are symbols of copulation,[247] and that she was associated with roses because "as the rose gives pleasure, but is swept away by the swift movement of the seasons, so lust is pleasant for a moment, but is swept away forever."[247]

While Fulgentius had appropriated Aphrodite as a symbol of Lust,[274] Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) interpreted her as a symbol of marital procreative sex[274] and declared that the moral of the story of Aphrodite's birth is that sex can only be holy in the presence of semen, blood, and heat, which he regarded as all being necessary for procreation.[274] Meanwhile, Isidore denigrated Aphrodite/Venus's son Eros/Cupid as a "demon of fornication" (daemon fornicationis).[274] Aphrodite/Venus was best known to Western European scholars through her appearances in Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses.[275] Venus is mentioned in the Latin poem Pervigilium Veneris ("The Eve of Saint Venus"), written in the third or fourth century AD,[276] and in Giovanni Boccaccio's Genealogia Deorum Gentilium.[277]

Since the Late Middle Ages. the myth of the Venusberg (German; French Mont de Vénus, "Mountain of Venus") – a subterranean realm ruled by Venus, hidden underneath Christian Europe – became a motif of European folklore rendered in various legends and epics. In German folklore of the 16th century, the narrative becomes associated with the minnesinger Tannhäuser, and in that form the myth was taken up in later literature and opera.

Art

Aphrodite is the central figure in Sandro Botticelli's painting Primavera, which has been described as "one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings in the world",[278] and "one of the most popular paintings in Western art".[279] The story of Aphrodite's birth from the foam was a popular subject matter for painters during the Italian Renaissance,[280] who were attempting to consciously reconstruct Apelles of Kos's lost masterpiece Aphrodite Anadyomene based on the literary ekphrasis of it preserved by Cicero and Pliny the Elder.[281] Artists also drew inspiration from Ovid's description of the birth of Venus in his Metamorphoses.[281] Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (c. 1485) was also partially inspired by a description by Poliziano of a relief on the subject.[281] Later Italian renditions of the same scene include Titian's Venus Anadyomene (c. 1525)[281] and Raphael's painting in the Stufetta del cardinal Bibbiena (1516).[281] Titian's biographer Giorgio Vasari identified all of Titian's paintings of naked women as paintings of "Venus",[282] including an erotic painting from c. 1534, which he called the Venus of Urbino, even though the painting does not contain any of Aphrodite/Venus's traditional iconography and the woman in it is clearly shown in a contemporary setting, not a classical one.[282]


The Birth of Venus (1863) by Alexandre CabanelJacques-Louis David's final work was his 1824 magnum opus, Mars Being Disarmed by Venus,[283] which combines elements of classical, Renaissance, traditional French art, and contemporary artistic styles.[283] While he was working on the painting, David described it, saying, "This is the last picture I want to paint, but I want to surpass myself in it. I will put the date of my seventy-five years on it and afterwards I will never again pick up my brush."[284] The painting was exhibited first in Brussels and then in Paris, where over 10,000 people came to see it.[284] Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's painting Venus Anadyomene was one of his major works.[285] Louis Geofroy described it as a "dream of youth realized with the power of maturity, a happiness that few obtain, artists or others."[285] Théophile Gautier declared: "Nothing remains of the marvelous painting of the Greeks, but surely if anything could give the idea of antique painting as it was conceived following the statues of Phidias and the poems of Homer, it is M. Ingres's painting: the Venus Anadyomene of Apelles has been found."[285] Other critics dismissed it as a piece of unimaginative, sentimental kitsch,[285] but Ingres himself considered it to be among his greatest works and used the same figure as the model for his later 1856 painting La Source.[285]

Paintings of Venus were favorites of the late nineteenth-century Academic artists in France.[286][287] In 1863, Alexandre Cabanel won widespread critical acclaim at the Paris Salon for his painting The Birth of Venus, which the French emperor Napoleon III immediately purchased for his own personal art collection.[288] Édouard Manet's 1865 painting Olympia parodied the nude Venuses of the Academic painters, particularly Cabanel's Birth of Venus.[289] In 1867, the English Academic painter Frederic Leighton displayed his Venus Disrobing for the Bath at the academy.[290] The art critic J. B. Atkinson praised it, declaring that "Mr Leighton, instead of adopting corrupt Roman notions regarding Venus such as Rubens embodied, has wisely reverted to the Greek idea of Aphrodite, a goddess worshipped, and by artists painted, as the perfection of female grace and beauty."[291] A year later, the English painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, painted Venus Verticordia (Latin for "Aphrodite, the Changer of Hearts"), showing Aphrodite as a nude red-headed woman in a garden of roses.[290] Though he was reproached for his outré subject matter,[290] Rossetti refused to alter the painting and it was soon purchased by J. Mitchell of Bradford.[291] In 1879, William Adolphe Bouguereau exhibited at the Paris Salon his own Birth of Venus,[288] which imitated the classical tradition of contrapposto and was met with widespread critical acclaim, rivalling the popularity of Cabanel's version from nearly two decades prior.[288]

Literature

 
Illustration by Édouard Zier for Pierre Louÿs's 1896 erotic novel Aphrodite: mœurs antiques

William Shakespeare's erotic narrative poem Venus and Adonis (1593), a retelling of the courtship of Aphrodite and Adonis from Ovid's Metamorphoses,[292][293] was the most popular of all his works published within his own lifetime.[294][295] Six editions of it were published before Shakespeare's death (more than any of his other works)[295] and it enjoyed particularly strong popularity among young adults.[294] In 1605, Richard Barnfield lauded it,[295] declaring that the poem had placed Shakespeare's name "in fames immortall Booke".[295] Despite this, the poem has received mixed reception from modern critics;[294] Samuel Taylor Coleridge defended it,[294] but Samuel Butler complained that it bored him[294] and C. S. Lewis described an attempted reading of it as "suffocating".[294]

Aphrodite appears in Richard Garnett's short story collection The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales (1888),[296] in which the gods' temples have been destroyed by Christians.[297] Stories revolving around sculptures of Aphrodite were common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[298] Examples of such works of literature include the novel The Tinted Venus: A Farcical Romance (1885) by Thomas Anstey Guthrie and the short story The Venus of Ille (1887) by Prosper Mérimée,[299] both of which are about statues of Aphrodite that come to life.[299] Another noteworthy example is Aphrodite in Aulis by the Anglo-Irish writer George Moore,[300] which revolves around an ancient Greek family who moves to Aulis.[301] The French writer Pierre Louÿs titled his erotic historical novel Aphrodite: mœurs antiques (1896) after the Greek goddess.[302] The novel enjoyed widespread commercial success,[302] but scandalized French audiences due to its sensuality and its decadent portrayal of Greek society.[302]

In the early twentieth century, stories of Aphrodite were used by feminist poets,[303] such as Amy Lowell and Alicia Ostriker.[304] Many of these poems dealt with Aphrodite's legendary birth from the foam of the sea.[303] Other feminist writers, including Claude Cahun, Thit Jensen, and Anaïs Nin also made use of the myth of Aphrodite in their writings.[305] Ever since the publication of Isabel Allende's book Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses in 1998, the name "Aphrodite" has been used as a title for dozens of books dealing with all topics even superficially connected to her domain.[306] Frequently these books do not even mention Aphrodite,[306] or mention her only briefly, but make use of her name as a selling point.[307]

Modern worship

In 1938, Gleb Botkin, a Russian immigrant to the United States, founded the Church of Aphrodite, a neopagan religion centered around the worship of a mother goddess, whom its practitioners identified as Aphrodite.[308][309] The Church of Aphrodite's theology was laid out in the book In Search of Reality, published in 1969, two years before Botkin's death.[310] The book portrayed Aphrodite in a drastically different light than the one in which the Greeks envisioned her,[310] instead casting her as "the sole Goddess of a somewhat Neoplatonic Pagan monotheism".[310] It claimed that the worship of Aphrodite had been brought to Greece by the mystic teacher Orpheus,[310] but that the Greeks had misunderstood Orpheus's teachings and had not realized the importance of worshipping Aphrodite alone.[310]

Aphrodite is a major deity in Wicca,[311][312] a contemporary nature-based syncretic Neopagan religion.[313] Wiccans regard Aphrodite as one aspect of the Goddess[312] and she is frequently invoked by name during enchantments dealing with love and romance.[314][315] Wiccans regard Aphrodite as the ruler of human emotions, erotic spirituality, creativity, and art.[311] As one of the twelve Olympians, Aphrodite is a major deity within Hellenismos (Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism),[316][317] a Neopagan religion which seeks to authentically revive and recreate the religion of ancient Greece in the modern world.[318][better source needed] Unlike Wiccans, Hellenists are usually strictly polytheistic or pantheistic.[319][better source needed] Hellenists venerate Aphrodite primarily as the goddess of romantic love,[317][better source needed] but also as a goddess of sexuality, the sea, and war.[317][better source needed] Her many epithets include "Sea Born", "Killer of Men", "She upon the Graves", "Fair Sailing", and "Ally in War".[317][better source needed]

Genealogy

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Napoli). "so-called Venus in a bikini." Cir.campania.beniculturali.it.

    The statuette portrays Aphrodite on the point of untying the laces of the sandal on her left foot, under which a small Eros squats, touching the sole of her shoe with his right hand. The Goddess is leaning with her left arm (the hand is missing) against a figure of Priapus standing, naked and bearded, positioned on a small cylindrical altar while, next to her left thigh, there is a tree trunk over which the garment of the Goddess is folded. Aphrodite, almost completely naked, wears only a sort of costume, consisting of a corset held up by two pairs of straps and two short sleeves on the upper part of her arm, from which a long chain leads to her hips and forms a star-shaped motif at the level of her navel. The 'bikini', for which the statuette is famous, is obtained by the masterly use of the technique of gilding, also employed on her groin, in the pendant necklace and in the armilla on Aphrodite's right wrist, as well as on Priapus' phallus. Traces of the red paint are evident on the tree trunk, on the short curly hair gathered back in a bun and on the lips of the Goddess, as well as on the heads of Priapus and the Eros. Aphrodite's eyes are made of glass paste, while the presence of holes at the level of the ear-lobes suggest the existence of precious metal ear-rings which have since been lost. An interesting insight into the female ornaments of Roman times, the statuette, probably imported from the area of Alexandria, reproduces with a few modifications the statuary type of Aphrodite untying her sandal, known from copies in bronze and terracotta.

    For extensive research and a bibliography on the subject, see: de Franciscis 1963, p. 78, tav. XCI; Kraus 1973, nn. 270–71, pp. 194–95; Pompei 1973, n. 132; Pompeji 1973, n. 199, pp. 142 e 144; Pompeji 1974, n. 281, pp. 148–49; Pompeii A.D. 79 1976, p. 83 e n. 218; Pompeii A.D. 79 1978, I, n. 208, pp. 64–65, II, n. 208, p. 189; Döhl, Zanker 1979, p. 202, tav. Va; Pompeii A.D. 79 1980, p. 79 e n. 198; Pompeya 1981, n. 198, p. 107; Pompeii lives 1984, fig. 10, p. 46; Collezioni Museo 1989, I, 2, n. 254, pp. 146–47; PPM II, 1990, n. 7, p. 532; Armitt 1993, p. 240; Vésuve 1995, n. 53, pp. 162–63; Vulkan 1995, n. 53, pp. 162–63; LIMC VIII, 1, 1997, p. 210, s.v. Venus, n. 182; LIMC VIII, 2, 1997, p. 144; LIMC VIII, 1, 1997, p. 1031, s.v. Priapos, n. 15; LIMC VIII, 2, 1997, p. 680; Romana Pictura 1998, n. 153, p. 317 e tav. a p. 245; Cantarella 1999, p. 128; De Caro 1999, pp. 100–01; De Caro 2000, p. 46 e tav. a p. 62; Pompeii 2000, n. 1, p. 62.

  2. ^ Anteros was originally born from the sea alongside Aphrodite; only later became her son.

Citations

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  203. ^ Strelan, Rick (1996). "Paul, Artemis, and the Jews in Ephesus". Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft. Berlin, New York City: De Gruyter. 80: 75. ISBN 9783110150209. ISSN 0171-6441.
  204. ^ Futre Pinheiro, Marília P.; Bierl, Anton; Beck, Roger (October 29, 2013). Intende, Lector – Echoes of Myth, Religion and Ritual in the Ancient Novel. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. p. 18. ISBN 978-3-11-031181-5.
  205. ^ a b Walcot 1977, p. 31.
  206. ^ a b Walcot 1977, pp. 31–32.
  207. ^ a b c d e f g Walcot 1977, p. 32.
  208. ^ a b Bull 2005, pp. 346–47.
  209. ^ a b c d Walcot 1977, pp. 32–33.
  210. ^ Cyrino 2010, p. 85.
  211. ^ Cyrino 2010, pp. 85–86.
  212. ^ Cyrino 2010, pp. 35–36, 86–87.
  213. ^ Cyrino 2010, pp. 36, 86–87.
  214. ^ Cyrino 2010, p. 87.
  215. ^ Cyrino 2010, pp. 87–88.
  216. ^ a b Cyrino 2010, p. 88.
  217. ^ a b Cyrino 2010, p. 49.
  218. ^ Cyrino 2010, pp. 49–50.
  219. ^ a b c d Cyrino 2010, p. 50.
  220. ^ Burkert 2005, p. 300.
  221. ^ Burkert 2005, pp. 299–300.
  222. ^ Cyrino 2010, p. 36.
  223. ^ Homer, Iliad 21.416–17.
  224. ^ Bremmer, Jan N. (1996). "mythology". In Hornblower & Spawforth (ed.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 1018–1020. ISBN 019866172X.
  225. ^ Reeve, Michael D. (1996). "scholia". In Hornblower & Spawforth (ed.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1368. ISBN 019866172X.
  226. ^ Smith, William (1861). Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. Walton and Maberly. p. 168.
  227. ^ a b c d e Kerényi 1951, p. 71.
  228. ^ Eros is usually mentioned as the son of Aphrodite but in other versions he is a parentless primordial.
  229. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 4.6.5: "... Hermaphroditus, as he has been called, who was born of Hermes and Aphrodite and received a name which is a combination of those of both his parents."
  230. ^ Pindar, Olympian 7.14 makes her the daughter of Aphrodite, but does not mention any father. Herodorus, fr. 62 Fowler (Fowler 2001, p. 253), apud schol. Pindar Olympian 7.24–5; Fowler 2013, p. 591 make her the daughter of Aphrodite and Poseidon.
  231. ^ Graves, Robert (1960). The Greek Myths. London: Penguin Books. pp. 70. ISBN 9780140171990.
  232. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 4.23.2
  233. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria s. v. Μελιγουνίς: "Meligounis: this is what the island Lipara was called. Also one of the daughters of Aphrodite."
  234. ^ Apollodorus, 1.9.25.
  235. ^ Servius on Aeneid, 1.574, 5.24
  236. ^ Apollodorus, 3.14.3.
  237. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 986–90; Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.3.1 (using the name "Hemera" for Eos)
  238. ^ Gantz 1996, p. 104.
  239. ^ West 2008, p. 36.
  240. ^ a b c Cyrino 2010, pp. 121–122.
  241. ^ a b Lewis & Llewellyn-Jones 2018, p. 335.
  242. ^ a b Botterweck & Ringgren 1990, p. 35.
  243. ^ a b c Cyrino 2010, p. 122.
  244. ^ Pepin, Ronald E. (2008). The Vatican Mythographers. New York City: Fordham University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-8232-2892-8.
  245. ^ De Gubernatis, Angelo (1872). Zoological Mythology: Or, The Legends of Animals. Vol. 2. Trübner & Company. p. 305. ISBN 9780598541062.
  246. ^ a b Cyrino 2010, pp. 120–123.
  247. ^ a b c d e f g h Tinkle 1996, p. 81.
  248. ^ Cyrino 2010, pp. 63, 96.
  249. ^ Pepin, Ronald E. (2008). The Vatican Mythographers. New York City: Fordham University Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-8232-2892-8.
  250. ^ Cyrino 2010, p. 64.
  251. ^ Smith, William (1861), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Walton and Maberly, s.v Melus.
  252. ^ Cyrino 2010, p. 63.
  253. ^ a b Cyrino 2010, pp. 63–64.
  254. ^ Cyrino 2010, pp. 123–124.
  255. ^ a b c d e f Havelock 2007, p. 86.
  256. ^ a b Cyrino 2010, pp. 76–77.
  257. ^ a b Cyrino 2010, p. 106.
  258. ^ a b Cyrino 2010, pp. 106–107.
  259. ^ a b Cyrino 2010, p. 124.
  260. ^ Pitman 2003, pp. 9–10.
  261. ^ a b c d Grant 1989, p. 224.
  262. ^ Grant 1989, p. 225.
  263. ^ a b c Cyrino 2010, p. 77.
  264. ^ a b c Cyrino 2010, p. 76.
  265. ^ a b Grant 1989, pp. 224–225.
  266. ^ a b Palagia & Pollitt 1996, p. 98.
  267. ^ a b c Cyrino 2010, pp. 77–78.
  268. ^ a b c d e Cyrino 2010, p. 78.
  269. ^ Taylor 1993, pp. 96–97.
  270. ^ a b c Tinkle 1996, p. 80.
  271. ^ Link 1995, pp. 43–45.
  272. ^ a b Taylor 1993, p. 97.
  273. ^ a b Tinkle 1996, pp. 80–81.
  274. ^ a b c d Tinkle 1996, p. 82.
  275. ^ Tinkle 1996, pp. 106–08.
  276. ^ Tinkle 1996, pp. 107–08.
  277. ^ Tinkle 1996, p. 108.
  278. ^ Fossi 1998, p. 5.
  279. ^ Cunningham & Reich 2009, p. 282.
  280. ^ Ames-Lewis 2000, pp. 193–95.
  281. ^ a b c d e Ames-Lewis 2000, p. 193.
  282. ^ a b Tinagli 1997, p. 148.
  283. ^ a b Bordes 2005, p. 189.
  284. ^ a b Hill 2007, p. 155.
  285. ^ a b c d e Tinterow 1999, p. 358.
  286. ^ McPhee 1986, pp. 66–67.
  287. ^ Gay 1998, p. 128.
  288. ^ a b c McPhee 1986, p. 66.
  289. ^ Gay 1998, p. 129.
  290. ^ a b c Smith 1996, pp. 145–46.
  291. ^ a b Smith 1996, p. 146.
  292. ^ Lákta 2017, pp. 56–58.
  293. ^ Cyrino 2010, p. 131.
  294. ^ a b c d e f Lákta 2017, p. 58.
  295. ^ a b c d Hiscock 2017, p. unpaginated.
  296. ^ Clark 2015, pp. 354–55.
  297. ^ Clark 2015, p. 355.
  298. ^ Clark 2015, p. 364.
  299. ^ a b Clark 2015, pp. 361–62.
  300. ^ Clark 2015, p. 363.
  301. ^ Clark 2015, pp. 363–64.
  302. ^ a b c Brooks & Alden 1980, pp. 836–44.
  303. ^ a b Clark 2015, p. 369.
  304. ^ Clark 2015, pp. 369–71.
  305. ^ Clark 2015, pp. 372–74.
  306. ^ a b Cyrino 2010, pp. 134–35.
  307. ^ Cyrino 2010, p. 135.
  308. ^ Clifton 2006, p. 139.
  309. ^ Pizza & Lewis 2009, pp. 327–28.
  310. ^ a b c d e Clifton 2006, p. 141.
  311. ^ a b Gallagher 2005, pp. 109–10.
  312. ^ a b Sabin 2010, p. 125.
  313. ^ Sabin 2010, pp. 3–4.
  314. ^ Gallagher 2005, p. 110.
  315. ^ Sabin 2010, p. 124.
  316. ^ World, Matthew Brunwasser PRI's The; Olympus, Mount (20 June 2013). "The Greeks who worship the ancient gods". BBC News.
  317. ^ a b c d Alexander 2007, p. 23.
  318. ^ Alexander 2007, p. 9.
  319. ^ Alexander 2007, pp. 22–23.
  320. ^ This chart is based upon Hesiod's Theogony, unless otherwise noted.
  321. ^ According to Homer, Iliad 1.570–579, 14.338, Odyssey 8.312, Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.
  322. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 927–929, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.
  323. ^ According to Hesiod's Theogony 886–890, of Zeus' children by his seven wives, Athena was the first to be conceived, but the last to be born; Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena "from his head", see Gantz, pp. 51–52, 83–84.
  324. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus' severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
  325. ^ According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 3.374, 20.105; Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione (Iliad 5.370–71), see Gantz, pp. 99–100.

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External links

April 23, 2023
aphrodite, cypris, redirects, here, other, uses, disambiguation, cypris, disambiguation, listen, greek, Ἀφροδίτη, translit, aphrodítē, attic, greek, pronunciation, pʰro, dǐː, tɛː, koine, greek, ɸroˈdi, modern, greek, froˈði, ancient, greek, goddess, associated. Cypris redirects here For other uses see Aphrodite disambiguation and Cypris disambiguation Aphrodite ˌ ae f r e ˈ d aɪ t iː listen AF re DY tee Greek Ἀfrodith translit Aphrodite Attic Greek pronunciation a pʰro dǐː tɛː Koine Greek a ɸroˈdi te Modern Greek a froˈdi ti is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love lust beauty pleasure passion procreation and as her syncretized Roman goddess counterpart Venus desire sex fertility prosperity and victory Aphrodite s major symbols include seashells myrtles roses doves sparrows and swans The cult of Aphrodite was largely derived from that of the Phoenician goddess Astarte a cognate of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar whose cult was based on the Sumerian cult of Inanna Aphrodite s main cult centers were Cythera Cyprus Corinth and Athens Her main festival was the Aphrodisia which was celebrated annually in midsummer In Laconia Aphrodite was worshipped as a warrior goddess She was also the patron goddess of prostitutes an association which led early scholars to propose the concept of sacred prostitution in Greco Roman culture an idea which is now generally seen as erroneous AphroditeGoddess of love beauty and sexualityMember of the Twelve OlympiansThe Ludovisi Cnidian Aphrodite Roman marble copy torso and thighs with restored head arms legs and drapery supporAbodeMount OlympusPlanetVenusAnimalsdolphin sparrow dove swan hare goose bee fish butterflySymbolrose seashell pearl mirror girdle anemone lettuce narcissusTreemyrrh myrtle apple pomegranateDayFriday hemera Aphrodites Personal informationParentsZeus and Dione according to Homer 1 Uranus according to Hesiod 2 SiblingsThe Titans the Hecatoncheires the Cyclopes The Meliae the Erinyes the Giants as daughter of Uranus or Aeacus Angelos Apollo Ares Artemis Athena Dionysus Eileithyia Enyo Eris Ersa Hebe Helen of Troy Hephaestus Heracles Hermes Minos Pandia Persephone Perseus Rhadamanthus the Graces the Horae the Litae the Muses the Moirai as daughter of Zeus ConsortHephaestus divorced Ares unmarried consort ChildrenEros Phobos Deimos Harmonia Pothos Anteros Himeros Hermaphroditus Rhodos Eryx Peitho The Graces Priapus AeneasEquivalentsRoman equivalentVenusNorse equivalentFreyjaEtruscan equivalentTuranHinduism equivalentRatiCanaanite equivalentAstarteIndo European equivalentPriyahBabylonian equivalentIshtarSumerian equivalentInannaZoroastrian equivalentAnahitaEgyptian equivalentHathorIn Hesiod s Theogony Aphrodite is born off the coast of Cythera from the foam ἀfros aphros produced by Uranus s genitals which his son Cronus had severed and thrown into the sea In Homer s Iliad however she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione Plato in his Symposium asserts that these two origins actually belong to separate entities Aphrodite Ourania a transcendent Heavenly Aphrodite and Aphrodite Pandemos Aphrodite common to all the people 3 Aphrodite had many other epithets each emphasizing a different aspect of the same goddess or used by a different local cult Thus she was also known as Cytherea Lady of Cythera and Cypris Lady of Cyprus because both locations claimed to be the place of her birth In Greek mythology Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus the god of fire blacksmiths and metalworking Aphrodite was frequently unfaithful to him and had many lovers in the Odyssey she is caught in the act of adultery with Ares the god of war In the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite she seduces the mortal shepherd Anchises Aphrodite was also the surrogate mother and lover of the mortal shepherd Adonis who was killed by a wild boar Along with Athena and Hera Aphrodite was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War and she plays a major role throughout the Iliad Aphrodite has been featured in Western art as a symbol of female beauty and has appeared in numerous works of Western literature She is a major deity in modern Neopagan religions including the Church of Aphrodite Wicca and Hellenismos Contents 1 Etymology 2 Origins 2 1 Near Eastern love goddess 2 2 Indo European dawn goddess 3 Forms and epithets 4 Worship 4 1 Classical period 4 2 Hellenistic and Roman periods 5 Mythology 5 1 Birth 5 2 Marriage 5 3 Attendants 5 4 Anchises 5 5 Adonis 5 6 Divine favoritism 5 7 Anger myths 5 8 Judgment of Paris and Trojan War 5 9 Offspring 6 Iconography 6 1 Symbols 6 2 In classical art 7 Post classical culture 7 1 Middle Ages 7 2 Art 7 3 Literature 7 4 Modern worship 8 Genealogy 9 See also 10 Explanatory notes 11 Citations 12 General and cited references 13 External linksEtymologyHesiod derives Aphrodite from aphros ἀfros sea foam 4 interpreting the name as risen from the foam 5 4 but most modern scholars regard this as a spurious folk etymology 4 6 Early modern scholars of classical mythology attempted to argue that Aphrodite s name was of Greek or Indo European origin but these efforts have now been mostly abandoned 6 Aphrodite s name is generally accepted to be of non Greek probably Semitic origin but its exact derivation cannot be determined 6 7 Scholars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries accepting Hesiod s foam etymology as genuine analyzed the second part of Aphrodite s name as odite wanderer 8 or dite bright 9 10 More recently Michael Janda also accepting Hesiod s etymology has argued in favor of the latter of these interpretations and claims the story of a birth from the foam as an Indo European mytheme 11 12 Similarly Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak proposes an Indo European compound abʰor very and dʰei to shine also referring to Eos 13 and Daniel Kolligan has interpreted her name as shining up from the mist foam 14 Other scholars have argued that these hypotheses are unlikely since Aphrodite s attributes are entirely different from those of both Eos and the Vedic deity Ushas 15 16 A number of improbable non Greek etymologies have also been suggested One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian bariritu the name of a female demon that appears in Middle Babylonian and Late Babylonian texts 17 Hammarstrom 18 looks to Etruscan comparing e pr8ni lord an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as prytanis 19 7 20 This would make the theonym in origin an honorific the lady 19 7 Most scholars reject this etymology as implausible 19 7 20 especially since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru from Greek Aphrō clipped form of Aphrodite 7 The medieval Etymologicum Magnum c 1150 offers a highly contrived etymology deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodiaitos ἁbrodiaitos she who lives delicately from habros and diaita The alteration from b to ph is explained as a familiar characteristic of Greek obvious from the Macedonians 21 OriginsNear Eastern love goddess Late second millennium BC nude figurine of Ishtar from Susa showing her wearing a crown and clutching her breasts Early fifth century BC statue of Aphrodite from Cyprus showing her wearing a cylinder crown and holding a dove The cult of Aphrodite in Greece was imported from or at least influenced by the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia 22 23 24 25 which in turn was influenced by the cult of the Mesopotamian goddess known as Ishtar to the East Semitic peoples and as Inanna to the Sumerians 26 24 25 Pausanias states that the first to establish a cult of Aphrodite were the Assyrians followed by the Paphians of Cyprus and then the Phoenicians at Ascalon The Phoenicians in turn taught her worship to the people of Cythera 27 Aphrodite took on Inanna Ishtar s associations with sexuality and procreation 28 Furthermore she was known as Ourania Oὐrania which means heavenly 29 a title corresponding to Inanna s role as the Queen of Heaven 29 30 Early artistic and literary portrayals of Aphrodite are extremely similar on Inanna Ishtar 28 Like Inanna Ishtar Aphrodite was also a warrior goddess 28 23 31 the second century AD Greek geographer Pausanias records that in Sparta Aphrodite was worshipped as Aphrodite Areia which means warlike 32 33 He also mentions that Aphrodite s most ancient cult statues in Sparta and on Cythera showed her bearing arms 32 33 34 28 Modern scholars note that Aphrodite s warrior goddess aspects appear in the oldest strata of her worship 35 and see it as an indication of her Near Eastern origins 35 36 Nineteenth century classical scholars had a general aversion to the idea that ancient Greek religion was at all influenced by the cultures of the Near East 37 but even Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker who argued that Near Eastern influence on Greek culture was largely confined to material culture 37 admitted that Aphrodite was clearly of Phoenician origin 37 The significant influence of Near Eastern culture on early Greek religion in general and on the cult of Aphrodite in particular 38 is now widely recognized as dating to a period of orientalization during the eighth century BC 38 when archaic Greece was on the fringes of the Neo Assyrian Empire 39 Indo European dawn goddess Some early comparative mythologists opposed to the idea of a Near Eastern origin argued that Aphrodite originated as an aspect of the Greek dawn goddess Eos 40 41 and that she was therefore ultimately derived from the Proto Indo European dawn goddess Haeusōs properly Greek Eos Latin Aurora Sanskrit Ushas 40 41 Most modern scholars have now rejected the notion of a purely Indo European Aphrodite 6 42 16 43 but it is possible that Aphrodite originally a Semitic deity may have been influenced by the Indo European dawn goddess 43 Both Aphrodite and Eos were known for their erotic beauty and aggressive sexuality 41 and both had relationships with mortal lovers 41 Both goddesses were associated with the colors red white and gold 41 Michael Janda etymologizes Aphrodite s name as an epithet of Eos meaning she who rises from the foam of the ocean 12 and points to Hesiod s Theogony account of Aphrodite s birth as an archaic reflex of Indo European myth 12 Aphrodite rising out of the waters after Cronus defeats Uranus as a mytheme would then be directly cognate to the Rigvedic myth of Indra defeating Vrtra liberating Ushas 11 12 Another key similarity between Aphrodite and the Indo European dawn goddess is her close kinship to the Greek sky deity 43 since both of the main claimants to her paternity Zeus and Uranus are sky deities 44 Forms and epithets Aphrodite Ourania draped rather than nude with her foot resting on a tortoise Louvre Ancient Greek herma of Aphroditus a male form of Aphrodite 45 46 47 currently held in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm See also Category Epithets of Aphrodite Aphrodite s most common cultic epithet was Ourania meaning heavenly 48 49 but this epithet almost never occurs in literary texts indicating a purely cultic significance 50 Another common name for Aphrodite was Pandemos For All the Folk 51 In her role as Aphrodite Pandemos Aphrodite was associated with Peithō Pei8w meaning persuasion 52 and could be prayed to for aid in seduction 52 The character of Pausanias in Plato s Symposium takes differing cult practices associated with different epithets of the goddess to claim that Ourania and Pandemos are in fact separate goddesses He asserts that Aphrodite Ourania is the celestial Aphrodite born from the sea foam after Cronus castrated Uranus and the older of the two goddesses According to the Symposium Aphrodite Ourania is the inspiration of male homosexual desire specifically the ephebic eros and pederasty Aphrodite Pandemos by contrast is the younger of the two goddesses the common Aphrodite born from the union of Zeus and Dione and the inspiration of heterosexual desire and sexual promiscuity the lesser of the two loves 53 54 Paphian Pafia was one of her epithets after the Paphos in Cyprus where she had emerged from the sea at her birth 55 Among the Neoplatonists and later their Christian interpreters Ourania is associated with spiritual love and Pandemos with physical love desire A representation of Ourania with her foot resting on a tortoise came to be seen as emblematic of discretion in conjugal love it was the subject of a chryselephantine sculpture by Phidias for Elis known only from a parenthetical comment by the geographer Pausanias 56 One of Aphrodite s most common literary epithets is Philommeidḗs filommeidhs 57 which means smile loving 57 but is sometimes mistranslated as laughter loving 57 This epithet occurs throughout both of the Homeric epics and the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 57 Hesiod references it once in his Theogony in the context of Aphrodite s birth 58 but interprets it as genital loving rather than smile loving 58 Monica Cyrino notes that the epithet may relate to the fact that in many artistic depictions of Aphrodite she is shown smiling 58 Other common literary epithets are Cypris and Cythereia 59 which derive from her associations with the islands of Cyprus and Cythera respectively 59 On Cyprus Aphrodite was sometimes called Eleemon the merciful 49 In Athens she was known as Aphrodite en kopois Aphrodite of the Gardens 49 At Cape Colias a town along the Attic coast she was venerated as Genetyllis Mother 49 The Spartans worshipped her as Potnia Mistress Enoplios Armed Morpho Shapely Ambologera She who Postpones Old Age 49 Across the Greek world she was known under epithets such as Melainis Black One Skotia Dark One Androphonos Killer of Men Anosia Unholy and Tymborychos Gravedigger 47 all of which indicate her darker more violent nature 47 She had the epithet Automata because according to Servius she was the source of spontaneous love 60 A male version of Aphrodite known as Aphroditus was worshipped in the city of Amathus on Cyprus 45 46 47 Aphroditus was depicted with the figure and dress of a woman 45 46 but had a beard 45 46 and was shown lifting his dress to reveal an erect phallus 45 46 This gesture was believed to be an apotropaic symbol 61 and was thought to convey good fortune upon the viewer 61 Eventually the popularity of Aphroditus waned as the mainstream fully feminine version of Aphrodite became more popular 46 but traces of his cult are preserved in the later legends of Hermaphroditus 46 WorshipClassical period Ruins of the temple of Aphrodite at AphrodisiasAphrodite s main festival the Aphrodisia was celebrated across Greece but particularly in Athens and Corinth In Athens the Aphrodisia was celebrated on the fourth day of the month of Hekatombaion in honor of Aphrodite s role in the unification of Attica 62 63 During this festival the priests of Aphrodite would purify the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos on the southwestern slope of the Acropolis with the blood of a sacrificed dove 64 Next the altars would be anointed 64 and the cult statues of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho would be escorted in a majestic procession to a place where they would be ritually bathed 65 Aphrodite was also honored in Athens as part of the Arrhephoria festival 66 The fourth day of every month was sacred to Aphrodite 67 Pausanias records that in Sparta Aphrodite was worshipped as Aphrodite Areia which means warlike 32 33 This epithet stresses Aphrodite s connections to Ares with whom she had extramarital relations 32 33 Pausanias also records that in Sparta 32 33 and on Cythera a number of extremely ancient cult statues of Aphrodite portrayed her bearing arms 34 49 Other cult statues showed her bound in chains 49 Aphrodite was the patron goddess of prostitutes of all varieties 68 49 ranging from pornai cheap street prostitutes typically owned as slaves by wealthy pimps to hetairai expensive well educated hired companions who were usually self employed and sometimes provided sex to their customers 69 The city of Corinth was renowned throughout the ancient world for its many hetairai 70 who had a widespread reputation for being among the most skilled but also the most expensive prostitutes in the Greek world 70 Corinth also had a major temple to Aphrodite located on the Acrocorinth 70 and was one of the main centers of her cult 70 Records of numerous dedications to Aphrodite made by successful courtesans have survived in poems and in pottery inscriptions 69 References to Aphrodite in association with prostitution are found in Corinth as well as on the islands of Cyprus Cythera and Sicily 71 Aphrodite s Mesopotamian precursor Inanna Ishtar was also closely associated with prostitution 72 73 71 Scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries believed that the cult of Aphrodite may have involved ritual prostitution 73 71 an assumption based on ambiguous passages in certain ancient texts particularly a fragment of a skolion by the Boeotian poet Pindar 74 which mentions prostitutes in Corinth in association with Aphrodite 74 Modern scholars now dismiss the notion of ritual prostitution in Greece as a historiographic myth with no factual basis 75 Hellenistic and Roman periods Greek relief from Aphrodisias depicting a Roman influenced Aphrodite sitting on a throne holding an infant while the shepherd Anchises stands beside her During the Hellenistic period the Greeks identified Aphrodite with the ancient Egyptian goddesses Hathor and Isis 76 77 78 Aphrodite was the patron goddess of the Lagid queens 79 and Queen Arsinoe II was identified as her mortal incarnation 79 Aphrodite was worshipped in Alexandria 79 and had numerous temples in and around the city 79 Arsinoe II introduced the cult of Adonis to Alexandria and many of the women there partook in it 79 The Tessarakonteres a gigantic catamaran galley designed by Archimedes for Ptolemy IV Philopator had a circular temple to Aphrodite on it with a marble statue of the goddess herself 79 In the second century BC Ptolemy VIII Physcon and his wives Cleopatra II and Cleopatra III dedicated a temple to Aphrodite Hathor at Philae 79 Statuettes of Aphrodite for personal devotion became common in Egypt starting in the early Ptolemaic times and extending until long after Egypt became a Roman province 79 The ancient Romans identified Aphrodite with their goddess Venus 80 who was originally a goddess of agricultural fertility vegetation and springtime 80 According to the Roman historian Livy Aphrodite and Venus were officially identified in the third century BC 81 when the cult of Venus Erycina was introduced to Rome from the Greek sanctuary of Aphrodite on Mount Eryx in Sicily 81 After this point Romans adopted Aphrodite s iconography and myths and applied them to Venus 81 Because Aphrodite was the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas in Greek mythology 81 and Roman tradition claimed Aeneas as the founder of Rome 81 Venus became venerated as Venus Genetrix the mother of the entire Roman nation 81 Julius Caesar claimed to be directly descended from Aeneas s son Iulus 82 and became a strong proponent of the cult of Venus 82 This precedent was later followed by his nephew Augustus and the later emperors claiming succession from him 82 This syncretism greatly impacted Greek worship of Aphrodite 83 During the Roman era the cults of Aphrodite in many Greek cities began to emphasize her relationship with Troy and Aeneas 83 They also began to adopt distinctively Roman elements 83 portraying Aphrodite as more maternal more militaristic and more concerned with administrative bureaucracy 83 She was claimed as a divine guardian by many political magistrates 83 Appearances of Aphrodite in Greek literature also vastly proliferated usually showing Aphrodite in a characteristically Roman manner 84 MythologyBirth The Birth of Venus c 1485 by Sandro Botticelli 85 Uffizi Florence Early fourth century BC Attic pottery vessel in the shape of Aphrodite inside a shell from the Phanagoria cemetery in the Taman Peninsula Petra tou Romiou The rock of the Greek Aphrodite s legendary birthplace in Paphos CyprusAphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship Paphos on the island of Cyprus which is why she is sometimes called Cyprian especially in the poetic works of Sappho The Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia marking her birthplace was a place of pilgrimage in the ancient world for centuries 86 Other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera hence another of her names Cytherea 87 Cythera was a stopping place for trade and culture between Crete and the Peloponesus 88 so these stories may preserve traces of the migration of Aphrodite s cult from the Middle East to mainland Greece 89 According to the version of her birth recounted by Hesiod in his Theogony 90 91 Cronus severed Uranus genitals and threw them behind him into the sea 91 92 93 The foam from his genitals gave rise to Aphrodite 4 hence her name which Hesiod interprets as foam arisen 4 while the Giants the Erinyes furies and the Meliae emerged from the drops of his blood 91 92 Hesiod states that the genitals were carried over the sea a long time and white foam arose from the immortal flesh with it a girl grew After Aphrodite was born from the sea foam she washed up to shore in the presence of the other gods Hesiod s account of Aphrodite s birth following Uranus s castration is probably derived from The Song of Kumarbi 94 95 an ancient Hittite epic poem in which the god Kumarbi overthrows his father Anu the god of the sky and bites off his genitals causing him to become pregnant and give birth to Anu s children which include Ishtar and her brother Teshub the Hittite storm god 94 95 In the Iliad 96 Aphrodite is described as the daughter of Zeus and Dione 4 Dione s name appears to be a feminine cognate to Dios and Dion 4 which are oblique forms of the name Zeus 4 Zeus and Dione shared a cult at Dodona in northwestern Greece 4 In Theogony Hesiod describes Dione as an Oceanid 97 but Apollodorus makes her the thirteenth Titan child of Gaia and Uranus 98 Marriage First century AD Roman fresco of Mars and Venus from Pompeii Aphrodite is consistently portrayed as a nubile infinitely desirable adult having had no childhood 99 She is often depicted nude 100 In the Iliad Aphrodite is the apparently unmarried consort of Ares the god of war 101 and the wife of Hephaestus is a different goddess named Charis 102 Likewise in Hesiod s Theogony Aphrodite is unmarried and the wife of Hephaestus is Aglaea the youngest of the three Charites 102 In Book Eight of the Odyssey 103 however the blind singer Demodocus describes Aphrodite as the wife of Hephaestus and tells how she committed adultery with Ares during the Trojan War 102 104 The sun god Helios saw Aphrodite and Ares having sex in Hephaestus s bed and warned Hephaestus who fashioned a net of gold 104 The next time Ares and Aphrodite had sex together the net trapped them both 104 Hephaestus brought all the gods into the bedchamber to laugh at the captured adulterers 105 but Apollo Hermes and Poseidon had sympathy for Ares 106 and Poseidon agreed to pay Hephaestus for Ares s release 107 Humiliated Aphrodite returned to Cyprus where she was attended by the Charites 107 This narrative probably originated as a Greek folk tale originally independent of the Odyssey 108 In a much later interpolated detail Ares put the young soldier Alectryon by their door to warn them of Helios s arrival as Helios would tell Hephaestus of Aphrodite s infidelity if the two were discovered but Alectryon fell asleep on guard duty 109 Helios discovered the two and alerted Hephaestus as Ares in rage turned Alectryon into a rooster which always crows at dawn when the sun is about to rise announcing its arrival 110 After exposing them Hephaestus asks Zeus for his wedding gifts and dowry to be returned to him 111 by the time of the Trojan War he is married to Charis Aglaea one of the Graces apparently divorced from Aphrodite 102 112 Afterwards it was generally Ares who was regarded as the husband or official consort of the goddess on the Francois Vase the two arrive at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis on the same chariot as do Zeus with Hera and Poseidon with Amphitrite moreover poets such as Pindar and Aeschylus explicitly refer to Ares as Aphrodite s husband 113 Later stories were invented to explain Aphrodite s marriage to Hephaestus In the most famous story Zeus hastily married Aphrodite to Hephaestus in order to prevent the other gods from fighting over her 114 In another version of the myth Hephaestus gave his mother Hera a golden throne but when she sat on it she became trapped and he refused to let her go until she agreed to give him Aphrodite s hand in marriage 115 Hephaestus was overjoyed to be married to the goddess of beauty and forged her beautiful jewelry including a strophion strofion known as the kestos himas kestὸs ἱmas 116 a saltire shaped undergarment usually translated as girdle 117 which accentuated her breasts 118 and made her even more irresistible to men 117 Such strophia were commonly used in depictions of the Near Eastern goddesses Ishtar and Atargatis 117 Attendants Satala Aphrodite discovered in Satala Armenia Minor present day Gumushane Province Turkey in 1873 British Museum 119 120 Aphrodite is almost always accompanied by Eros the god of lust and sexual desire 121 In his Theogony Hesiod describes Eros as one of the four original primeval forces born at the beginning of time 121 but after the birth of Aphrodite from the sea foam he is joined by Himeros and together they become Aphrodite s constant companions 122 In early Greek art Eros and Himeros are both shown as idealized handsome youths with wings 123 The Greek lyric poets regarded the power of Eros and Himeros as dangerous compulsive and impossible for anyone to resist 124 In modern times Eros is often seen as Aphrodite s son 125 but this is actually a comparatively late innovation 126 A scholion on Theocritus s Idylls remarks that the sixth century BC poet Sappho had described Eros as the son of Aphrodite and Uranus 127 but the first surviving reference to Eros as Aphrodite s son comes from Apollonius of Rhodes s Argonautica written in the third century BC which makes him the son of Aphrodite and Ares 128 Later the Romans who saw Venus as a mother goddess seized on this idea of Eros as Aphrodite s son and popularized it 128 making it the predominant portrayal in works on mythology until the present day 128 Aphrodite s main attendants were the three Charites whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome and names as Aglaea Splendor Euphrosyne Good Cheer and Thalia Abundance 129 The Charites had been worshipped as goddesses in Greece since the beginning of Greek history long before Aphrodite was introduced to the pantheon 102 Aphrodite s other set of attendants was the three Horae the Hours 102 whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Themis and names as Eunomia Good Order Dike Justice and Eirene Peace 130 Aphrodite was also sometimes accompanied by Harmonia her daughter by Ares and Hebe the daughter of Zeus and Hera 131 The fertility god Priapus was usually considered to be Aphrodite s son by Dionysus 132 133 but he was sometimes also described as her son by Hermes Adonis or even Zeus 132 A scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes s Argonautica 134 states that while Aphrodite was pregnant with Priapus Hera envied her and applied an evil potion to her belly while she was sleeping to ensure that the child would be hideous 132 In another version Hera cursed Aphrodite s unborn son because he had been fathered by Zeus 135 When Aphrodite gave birth she was horrified to see that the child had a massive permanently erect penis a potbelly and a huge tongue 132 Aphrodite abandoned the infant to die in the wilderness but a herdsman found him and raised him later discovering that Priapus could use his massive penis to aid in the growth of plants 132 Anchises Venus and Anchises 1889 or 1890 by William Blake Richmond Main article Anchises The First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite Hymn 5 which was probably composed sometime in the mid seventh century BC 136 describes how Zeus once became annoyed with Aphrodite for causing deities to fall in love with mortals 136 so he caused her to fall in love with Anchises a handsome mortal shepherd who lived in the foothills beneath Mount Ida near the city of Troy 136 Aphrodite appears to Anchises in the form of a tall beautiful mortal virgin while he is alone in his home 137 Anchises sees her dressed in bright clothing and gleaming jewelry with her breasts shining with divine radiance 138 He asks her if she is Aphrodite and promises to build her an altar on top of the mountain if she will bless him and his family 139 Aphrodite lies and tells him that she is not a goddess but the daughter of one of the noble families of Phrygia 139 She claims to be able to understand the Trojan language because she had a Trojan nurse as a child and says that she found herself on the mountainside after she was snatched up by Hermes while dancing in a celebration in honor of Artemis the goddess of virginity 139 Aphrodite tells Anchises that she is still a virgin 139 and begs him to take her to his parents 139 Anchises immediately becomes overcome with mad lust for Aphrodite and swears that he will have sex with her 139 Anchises takes Aphrodite with her eyes cast downwards to his bed which is covered in the furs of lions and bears 140 He then strips her naked and makes love to her 140 After the lovemaking is complete Aphrodite reveals her true divine form 141 Anchises is terrified but Aphrodite consoles him and promises that she will bear him a son 141 She prophesies that their son will be the demigod Aeneas who will be raised by the nymphs of the wilderness for five years before going to Troy to become a nobleman like his father 142 The story of Aeneas s conception is also mentioned in Hesiod s Theogony and in Book II of Homer s Iliad 142 143 Adonis Attic red figure aryballos by Aison c 410 BC showing Aphrodite consorting with Adonis who is seated and playing the lyre while Eros stands behind him Fragment of an Attic red figure wedding vase c 430 420 BC showing women climbing ladders up to the roofs of their houses carrying gardens of Adonis Main article Adonis The myth of Aphrodite and Adonis is probably derived from the ancient Sumerian legend of Inanna and Dumuzid 144 145 146 The Greek name Ἄdwnis Adōnis Greek pronunciation adɔːnis is derived from the Canaanite word ʼadōn meaning lord 147 146 The earliest known Greek reference to Adonis comes from a fragment of a poem by the Lesbian poet Sappho c 630 c 570 BC in which a chorus of young girls asks Aphrodite what they can do to mourn Adonis s death 148 Aphrodite replies that they must beat their breasts and tear their tunics 148 Later references flesh out the story with more details 149 According to the retelling of the story found in the poem Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid 43 BC 17 18 AD Adonis was the son of Myrrha who was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father King Cinyras of Cyprus after Myrrha s mother bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than the goddess 150 Driven out after becoming pregnant Myrrha was changed into a myrrh tree but still gave birth to Adonis 151 Aphrodite found the baby and took him to the underworld to be fostered by Persephone 152 She returned for him once he was grown and discovered him to be strikingly handsome 152 Persephone wanted to keep Adonis resulting in a custody battle between the two goddesses over whom should rightly possess Adonis 152 Zeus settled the dispute by decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year with Aphrodite one third with Persephone and one third with whomever he chose 152 Adonis chose to spend that time with Aphrodite 152 Then one day while Adonis was hunting he was wounded by a wild boar and bled to death in Aphrodite s arms 152 In a semi mocking work the Dialogues of the Gods the satirical author Lucian comedically relates how a frustrated Aphrodite complains to the moon goddess Selene about her son Eros making Persephone fall in love with Adonis and now she has to share him with her 153 In different versions of the story the boar was either sent by Ares who was jealous that Aphrodite was spending so much time with Adonis or by Artemis who wanted revenge against Aphrodite for having killed her devoted follower Hippolytus 154 In another version Apollo in fury changed himself into a boar and killed Adonis because Aphrodite had blinded his son Erymanthus when he stumbled upon Aphrodite naked as she was bathing after intercourse with Adonis 155 The story also provides an etiology for Aphrodite s associations with certain flowers 154 Reportedly as she mourned Adonis s death she caused anemones to grow wherever his blood fell and declared a festival on the anniversary of his death 152 In one version of the story Aphrodite injured herself on a thorn from a rose bush and the rose which had previously been white was stained red by her blood 154 According to Lucian s On the Syrian Goddess 103 each year during the festival of Adonis the Adonis River in Lebanon now known as the Abraham River ran red with blood 152 The myth of Adonis is associated with the festival of the Adonia which was celebrated by Greek women every year in midsummer 146 The festival which was evidently already celebrated in Lesbos by Sappho s time seems to have first become popular in Athens in the mid fifth century BC 146 At the start of the festival the women would plant a garden of Adonis a small garden planted inside a small basket or a shallow piece of broken pottery containing a variety of quick growing plants such as lettuce and fennel or even quick sprouting grains such as wheat and barley 146 The women would then climb ladders to the roofs of their houses where they would place the gardens out under the heat of the summer sun 146 The plants would sprout in the sunlight but wither quickly in the heat 156 Then the women would mourn and lament loudly over the death of Adonis 157 tearing their clothes and beating their breasts in a public display of grief 157 Divine favoritism Pygmalion and Galatea 1717 by Jean Raoux showing Aphrodite bringing the statue to life In Hesiod s Works and Days Zeus orders Aphrodite to make Pandora the first woman physically beautiful and sexually attractive 158 so that she may become an evil men will love to embrace 159 Aphrodite spills grace over Pandora s head 158 and equips her with painful desire and knee weakening anguish thus making her the perfect vessel for evil to enter the world 160 Aphrodite s attendants Peitho the Charites and the Horae adorn Pandora with gold and jewelry 161 According to one myth Aphrodite aided Hippomenes a noble youth who wished to marry Atalanta a maiden who was renowned throughout the land for her beauty but who refused to marry any man unless he could outrun her in a footrace 162 163 Atalanta was an exceedingly swift runner and she beheaded all of the men who lost to her 162 163 Aphrodite gave Hippomenes three golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides and instructed him to toss them in front of Atalanta as he raced her 162 164 Hippomenes obeyed Aphrodite s order 162 and Atalanta seeing the beautiful golden fruits bent down to pick up each one allowing Hippomenes to outrun her 162 164 In the version of the story from Ovid s Metamorphoses Hippomenes forgets to repay Aphrodite for her aid 165 162 so she causes the couple to become inflamed with lust while they are staying at the temple of Cybele 162 The couple desecrate the temple by having sex in it leading Cybele to turn them into lions as punishment 165 162 The myth of Pygmalion is first mentioned by the third century BC Greek writer Philostephanus of Cyrene 166 167 but is first recounted in detail in Ovid s Metamorphoses 166 According to Ovid Pygmalion was an exceedingly handsome sculptor from the island of Cyprus who was so sickened by the immorality of women that he refused to marry 168 169 He fell madly and passionately in love with the ivory cult statue he was carving of Aphrodite and longed to marry it 168 170 Because Pygmalion was extremely pious and devoted to Aphrodite 168 171 the goddess brought the statue to life 168 171 Pygmalion married the girl the statue became and they had a son named Paphos after whom the capital of Cyprus received its name 168 171 Pseudo Apollodorus later mentions Metharme daughter of Pygmalion king of Cyprus 172 Anger myths First century AD Roman fresco from Pompeii showing the virgin Hippolytus spurning the advances of his stepmother Phaedra whom Aphrodite caused to fall in love with him in order to bring about his tragic death 173 Aphrodite generously rewarded those who honored her but also punished those who disrespected her often quite brutally 174 A myth described in Apollonius of Rhodes s Argonautica and later summarized in the Bibliotheca of Pseudo Apollodorus tells how when the women of the island of Lemnos refused to sacrifice to Aphrodite the goddess cursed them to stink horribly so that their husbands would never have sex with them 175 Instead their husbands started having sex with their Thracian slave girls 175 In anger the women of Lemnos murdered the entire male population of the island as well as all the Thracian slaves 175 When Jason and his crew of Argonauts arrived on Lemnos they mated with the sex starved women under Aphrodite s approval and repopulated the island 175 From then on the women of Lemnos never disrespected Aphrodite again 175 In Euripides s tragedy Hippolytus which was first performed at the City Dionysia in 428 BC Theseus s son Hippolytus worships only Artemis the goddess of virginity and refuses to engage in any form of sexual contact 175 Aphrodite is infuriated by his prideful behavior 176 and in the prologue to the play she declares that by honoring only Artemis and refusing to venerate her Hippolytus has directly challenged her authority 177 Aphrodite therefore causes Hippolytus s stepmother Phaedra to fall in love with him knowing Hippolytus will reject her 178 After being rejected Phaedra commits suicide and leaves a suicide note to Theseus telling him that she killed herself because Hippolytus attempted to rape her 178 Theseus prays to Poseidon to kill Hippolytus for his transgression 179 Poseidon sends a wild bull to scare Hippolytus s horses as he is riding by the sea in his chariot causing the horses to bolt and smash the chariot against the cliffs dragging Hippolytus to a bloody death across the rocky shoreline 179 The play concludes with Artemis vowing to kill Aphrodite s own mortal beloved presumably Adonis in revenge 180 Glaucus of Corinth angered Aphrodite by refusing to let his horses for chariot racing mate since doing so would hinder their speed 181 During the chariot race at the funeral games of King Pelias Aphrodite drove his horses mad and they tore him apart 182 Polyphonte was a young woman who chose a virginal life with Artemis instead of marriage and children as favoured by Aphrodite Aphrodite cursed her causing her to have children by a bear The resulting offspring Agrius and Oreius were wild cannibals who incurred the hatred of Zeus Ultimately he transformed all the members of the family into birds of ill omen 183 According to Apollodorus a jealous Aphrodite cursed Eos the goddess of dawn to be perpetually in love and have insatiable sexual desire because Eos once had lain with Aphrodite s sweetheart Ares the god of war 184 According to Ovid in his Metamorphoses book 10 238 ff Propoetides who are the daughters of Propoetus from the city of Amathus on the island of Cyprus denied Aphrodite s divinity and failed to worship her properly Therefore Aphrodite turned them into the world s first prostitutes 185 According to Diodorus Siculus when the Rhodian sea nymphe Halia s six sons by Poseidon arrogantly refused to let Aphrodite land upon their shore the goddess cursed them with insanity In their madness they raped Halia As punishment Poseidon buried them in the island s sea caverns 186 Xanthius a descendent of Bellerophon had two children Leucippus and an unnamed daughter Through the wrath of Aphrodite reasons unknown Leucippus fell in love with his own sister They started a secret relationship but the girl was already betrothed to another man and he went on to inform her father Xanthius without telling him the name of the seducer Xanthius went straight to his daughter s chamber where she was together with Leucippus right at the moment On hearing him enter she tried to escape but Xanthius hit her with a dagger thinking that he was slaying the seducer and killed her Leucippus failing to recognize his father at first slew him When the truth was revealed he had to leave the country and took part in colonization of Crete and the lands in Asia Minor 187 Queen Cenchreis of Cyprus wife of King Cinyras bragged that her daughter Myrrha was more beautiful than Aphrodite Therefore Myrrha was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father King Cinyras of Cyprus and he slept with her unknowingly in the dark she eventually transformed into the myrrh tree and gave birth to Adonis in this form 188 150 151 189 Cinyras also had three other daughters Braesia Laogora and Orsedice These girls by the wrath of Aphrodite reasons unknown cohabited with foreigners and ended their life in Egypt 190 The Muse Clio derided the goddess own love for Adonis Therefore Clio fell in love with Pierus son of Magnes and bore Hyacinth 191 Aegiale was a daughter of Adrastus and Amphithea and was married to Diomedes Because of anger of Aphrodite whom Diomedes had wounded in the war against Troy she had multiple lovers including a certain Hippolytus 192 193 when Aegiale went so far as to threaten his life he fled to Italy 193 194 According to Stesichorus and Hesiod while Tyndareus sacrificing to the gods he forgot Aphrodite therefore goddess made his daughters twice and thrice wed and deserters of their husbands Timandra deserted Echemus and went and came to Phyleus and Clytaemnestra deserted Agamemnon and lay with Aegisthus who was a worse mate for her and eventually killed her husband with her lover and finally Helen of Troy deserted Menelaus under the influence of Aphrodite for Paris and her unfaitfulness eventually causes the War of Troy 195 As a result of her actions Aphrodite caused the War of Troy in order to take Priam s kingdom and pass it down to her descendants 196 In one of the versions of the legend Pasiphae did not make offerings to the goddess Venus Aphrodite Because of this Venus Aphrodite inspired in her an unnatural love for a bull 197 or she cursed her because she was Helios s daughter who revealed her adultery to Hephaestus 198 199 For Helios own tale telling she cursed him with uncontrollable lust over the mortal princess Leucothoe which led to him abandoning his then lover Clytie leaving her heartbroken 200 Lysippe was the mother of Tanais by Berossos Her son only venerated Ares and was fully devoted to war neglecting love and marriage Aphrodite cursed him with falling in love with his own mother Preferring to die rather than give up his chastity he threw himself into the river Amazonius which was subsequently renamed Tanais 201 According to Hyginus At the behest of Zeus Orpheus s mother the Muse Calliope judged the dispute between the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone over Adonis and decided that both shall possess him half of the year This enraged Venus Aphrodite because she had not been granted what she thought was her right Therefore Venus Aphrodite inspired love for Orpheus in the women of Thrace causing them to tear him apart as each of them sought Orpheus for herself 202 Aphrodite personally witnessed the young huntress Rhodopis swear eternal devotion and chastity to Artemis when she joined her group Aphrodite then summoned her son Eros and convinced him that such lifestyle was an insult to them both So under her command Eros made Rhodopis and Euthynicus another young hunter who had shunned love and romance just like her to fall in love with each other Despite their chaste life Rhodopis and Euthynicus withdrew to some cavern where they violated their vows Artemis was not slow to take notice after seeing Aphrodite laugh so she changed Rhodopis into a fountain as a punishment 203 204 Judgment of Paris and Trojan War Ancient Greek mosaic from Antioch dating to the second century AD depicting the Judgement of Paris Main articles Judgement of Paris and Trojan War The myth of the Judgement of Paris is mentioned briefly in the Iliad 205 but is described in depth in an epitome of the Cypria a lost poem of the Epic Cycle 206 which records that all the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis the eventual parents of Achilles 205 Only Eris goddess of discord was not invited 206 She was annoyed at this so she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word kallistῃ kallistei for the fairest which she threw among the goddesses 207 Aphrodite Hera and Athena all claimed to be the fairest and thus the rightful owner of the apple 207 The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus who not wanting to favor one of the goddesses put the choice into the hands of Paris a Trojan prince 207 After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated the goddesses appeared before Paris for his decision 207 In the extant ancient depictions of the Judgement of Paris Aphrodite is only occasionally represented nude and Athena and Hera are always fully clothed 208 Since the Renaissance however Western paintings have typically portrayed all three goddesses as completely naked 208 All three goddesses were ideally beautiful and Paris could not decide between them so they resorted to bribes 207 Hera tried to bribe Paris with power over all Asia and Europe 207 and Athena offered wisdom fame and glory in battle 207 but Aphrodite promised Paris that if he were to choose her as the fairest she would let him marry the most beautiful woman on earth 209 This woman was Helen who was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta 209 Paris selected Aphrodite and awarded her the apple 209 The other two goddesses were enraged and as a direct result sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War 209 Aphrodite plays an important and active role throughout the entirety of Homer s Iliad 210 In Book III she rescues Paris from Menelaus after he foolishly challenges him to a one on one duel 211 She then appears to Helen in the form of an old woman and attempts to persuade her to have sex with Paris 212 reminding her of his physical beauty and athletic prowess 213 Helen immediately recognizes Aphrodite by her beautiful neck perfect breasts and flashing eyes 214 and chides the goddess addressing her as her equal 215 Aphrodite sharply rebukes Helen reminding her that if she vexes her she will punish her just as much as she has favored her already 216 Helen demurely obeys Aphrodite s command 216 In Book V Aphrodite charges into battle to rescue her son Aeneas from the Greek hero Diomedes 217 Diomedes recognizes Aphrodite as a weakling goddess 217 and thrusting his spear nicks her wrist through her ambrosial robe 218 Aphrodite borrows Ares s chariot to ride back to Mount Olympus 219 Zeus chides her for putting herself in danger 219 220 reminding her that her specialty is love not war 219 According to Walter Burkert this scene directly parallels a scene from Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh in which Ishtar Aphrodite s Akkadian precursor cries to her mother Antu after the hero Gilgamesh rejects her sexual advances but is mildly rebuked by her father Anu 221 In Book XIV of the Iliad during the Dios Apate episode Aphrodite lends her kestos himas to Hera for the purpose of seducing Zeus and distracting him from the combat while Poseidon aids the Greek forces on the beach 222 In the Theomachia in Book XXI Aphrodite again enters the battlefield to carry Ares away after he is wounded 219 223 Offspring The so called Venus in a bikini depicts her Greek counterpart Aphrodite as she is about to untie her sandal with a small Eros squatting beneath her left arm 1st century AD a Sometimes poets and dramatists recounted ancient traditions which varied and sometimes they invented new details later scholiasts might draw on either or simply guess 224 225 Thus while Aeneas and Phobos were regularly described as offspring of Aphrodite others listed here such as Priapus and Eros were sometimes said to be children of Aphrodite but with varying fathers and sometimes given other mothers or none at all Offspring FatherAeneas Lyrus Lyrnus 226 AnchisesPhobos 227 Deimos 227 Harmonia 131 227 the Erotes Eros 228 122 Anteros b Himeros 122 Pothos 227 Ares 102 227 Hymenaios Iacchus Priapus 132 the Charites Graces Aglaea Euphrosyne Thalia DionysusHermaphroditos 229 Priapus 132 HermesRhodos 230 PoseidonBeroe Golgos 231 Priapus rarely 132 Adonis 152 154 Eryx 232 Meligounis and several more unnamed daughters 233 Butes 234 235 Astynous 236 Phaethon 237 Priapus 135 ZeusPeitho 238 unknownIconographySymbols Rich throned immortal Aphrodite scheming daughter of Zeus I pray you with pain and sickness Queen crush not my heart but come if ever in the past you heard my voice from afar and hearkened and left your father s halls and came with goldchariot yoked and pretty sparrowsbrought you swiftly across the dark earthfluttering wings from heaven through the air Sappho Ode to Aphrodite lines 1 10 translated by M L West 239 The Aphrodite of Frejus statue on display Aphrodite holds in her left hand an apple Aphrodite s most prominent avian symbol was the dove 240 which was originally an important symbol of her Near Eastern precursor Inanna Ishtar 241 242 In fact the ancient Greek word for dove peristera may be derived from a Semitic phrase peraḥ Istar meaning bird of Ishtar 241 242 Aphrodite frequently appears with doves in ancient Greek pottery 240 and the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos on the southwest slope of the Athenian Acropolis was decorated with relief sculptures of doves with knotted fillets in their beaks 243 Votive offerings of small white marble doves were also discovered in the temple of Aphrodite at Daphni 243 In addition to her associations with doves Aphrodite was also closely linked with sparrows 240 and she is described riding in a chariot pulled by sparrows in Sappho s Ode to Aphrodite 243 According to myth the dove was originally a nymph named Peristera who helped Aphrodite win in a flower picking contest over her son Eros for this Eros turned her into a dove but Aphrodite took the dove under her wing and made it her sacred bird 244 245 Because of her connections to the sea Aphrodite was associated with a number of different types of water fowl 246 including swans geese and ducks 246 Aphrodite s other symbols included the sea conch shells and roses 247 The rose and myrtle flowers were both sacred to Aphrodite 248 A myth explaining the origin of Aphrodite s connection to myrtle goes that originally the myrtle was a maiden Myrina a dedicated priestess of Aphrodite When her previous betrothed carried her away from the temple to marry her Myrina killed him and Aphrodite turned her into a myrtle forever under her protection 249 Her most important fruit emblem was the apple 250 and in myth she turned Melus childhood friend and kin in law to Adonis into an apple after he killed himself mourning over Adonis death Likewise Melus s wife Pelia was turned into a dove 251 She was also associated with pomegranates 252 possibly because the red seeds suggested sexuality 253 or because Greek women sometimes used pomegranates as a method of birth control 253 In Greek art Aphrodite is often also accompanied by dolphins and Nereids 254 In classical art Wall painting from Pompeii of Venus rising from the sea on a scallop shell believed to be a copy of the Aphrodite Anadyomene by Apelles of Kos Birth of Venus from a shell c 50 79 AD fresco from Pompeii Phryne at the Poseidonia in Eleusis c 1889 by Henryk Siemiradzki showing the scene of the courtesan Phryne stripping naked at Eleusis which allegedly inspired both Apelles s painting and the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles 255 256 A scene of Aphrodite rising from the sea appears on the back of the Ludovisi Throne c 460 BC 257 which was probably originally part of a massive altar that was constructed as part of the Ionic temple to Aphrodite in the Greek polis of Locri Epizephyrii in Magna Graecia in southern Italy 257 The throne shows Aphrodite rising from the sea clad in a diaphanous garment which is drenched with seawater and clinging to her body revealing her upturned breasts and the outline of her navel 258 Her hair hangs dripping as she reaches to two attendants standing barefoot on the rocky shore on either side of her lifting her out of the water 258 Scenes with Aphrodite appear in works of classical Greek pottery 259 including a famous white ground kylix by the Pistoxenos Painter dating the between c 470 and 460 BC showing her riding on a swan or goose 259 Aphrodite was often described as golden haired and portrayed with this color hair in art 260 In c 364 361 BC the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles carved the marble statue Aphrodite of Knidos 261 256 which Pliny the Elder later praised as the greatest sculpture ever made 261 The statue showed a nude Aphrodite modestly covering her pubic region while resting against a water pot with her robe draped over it for support 262 263 The Aphrodite of Knidos was the first full sized statue to depict Aphrodite completely naked 264 and one of the first sculptures that was intended to be viewed from all sides 265 264 The statue was purchased by the people of Knidos in around 350 BC 264 and proved to be tremendously influential on later depictions of Aphrodite 265 The original sculpture has been lost 261 263 but written descriptions of it as well several depictions of it on coins are still extant 266 261 263 and over sixty copies small scale models and fragments of it have been identified 266 The Greek painter Apelles of Kos a contemporary of Praxiteles produced the panel painting Aphrodite Anadyomene Aphrodite Rising from the Sea 255 According to Athenaeus Apelles was inspired to paint the painting after watching the courtesan Phryne take off her clothes untie her hair and bathe naked in the sea at Eleusis 255 The painting was displayed in the Asclepeion on the island of Kos 255 The Aphrodite Anadyomene went unnoticed for centuries 255 but Pliny the Elder records that in his own time it was regarded as Apelles s most famous work 255 During the Hellenistic and Roman periods statues depicting Aphrodite proliferated 267 many of these statues were modeled at least to some extent on Praxiteles s Aphrodite of Knidos 267 Some statues show Aphrodite crouching naked 268 others show her wringing water out of her hair as she rises from the sea 268 Another common type of statue is known as Aphrodite Kallipygos the name of which is Greek for Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks 268 this type of sculpture shows Aphrodite lifting her peplos to display her buttocks to the viewer while looking back at them from over her shoulder 268 The ancient Romans produced massive numbers of copies of Greek sculptures of Aphrodite 267 and more sculptures of Aphrodite have survived from antiquity than of any other deity 268 The Ludovisi Throne possibly c 460 BC is believed to be a classical Greek bas relief although it has also been alleged to be a 19th century forgery Attic white ground red figured kylix of Aphrodite riding a swan c 46 470 found at Kameiros Rhodes Aphrodite and Himeros detail from a silver kantharos c 420 410 BC part of the Vassil Bojkov collection Sofia Bulgaria Red figure vase painting of Aphrodite and Phaon c 420 400 BC Apuleian vase painting of Zeus plotting with Aphrodite to seduce Leda while Eros sits on her arm c 330 BC Aphrodite Leaning Against a Pillar third century BC Aphrodite Kallipygos Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks Aphrodite Binding Her Hair second century BC Aphrodite of Milos c 100 BC Louvre Aphrodite statue at the Museum Willet Holthuysen Aphrodite Heyl second century BC Greek sculpture group of Aphrodite Eros and Pan c 100 BC Aphrodite of Menophantos first century BC The Ludovisi Aphrodite of Knidos The Lely Venus c second century AD Post classical culture Fifteenth century manuscript illumination of Venus sitting on a rainbow with her devotees offering her their hearts Middle Ages Early Christians frequently adapted pagan iconography to suit Christian purposes 269 270 271 In the Early Middle Ages Christians adapted elements of Aphrodite Venus s iconography and applied them to Eve and prostitutes 270 but also female saints and even the Virgin Mary 270 Christians in the east reinterpreted the story of Aphrodite s birth as a metaphor for baptism 272 in a Coptic stele from the sixth century AD a female orant is shown wearing Aphrodite s conch shell as a sign that she is newly baptized 272 Throughout the Middle Ages villages and communities across Europe still maintained folk tales and traditions about Aphrodite Venus 273 and travelers reported a wide variety of stories 273 Numerous Roman mosaics of Venus survived in Britain preserving memory of the pagan past 247 In North Africa in the late fifth century AD Fulgentius of Ruspe encountered mosaics of Aphrodite 247 and reinterpreted her as a symbol of the sin of Lust 247 arguing that she was shown naked because the sin of lust is never cloaked 247 and that she was often shown swimming because all lust suffers shipwreck of its affairs 247 He also argued that she was associated with doves and conchs because these are symbols of copulation 247 and that she was associated with roses because as the rose gives pleasure but is swept away by the swift movement of the seasons so lust is pleasant for a moment but is swept away forever 247 While Fulgentius had appropriated Aphrodite as a symbol of Lust 274 Isidore of Seville c 560 636 interpreted her as a symbol of marital procreative sex 274 and declared that the moral of the story of Aphrodite s birth is that sex can only be holy in the presence of semen blood and heat which he regarded as all being necessary for procreation 274 Meanwhile Isidore denigrated Aphrodite Venus s son Eros Cupid as a demon of fornication daemon fornicationis 274 Aphrodite Venus was best known to Western European scholars through her appearances in Virgil s Aeneid and Ovid s Metamorphoses 275 Venus is mentioned in the Latin poem Pervigilium Veneris The Eve of Saint Venus written in the third or fourth century AD 276 and in Giovanni Boccaccio s Genealogia Deorum Gentilium 277 Since the Late Middle Ages the myth of the Venusberg German French Mont de Venus Mountain of Venus a subterranean realm ruled by Venus hidden underneath Christian Europe became a motif of European folklore rendered in various legends and epics In German folklore of the 16th century the narrative becomes associated with the minnesinger Tannhauser and in that form the myth was taken up in later literature and opera Art Aphrodite is the central figure in Sandro Botticelli s painting Primavera which has been described as one of the most written about and most controversial paintings in the world 278 and one of the most popular paintings in Western art 279 The story of Aphrodite s birth from the foam was a popular subject matter for painters during the Italian Renaissance 280 who were attempting to consciously reconstruct Apelles of Kos s lost masterpiece Aphrodite Anadyomene based on the literary ekphrasis of it preserved by Cicero and Pliny the Elder 281 Artists also drew inspiration from Ovid s description of the birth of Venus in his Metamorphoses 281 Sandro Botticelli s The Birth of Venus c 1485 was also partially inspired by a description by Poliziano of a relief on the subject 281 Later Italian renditions of the same scene include Titian s Venus Anadyomene c 1525 281 and Raphael s painting in the Stufetta del cardinal Bibbiena 1516 281 Titian s biographer Giorgio Vasari identified all of Titian s paintings of naked women as paintings of Venus 282 including an erotic painting from c 1534 which he called the Venus of Urbino even though the painting does not contain any of Aphrodite Venus s traditional iconography and the woman in it is clearly shown in a contemporary setting not a classical one 282 Primavera late 1470s or early 1480s by Sandro Botticelli Venus Anadyomene c 1525 by Titian Venus of Urbino c 1534 by Titian Venus Cupid Folly and Time c 1545 by Bronzino Venus and Adonis 1554 by Titian Venus with a Mirror c 1555 by Titian Venus Adonis and Cupid c 1595 by Annibale Carracci The Toilet of Venus c 1612 1615 by Peter Paul Rubens The Death of Adonis c 1614 by Peter Paul Rubens Rokeby Venus c 1647 51 by Diego Velazquez Venus and Cupid Lamenting the Dead Adonis 1656 by Cornelis HolsteynThe Birth of Venus 1863 by Alexandre CabanelJacques Louis David s final work was his 1824 magnum opus Mars Being Disarmed by Venus 283 which combines elements of classical Renaissance traditional French art and contemporary artistic styles 283 While he was working on the painting David described it saying This is the last picture I want to paint but I want to surpass myself in it I will put the date of my seventy five years on it and afterwards I will never again pick up my brush 284 The painting was exhibited first in Brussels and then in Paris where over 10 000 people came to see it 284 Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres s painting Venus Anadyomene was one of his major works 285 Louis Geofroy described it as a dream of youth realized with the power of maturity a happiness that few obtain artists or others 285 Theophile Gautier declared Nothing remains of the marvelous painting of the Greeks but surely if anything could give the idea of antique painting as it was conceived following the statues of Phidias and the poems of Homer it is M Ingres s painting the Venus Anadyomene of Apelles has been found 285 Other critics dismissed it as a piece of unimaginative sentimental kitsch 285 but Ingres himself considered it to be among his greatest works and used the same figure as the model for his later 1856 painting La Source 285 The Birth of Venus c 1485 by Sandro Botticelli 85 Paintings of Venus were favorites of the late nineteenth century Academic artists in France 286 287 In 1863 Alexandre Cabanel won widespread critical acclaim at the Paris Salon for his painting The Birth of Venus which the French emperor Napoleon III immediately purchased for his own personal art collection 288 Edouard Manet s 1865 painting Olympia parodied the nude Venuses of the Academic painters particularly Cabanel s Birth of Venus 289 In 1867 the English Academic painter Frederic Leighton displayed his Venus Disrobing for the Bath at the academy 290 The art critic J B Atkinson praised it declaring that Mr Leighton instead of adopting corrupt Roman notions regarding Venus such as Rubens embodied has wisely reverted to the Greek idea of Aphrodite a goddess worshipped and by artists painted as the perfection of female grace and beauty 291 A year later the English painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti a founding member of the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood painted Venus Verticordia Latin for Aphrodite the Changer of Hearts showing Aphrodite as a nude red headed woman in a garden of roses 290 Though he was reproached for his outre subject matter 290 Rossetti refused to alter the painting and it was soon purchased by J Mitchell of Bradford 291 In 1879 William Adolphe Bouguereau exhibited at the Paris Salon his own Birth of Venus 288 which imitated the classical tradition of contrapposto and was met with widespread critical acclaim rivalling the popularity of Cabanel s version from nearly two decades prior 288 Venus and Adonis 1729 by Francois Lemoyne Mars Being Disarmed by Venus 1824 by Jacques Louis David Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan 1827 by Alexandre Charles Guillemot Venus Anadyomene 1848 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Venus Disrobing for the Bath 1867 by Frederic Leighton Venus Verticordia 1868 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Birth of Venus c 1879 by William Adolphe Bouguereau The Birth of Venus 1907 by Henri GervexLiterature Illustration by Edouard Zier for Pierre Louys s 1896 erotic novel Aphrodite mœurs antiques William Shakespeare s erotic narrative poem Venus and Adonis 1593 a retelling of the courtship of Aphrodite and Adonis from Ovid s Metamorphoses 292 293 was the most popular of all his works published within his own lifetime 294 295 Six editions of it were published before Shakespeare s death more than any of his other works 295 and it enjoyed particularly strong popularity among young adults 294 In 1605 Richard Barnfield lauded it 295 declaring that the poem had placed Shakespeare s name in fames immortall Booke 295 Despite this the poem has received mixed reception from modern critics 294 Samuel Taylor Coleridge defended it 294 but Samuel Butler complained that it bored him 294 and C S Lewis described an attempted reading of it as suffocating 294 Aphrodite appears in Richard Garnett s short story collection The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales 1888 296 in which the gods temples have been destroyed by Christians 297 Stories revolving around sculptures of Aphrodite were common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries 298 Examples of such works of literature include the novel The Tinted Venus A Farcical Romance 1885 by Thomas Anstey Guthrie and the short story The Venus of Ille 1887 by Prosper Merimee 299 both of which are about statues of Aphrodite that come to life 299 Another noteworthy example is Aphrodite in Aulis by the Anglo Irish writer George Moore 300 which revolves around an ancient Greek family who moves to Aulis 301 The French writer Pierre Louys titled his erotic historical novel Aphrodite mœurs antiques 1896 after the Greek goddess 302 The novel enjoyed widespread commercial success 302 but scandalized French audiences due to its sensuality and its decadent portrayal of Greek society 302 In the early twentieth century stories of Aphrodite were used by feminist poets 303 such as Amy Lowell and Alicia Ostriker 304 Many of these poems dealt with Aphrodite s legendary birth from the foam of the sea 303 Other feminist writers including Claude Cahun Thit Jensen and Anais Nin also made use of the myth of Aphrodite in their writings 305 Ever since the publication of Isabel Allende s book Aphrodite A Memoir of the Senses in 1998 the name Aphrodite has been used as a title for dozens of books dealing with all topics even superficially connected to her domain 306 Frequently these books do not even mention Aphrodite 306 or mention her only briefly but make use of her name as a selling point 307 Modern worship In 1938 Gleb Botkin a Russian immigrant to the United States founded the Church of Aphrodite a neopagan religion centered around the worship of a mother goddess whom its practitioners identified as Aphrodite 308 309 The Church of Aphrodite s theology was laid out in the book In Search of Reality published in 1969 two years before Botkin s death 310 The book portrayed Aphrodite in a drastically different light than the one in which the Greeks envisioned her 310 instead casting her as the sole Goddess of a somewhat Neoplatonic Pagan monotheism 310 It claimed that the worship of Aphrodite had been brought to Greece by the mystic teacher Orpheus 310 but that the Greeks had misunderstood Orpheus s teachings and had not realized the importance of worshipping Aphrodite alone 310 Aphrodite is a major deity in Wicca 311 312 a contemporary nature based syncretic Neopagan religion 313 Wiccans regard Aphrodite as one aspect of the Goddess 312 and she is frequently invoked by name during enchantments dealing with love and romance 314 315 Wiccans regard Aphrodite as the ruler of human emotions erotic spirituality creativity and art 311 As one of the twelve Olympians Aphrodite is a major deity within Hellenismos Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism 316 317 a Neopagan religion which seeks to authentically revive and recreate the religion of ancient Greece in the modern world 318 better source needed Unlike Wiccans Hellenists are usually strictly polytheistic or pantheistic 319 better source needed Hellenists venerate Aphrodite primarily as the goddess of romantic love 317 better source needed but also as a goddess of sexuality the sea and war 317 better source needed Her many epithets include Sea Born Killer of Men She upon the Graves Fair Sailing and Ally in War 317 better source needed GenealogyAphrodite s family tree 320 UranusGaiaUranus genitalsCoeusPhoebeCronusRheaLetoZeusHeraPoseidonHadesDemeterHestiaApolloArtemis a 321 b 322 AresHephaestusMetisAthena 323 MaiaHermesSemeleDionysusDione a 324 b 325 APHRODITESee also Ancient Greece portal Religion portal Myths portalAnchises Cupid Girdle of Aphrodite History of nude art Lakshmi rose from the ocean like Aphrodite and has 8 pointed star like IshtarExplanatory notes Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli so called Venus in a bikini Cir campania beniculturali it The statuette portrays Aphrodite on the point of untying the laces of the sandal on her left foot under which a small Eros squats touching the sole of her shoe with his right hand The Goddess is leaning with her left arm the hand is missing against a figure of Priapus standing naked and bearded positioned on a small cylindrical altar while next to her left thigh there is a tree trunk over which the garment of the Goddess is folded Aphrodite almost completely naked wears only a sort of costume consisting of a corset held up by two pairs of straps and two short sleeves on the upper part of her arm from which a long chain leads to her hips and forms a star shaped motif at the level of her navel The bikini for which the statuette is famous is obtained by the masterly use of the technique of gilding also employed on her groin in the pendant necklace and in the armilla on Aphrodite s right wrist as well as on Priapus phallus Traces of the red paint are evident on the tree trunk on the short curly hair gathered back in a bun and on the lips of the Goddess as well as on the heads of Priapus and the Eros Aphrodite s eyes are made of glass paste while the presence of holes at the level of the ear lobes suggest the existence of precious metal ear rings which have since been lost An interesting insight into the female ornaments of Roman times the statuette probably imported from the area of Alexandria reproduces with a few modifications the statuary type of Aphrodite untying her sandal known from copies in bronze and terracotta For extensive research and a bibliography on the subject see de Franciscis 1963 p 78 tav XCI Kraus 1973 nn 270 71 pp 194 95 Pompei 1973 n 132 Pompeji 1973 n 199 pp 142 e 144 Pompeji 1974 n 281 pp 148 49 Pompeii A D 79 1976 p 83 e n 218 Pompeii A D 79 1978 I n 208 pp 64 65 II n 208 p 189 Dohl Zanker 1979 p 202 tav Va Pompeii A D 79 1980 p 79 e n 198 Pompeya 1981 n 198 p 107 Pompeii lives 1984 fig 10 p 46 Collezioni Museo 1989 I 2 n 254 pp 146 47 PPM II 1990 n 7 p 532 Armitt 1993 p 240 Vesuve 1995 n 53 pp 162 63 Vulkan 1995 n 53 pp 162 63 LIMC VIII 1 1997 p 210 s v Venus n 182 LIMC VIII 2 1997 p 144 LIMC VIII 1 1997 p 1031 s v Priapos n 15 LIMC VIII 2 1997 p 680 Romana Pictura 1998 n 153 p 317 e tav a p 245 Cantarella 1999 p 128 De Caro 1999 pp 100 01 De Caro 2000 p 46 e tav a p 62 Pompeii 2000 n 1 p 62 Anteros was originally born from the sea alongside Aphrodite only later became her son Citations Homer Iliad 5 370 Hesiod Theogony 188 90 This claim is made at Symposium 180e It is hard to interpret the role of the various speeches in the dialogue and their relationship to what Plato actually thought therefore it is controversial whether Plato in fact believed this claim about Aphrodite See Frisbee Sheffield The Role of the Earlier Speeches in the Symposium Plato s Endoxic Method in J H Lesher Debra Nails amp Frisbee C C Sheffield eds Plato s Symposium Issues in Interpretation and Reception Harvard University Press 2006 a b c d e f g h i Cyrino 2010 p 14 Hesiod Theogony 190 97 a b c d West 2000 pp 134 38 a b c d e Beekes 2009 p 179 Paul Kretschmer Zum pamphylischen Dialekt Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiet der Indogermanischen Sprachen 33 1895 267 Ernst Maass Aphrodite und die hl Pelagia Neue Jahrbucher fur das klassische Altertum 27 1911 457 68 Vittore Pisani Akmon e Dieus Archivio glottologico italiano 24 1930 65 73 a b Janda 2005 pp 349 60 a b c d Janda 2010 p 65 Witczak 1993 pp 115 23 Kolligan Daniel 2007 Aphrodite of the Dawn Indo European Heritage in Greek Divine Epithets and Theonyms Letras Classicas 11 11 105 34 doi 10 11606 issn 2358 3150 v0i11p105 134 Penglase 1994 p 164 a b Boedeker 1974 pp 15 16 Chicago Assyrian Dictionary vol 2 p 111 M Hammarstrom Griechisch etruskische Wortgleichungen Glotta Zeitschrift fur griechische und lateinische Sprache 11 1921 215 16 a b c Frisk 1960 p 196f a b West 2000 p 134 Etymologicum Magnum Ἀfrodith Breitenberger 2007 pp 8 12 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 49 52 a b Puhvel 1987 p 27 a b Marcovich 1996 pp 43 59 Burkert 1985 pp 152 53 Pausanias Description of Greece I XIV 7 a b c d Breitenberger 2007 p 8 a b Breitenberger 2007 pp 10 11 Penglase 1994 p 162 Penglase 1994 p 163 a b c d e Cyrino 2010 pp 51 52 a b c d e Budin 2010 pp 85 86 96 100 102 03 112 123 125 a b Graz 1984 p 250 a b Iossif amp Lorber 2007 p 77 Penglase 1994 pp 162 63 a b c Konaris 2016 p 169 a b Burkert 1998 pp 1 6 Burkert 1998 pp 1 41 a b Dumezil 1934 a b c d e Cyrino 2010 p 24 Penglase 1994 pp 162 64 a b c Cyrino 2010 pp 24 25 Cyrino 2010 p 25 a b c d e Bullough amp Bullough 1993 p 29 a b c d e f g Clark 2015 p 381 a b c d Kerenyi 1951 p 81 Cyrino 2010 p 28 a b c d e f g h Kerenyi 1951 p 80 Cyrino 2010 pp 28 29 Cyrino 2010 p 35 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 35 38 Plato Symposium 181a d Richard L Hunter Plato s Symposium Oxford University Press 2004 pp 44 47 Suda p 825 Pausanias Periegesis vi 25 1 Aphrodite Pandemos was represented in the same temple riding on a goat symbol of purely carnal rut The meaning of the tortoise and of the he goat I leave to those who care to guess Pausanias remarks The image was taken up again after the Renaissance see Andrea Alciato Emblemata Les emblemes 1584 a b c d Cyrino 2010 p 39 a b c Cyrino 2010 pp 39 40 a b Cyrino 2010 p 27 Lewis Richard Farnell 1896 The Cults of the Greek States Clarendon Press p 666 a b Koloski Ostrow amp Lyons 2000 pp 230 31 Rosenzweig 2004 pp 15 16 Simon 1983 pp 49 50 a b Simon 1983 p 48 Simon 1983 pp 48 49 Simon 1983 pp 47 48 Simon 1983 p 49 Cyrino 2010 p 40 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 40 41 a b c d Cyrino 2010 pp 41 42 a b c Marcovich 1996 p 49 Black amp Green 1992 p 109 a b Burkert 1985 p 153 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 41 43 Cyrino 2010 p 43 Witt 1997 p 125 Dunand 2007 p 258 Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia The Book People Haydock 1995 p 215 a b c d e f g h Dunand 2007 p 257 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 127 28 a b c d e f Cyrino 2010 p 128 a b c Cyrino 2010 pp 128 29 a b c d e Cyrino 2010 p 130 Cyrino 2010 pp 130 31 a b Ames Lewis 2000 p 194 1 Archived 11 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine Homer Odyssey viii 288 Herodotus i 105 Pausanias iii 23 1 Anacreon v 9 Horace Carmina i 4 5 Cyrino 2010 p 21 Cyrino 2010 pp 20 21 Hesiod Theogony 191 192 a b c Kerenyi 1951 p 69 a b Graves 1960 p 37 Cyrino 2010 pp 13 14 a b Cyrino 2010 p 29 a b Puhvel 1987 p 25 Homer Iliad 5 370 and xx 105 Cyrino 2010 pp 14 15 Apollodorus 1 1 3 Cyrino 2010 pp 53 61 Cyrino 2010 pp 73 78 Cyrino 2010 pp 50 72 a b c d e f g Cyrino 2010 p 72 a b Kerenyi 1951 p 279 a b c Kerenyi 1951 p 72 Kerenyi 1951 pp 72 73 Kerenyi 1951 pp 73 74 a b Kerenyi 1951 p 74 Anderson 2000 pp 131 32 Gallagher David 2009 01 01 Avian and Serpentine Brill Rodopi ISBN 978 90 420 2709 1 Lucian Gallus 3 see also scholiast on Aristophanes Birds 835 Eustathius Ad Odysseam 1 300 Ausonius 26 2 27 Libanius Progymnasmata 2 26 Homer Odyssey 8 267 ff Homer Iliad 18 382 Hard p 202 Stuttard 2016 p 86 Slater 1968 pp 199 200 Bonner 1949 p 1 a b c Bonner 1949 pp 1 6 Bonner 1949 pp 1 2 The Satala Aphrodite British Museum Archived from the original on 11 April 2020 Nersessian Vrej 2001 Bronze Head of Aphrodite Anahit Treasures from the Ark 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art Los Angeles J Paul Getty Museum pp 114 115 ISBN 9780892366392 a b Cyrino 2010 p 44 a b c Cyrino 2010 pp 44 45 Cyrino 2010 p 45 Cyrino 2010 pp 45 46 Cyrino 2010 p 47 Cyrino 2010 pp 47 48 Cyrino 2010 p 48 a b c Cyrino 2010 pp 48 49 Cyrino 2010 pp 71 72 Cyrino 2010 pp 72 73 a b Cyrino 2010 p 73 a b c d e f g h Kerenyi 1951 p 176 Powell 2012 p 214 Kerenyi 1951 p 283 a b Priapus Suda On Line Tr Ross Scaife 10 August 2014 Entry a b c Cyrino 2010 p 89 Cyrino 2010 p 90 Cyrino 2010 pp 90 91 a b c d e f Cyrino 2010 p 91 a b Cyrino 2010 p 92 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 92 93 a b Cyrino 2010 p 93 Hesiod Theogony 1008 10 Homer Iliad 2 819 21 West 1997 p 57 Kerenyi 1951 p 67 a b c d e f Cyrino 2010 p 97 Burkert 1985 pp 176 77 a b West 1997 pp 530 31 Cyrino 2010 p 95 a b Kerenyi 1951 p 75 a b Kerenyi 1951 pp 75 76 a b c d e f g h i Kerenyi 1951 p 76 Lucian Dialogues of the Gods Aphrodite and the Moon a b c d Cyrino 2010 p 96 Cameron 2004 p 152 Some translations erroneously add Apollo as one of the men Aphrodite had sex with before Erymanthus saw her Cyrino 2010 pp 97 98 a b Cyrino 2010 p 98 a b Cyrino 2010 p 81 Cyrino 2010 p 80 Cyrino 2010 pp 81 82 Cyrino 2010 pp 82 83 a b c d e f g h Ruck amp Staples 2001 pp 64 70 a b McKinley 2001 p 43 a b Wasson 1968 p 128 a b McKinley 2001 pp 43 44 a b Clark 2015 pp 90 91 Clement Exhortation to the Greeks 4 a b c d e Clark 2015 p 91 Powell 2012 p 215 Powell 2012 pp 215 17 a b c Powell 2012 p 217 Apollodorus 3 14 3 Cyrino 2010 pp 98 103 Cyrino 2010 pp 98 99 a b c d e f Cyrino 2010 p 99 Cyrino 2010 p 100 Cyrino 2010 pp 100 01 a b Cyrino 2010 p 101 a b Cyrino 2010 p 102 Cyrino 2010 pp 102 03 Vergil Georgics 3 266 88 with Servius s note to line 268 Hand The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology pp 432 663 Hyginus Fabulae 250 3 273 11 Pausanias Guide to Greece 6 20 19 Antoninus Liberalis Metamorphoses 21 Apollodorus 1 4 4 Ovid s Metamorphoses book 10 English Translation Archived from the original on 2012 06 15 Retrieved 2021 01 11 Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca historica 5 55 4 7 Parthenius Erotica Pathemata 5 Ovid Metamorphoses 10 298 518 Hansen 2004 pp 289 90 Pseudo Apollodorus 3 14 3 3 9 1 for Laodice Apollodorus Bibliotheca 1 3 3 Scholia on Iliad 5 411 a b Tzetzes on Lycophron 610 Ovid Metamorphoses 14 476 APHRODITE MYTHS 7 WRATH Greek Mythology Pierre Grimal The Dictionary of Classical Mythology s v Aineias Hyginus Fabulae 40 Seneca Phaedra 124 Scholia on Euripides Hippolytus 47 Ovid Metamorphoses 4 192 270 Hard p 45 Pseudo Plutarch On Rivers 14 Hyginus Astronomica 2 7 4 Strelan Rick 1996 Paul Artemis and the Jews in Ephesus Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft Berlin New York City De Gruyter 80 75 ISBN 9783110150209 ISSN 0171 6441 Futre Pinheiro Marilia P Bierl Anton Beck Roger October 29 2013 Intende Lector Echoes of Myth Religion and Ritual in the Ancient Novel Berlin Boston De Gruyter p 18 ISBN 978 3 11 031181 5 a b Walcot 1977 p 31 a b Walcot 1977 pp 31 32 a b c d e f g Walcot 1977 p 32 a b Bull 2005 pp 346 47 a b c d Walcot 1977 pp 32 33 Cyrino 2010 p 85 Cyrino 2010 pp 85 86 Cyrino 2010 pp 35 36 86 87 Cyrino 2010 pp 36 86 87 Cyrino 2010 p 87 Cyrino 2010 pp 87 88 a b Cyrino 2010 p 88 a b Cyrino 2010 p 49 Cyrino 2010 pp 49 50 a b c d Cyrino 2010 p 50 Burkert 2005 p 300 Burkert 2005 pp 299 300 Cyrino 2010 p 36 Homer Iliad 21 416 17 Bremmer Jan N 1996 mythology In Hornblower amp Spawforth ed The Oxford Classical Dictionary Third ed Oxford Oxford University Press pp 1018 1020 ISBN 019866172X Reeve Michael D 1996 scholia In Hornblower amp Spawforth ed The Oxford Classical Dictionary Third ed Oxford Oxford University Press p 1368 ISBN 019866172X Smith William 1861 Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology Walton and Maberly p 168 a b c d e Kerenyi 1951 p 71 Eros is usually mentioned as the son of Aphrodite but in other versions he is a parentless primordial Diodorus Siculus 4 6 5 Hermaphroditus as he has been called who was born of Hermes and Aphrodite and received a name which is a combination of those of both his parents Pindar Olympian 7 14 makes her the daughter of Aphrodite but does not mention any father Herodorus fr 62 Fowler Fowler 2001 p 253 apud schol Pindar Olympian 7 24 5 Fowler 2013 p 591 make her the daughter of Aphrodite and Poseidon Graves Robert 1960 The Greek Myths London Penguin Books pp 70 ISBN 9780140171990 Diodorus Siculus 4 23 2 Hesychius of Alexandria s v Meligoynis Meligounis this is what the island Lipara was called Also one of the daughters of Aphrodite Apollodorus 1 9 25 Servius on Aeneid 1 574 5 24 Apollodorus 3 14 3 Hesiod Theogony 986 90 Pausanias Description of Greece 1 3 1 using the name Hemera for Eos Gantz 1996 p 104 West 2008 p 36 a b c Cyrino 2010 pp 121 122 a b Lewis amp Llewellyn Jones 2018 p 335 a b Botterweck amp Ringgren 1990 p 35 a b c Cyrino 2010 p 122 Pepin Ronald E 2008 The Vatican Mythographers New York City Fordham University Press p 76 ISBN 978 0 8232 2892 8 De Gubernatis Angelo 1872 Zoological Mythology Or The Legends of Animals Vol 2 Trubner amp Company p 305 ISBN 9780598541062 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 120 123 a b c d e f g h Tinkle 1996 p 81 Cyrino 2010 pp 63 96 Pepin Ronald E 2008 The Vatican Mythographers New York City Fordham University Press p 117 ISBN 978 0 8232 2892 8 Cyrino 2010 p 64 Smith William 1861 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Walton and Maberly s v Melus Cyrino 2010 p 63 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 63 64 Cyrino 2010 pp 123 124 a b c d e f Havelock 2007 p 86 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 76 77 a b Cyrino 2010 p 106 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 106 107 a b Cyrino 2010 p 124 Pitman 2003 pp 9 10 a b c d Grant 1989 p 224 Grant 1989 p 225 a b c Cyrino 2010 p 77 a b c Cyrino 2010 p 76 a b Grant 1989 pp 224 225 a b Palagia amp Pollitt 1996 p 98 a b c Cyrino 2010 pp 77 78 a b c d e Cyrino 2010 p 78 Taylor 1993 pp 96 97 a b c Tinkle 1996 p 80 Link 1995 pp 43 45 a b Taylor 1993 p 97 a b Tinkle 1996 pp 80 81 a b c d Tinkle 1996 p 82 Tinkle 1996 pp 106 08 Tinkle 1996 pp 107 08 Tinkle 1996 p 108 Fossi 1998 p 5 Cunningham amp Reich 2009 p 282 Ames Lewis 2000 pp 193 95 a b c d e Ames Lewis 2000 p 193 a b Tinagli 1997 p 148 a b Bordes 2005 p 189 a b Hill 2007 p 155 a b c d e Tinterow 1999 p 358 McPhee 1986 pp 66 67 Gay 1998 p 128 a b c McPhee 1986 p 66 Gay 1998 p 129 a b c Smith 1996 pp 145 46 a b Smith 1996 p 146 Lakta 2017 pp 56 58 Cyrino 2010 p 131 a b c d e f Lakta 2017 p 58 a b c d Hiscock 2017 p unpaginated Clark 2015 pp 354 55 Clark 2015 p 355 Clark 2015 p 364 a b Clark 2015 pp 361 62 Clark 2015 p 363 Clark 2015 pp 363 64 a b c Brooks amp Alden 1980 pp 836 44 a b Clark 2015 p 369 Clark 2015 pp 369 71 Clark 2015 pp 372 74 a b Cyrino 2010 pp 134 35 Cyrino 2010 p 135 Clifton 2006 p 139 Pizza amp Lewis 2009 pp 327 28 a b c d e Clifton 2006 p 141 a b Gallagher 2005 pp 109 10 a b Sabin 2010 p 125 Sabin 2010 pp 3 4 Gallagher 2005 p 110 Sabin 2010 p 124 World Matthew Brunwasser PRI s The Olympus Mount 20 June 2013 The Greeks who worship the ancient gods BBC News a b c d Alexander 2007 p 23 Alexander 2007 p 9 Alexander 2007 pp 22 23 This chart is based upon Hesiod s Theogony unless otherwise noted According to Homer Iliad 1 570 579 14 338 Odyssey 8 312 Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera and Zeus see Gantz p 74 According to Hesiod Theogony 927 929 Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone with no father see Gantz p 74 According to Hesiod s Theogony 886 890 of Zeus children by his seven wives Athena was the first to be conceived but the last to be born Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena from his head see Gantz pp 51 52 83 84 According to Hesiod Theogony 183 200 Aphrodite was born from Uranus severed genitals see Gantz pp 99 100 According to Homer Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus Iliad 3 374 20 105 Odyssey 8 308 320 and Dione Iliad 5 370 71 see Gantz pp 99 100 General and cited referencesHomer The Iliad with an English Translation by A T Murray PhD in two volumes Cambridge MA Harvard University Press London William Heinemann Ltd 1924 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Hesiod Theogony in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G Evelyn White Cambridge MA Harvard University Press London William Heinemann Ltd 1914 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Evelyn White Hugh The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G Evelyn White Homeric Hymns Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press London William Heinemann Ltd 1914 Pindar Odes Diane Arnson Svarlien 1990 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Euripides The Complete Greek Drama edited by Whitney J Oates and Eugene O Neill Jr in two volumes 2 The Phoenissae translated by E P Coleridge New York Random House 1938 Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica translated by Robert Cooper Seaton 1853 1915 R C Loeb Classical Library Volume 001 London William Heinemann Ltd 1912 Online version at the Topos Text Project Apollodorus Apollodorus The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer F B A F R S in 2 Volumes Cambridge MA Harvard University Press London William Heinemann Ltd 1921 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Pausanias Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W H S Jones Litt D and H A Ormerod M A in 4 Volumes Cambridge MA Harvard University Press London William Heinemann Ltd 1918 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca Historica Vol 1 2 Immanel Bekker Ludwig Dindorf Friedrich Vogel in aedibus B G Teubneri Leipzig 1888 1890 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library Ovid Metamorphoses Translated by A D Melville introduction and notes by E J Kenney Oxford Oxford University Press 2008 ISBN 978 0 19 953737 2 Hyginus Gaius Julius The Myths of Hyginus Edited and translated by Mary A Grant Lawrence University of Kansas Press 1960 Gaius Julius Hyginus Astronomica from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies Online version at the Topos Text Project Ames Lewis Francis 2000 The Intellectual Life of the Early Renaissance Artist New Haven Connecticut Yale University Press ISBN 0 300 09295 4 Alexander Timothy Jay 2007 Hellenismos Today First ed Lulu Press Inc ISBN 978 1 4303 1427 1 Anderson Graham 2000 Fairytale in the Ancient World London Routledge pp 131 32 ISBN 978 0 415 23702 4 Arscott Caroline Scott Katie eds 2000 Manifestations of Venus Art and Sexuality Critical Perspectives in Art History Manchester Manchester University Press ISBN 978 0719055225 Black Jeremy Green Anthony 1992 Gods Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia An Illustrated Dictionary London The British Museum Press ISBN 0 7141 1705 6 Boedeker Deborah 1974 Aphrodite s Entry into Greek Epic Leiden Germany Brill pp 15 16 ISBN missing Beekes Robert S P 2009 Etymological Dictionary of Greek vol 1 Leiden and Boston Brill ISBN 978 90 04 17418 4 Bonner Campbell 1949 KESTOS IMAS and the Saltire of Aphrodite The American Journal of Philology The Johns Hopkins University Press 70 1 1 6 doi 10 2307 290961 JSTOR 290961 Bordes Philippe 2005 Jacques Louis David Empire to Exile New Haven Connecticut Yale University ISBN 0 300 10447 2 Botterweck G Johannes Ringgren Helmer 1990 Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament vol VI Grand Rapids Michigan Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Co ISBN 0 8028 2330 0 Breitenberger Barbara 2007 Aphrodite and Eros The Development of Greek Erotic Mythology New York and London ISBN 978 0 415 96823 2 Brooks Richard A Alden Douglas W 1980 A Critical Bibliography of French Literature vol 6 Syracuse New York Syracuse University Press ISBN 0 8156 2207 4 Bull Malcolm 2005 The Mirror of the Gods How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 521923 6 Bullough Vern L Bullough Bonnie 1993 Cross Dressing Sex and Gender reprint ed Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press p 29 ISBN 978 0812214314 Budin Stephanie L 2010 Aphrodite Enoplion in Smith Amy C Pickup Sadie eds Brill s Companion to Aphrodite Brill s Companions in Classical Studies Leiden The Netherlands Brill Publishers pp 85 86 96 100 102 03 112 123 125 ISBN 978 9047444503 Burkert Walter 1985 Greek Religion Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 36281 0 Burkert Walter 1998 1992 The Orientalizing Revolution Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0674643642 Burkert Walter 2005 Chapter Twenty Near Eastern Connections in Foley John Miles ed A Companion to Ancient Epic New York and London Blackwell Publishing ISBN 978 1 4051 0524 8 Cameron Alan 2004 Greek Mythography in the Roman World New York City New York Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 517121 7 Clark Nora 2015 Aphrodite and Venus in Myth and Mimesis Cambridge England Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN 978 1 4438 7127 3 Clifton Chas S 2006 Her Hidden Children The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America Lanham Maryland AltaMira Press ISBN 978 0 7591 0201 9 Cunningham Lawrence S Reich John Jay 2009 Culture amp Values Volume II A Survey of the Humanities with Readings Cengage Learning ISBN 978 0 495 56926 8 Cyrino Monica S 2010 Aphrodite Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World New York and London Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 77523 6 Delcourt Marie 1961 Hermaphrodite Myths and Rites of the Bisexual Figure in Classical Antiquity translated by Nicholson Jennifer London Studio Books p 27 Dumezil Georges 1934 Ouranos Varuna Etude de mythologie comparee indo europeene Paris Maisonneuve ISBN missing Dunand Francoise 2007 The Religious System in Alexandria in Ogden Daniel ed A Companion to Greek Religion Malden Massachusetts Oxford England and Victoria Australia Blackwell Publishing pp 253 63 ISBN 978 1 4051 2054 8 Fossi Gloria 1998 Botticelli Primavera Inglese ed Giunti Editore Firenze Italy ISBN 978 88 09 21459 0 Frisk Hjalmar 1960 Griechisches etymologisches Worterbuch vol 1 Heidelberg Carl Winter pp 196 f Gallagher Ann Marie 2005 The Wicca Bible The Definitive Guide to Magic and the Craft New York Sterling Publishing Co Inc ISBN 1 4027 3008 X Gantz Timothy 1996 Early Greek Myth A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources Johns Hopkins University Press ISBN 978 0 8018 5360 9 Gay Peter 1998 Pleasure Wars The Bourgeois Experience Victoria to Freud New York and London W W Norton and Company ISBN 0 393 31827 3 Grant Michael 1989 The Classical Greeks History of Civilization New York Charles Schribner s Sons ISBN 0 684 19126 1 Graves Robert 1960 1955 The Greek Myths London Penguin ISBN 978 0241952740 Graz F 1984 Eck W ed Women War and Warlike Divinities Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik Bonn Dr Rudolf Habelt GmbH 55 55 250 JSTOR 20184039 Hansen William 2004 Handbook of Classical Mythology Saint Barbara ABC Clio ISBN 978 1576072264 Hard Robin The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology Based on H J Rose s Handbook of Greek Mythology Psychology Press 2004 ISBN 9780415186360 Google Books Havelock Christine Mitchell 2007 1995 The Aphrodite of Knidos and Her Successors A Historical Review of the Female Nude in Greek Art Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press ISBN 978 0 472 03277 8 Hill Laban Carrick 2007 A Brush With Napoleon An Encounter With Jacques Louis David Art Encounters New York Watson Guptill Publications ISBN 978 0 8230 0417 1 Hiscock Andrew 2017 Suppose thou dost defend me from what is past Shakespeare s Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece and the appetite for ancient memory in Hiscock Andrew Wilder Lina Perkins eds The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Memory New York and London Routledge ISBN 978 1 315 74594 7 Iossif Panagiotis Lorber Catharine 2007 Laodikai and the Goddess Nikephoros L Antiquite Classique 76 77 doi 10 3406 antiq 2007 2618 ISSN 0770 2817 JSTOR 41665635 Janda Michael 2005 Elysion Entstehung und Entwicklung der griechischen Religion Innsbruck Institut fur Sprachen und Literaturen ISBN 978 3851247022 Janda Michael 2010 Die Musik nach dem Chaos der Schopfungsmythos der europaischen Vorzeit Innsbruck Institut fur Sprachen und Literaturen ISBN 978 3851242270 Konaris Michael D 2016 The Greek Gods in Modern Scholarship Interpretation and Belief in Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Germany and Britain Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 873789 6 Kerenyi Karl 1951 The Gods of the Greeks London Thames and Hudson ISBN 0 500 27048 1 Koloski Ostrow Ann Olga Lyons Claire L 2000 Naked Truths Women Sexuality and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology New York and London Routledge pp 230 31 ISBN 0415217520 Lakta Peter 2017 All Adonises Must Die Shakespeare s Venus and Adonis and the episodic imaginary in Marrapodi Michele ed Shakespeare and the Visual Arts The Italian Influence New York and London Routledge ISBN 978 1 315 21225 8 Lewis Sian Llewellyn Jones Lloyd 2018 The Culture of Animals in Antiquity A Sourcebook with Commentaries New York and London Routledge ISBN 978 1 315 20160 3 Link Luther 1995 The Devil A Mask Without a Face London Reaktion Books ISBN 0 948462 67 1 Marcovich Miroslav 1996 From Ishtar to Aphrodite Journal of Aesthetic Education 39 2 43 59 doi 10 2307 3333191 JSTOR 3333191 McKinley Kathryn L 2001 Reading the Ovidian Heroine Metamorphoses Commentaries 1100 1618 Leiden The Netherlands Brill ISBN 90 04 11796 2 McPhee Peter 1986 Proceedings of the Fifth George Rude Seminar in French History Wellington New Zealand Victoria University of Wellington History Department Palagia Olga Pollitt J J 1996 Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 65738 5 Penglase Charles 1994 Greek Myths and Mesopotamia Parallels and Influence in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod New York Routledge ISBN 0 415 15706 4 Pitman Joanna 2003 On Blondes New York City and London Bloomsbury ISBN 978 1 58234 402 7 Pizza Murphy Lewis James R 2009 Handbook of Contemporary Paganism Leiden The Netherlands Brill ISBN 978 90 04 16373 7 Powell Barry B 2012 2004 Myths of Aphrodite Artemis Athena Classical Myth Seventh ed London Pearson pp 211 35 ISBN 978 0 205 17607 6 Puhvel Jaan 1987 Comparative Mythology Baltimore Maryland Johns Hopkins University Press ISBN 0 8018 3938 6 Pirenne Delforge Vinciane 1994 L Aphrodite grecque contribution a l etude de ses cultes et de sa personnalite dans le pantheon archaique et classique Athenes Centre international d etude de la religion grecque antique Kernos Supplement 4 Rosenzweig Rachel 2004 Worshipping Aphrodite Art and Cult in Classical Athens Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press ISBN 0 472 11332 1 Ruck Carl Staples Blaise Daniel 2001 The Apples of Apollo Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist Durham North Carolina Carolina Academic Press pp 64 70 ISBN 0 89089 924 X Sabin Thea 2010 Wicca for Beginners Fundamentals of Philosophy amp Practice Woodbury Minnesota Llewellyn Worldwide ISBN 978 0 7387 1775 3 Simon Erika 1983 Festivals of Attica An Archaeological Companion Madison University of Wisconsin Press ISBN 0 299 09184 8 Slater Philip Elliot 1968 The Glory of Hera Greek Mythology and the Greek Family Princeton New Jersey Princeton University Press ISBN 0 691 00222 3 Smith Alison 1996 The Victorian Nude Sexuality Morality and Art Manchester Manchester University Press ISBN 0 7190 4403 0 Stuttard David 2016 Greek Mythology A Traveler s Guide London and New York Thames and Hudson ISBN 978 0500518328 Taylor Joan E 1993 Christians and the Holy Places The Myth of Jewish Christian Origins Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 814785 6 Tinagli Paola 1997 Women in Italian Renaissance Art Gender Representation and Identity Manchester Manchester University Press ISBN 0 7190 4054 X Tinkle Theresa 1996 Medieval Venuses and Cupids Sexuality Hermeneutics and English Poetry Stanford California Stanford University Press ISBN 978 0804725156 Tinterow Gary 1999 Paris 1841 1867 Portraits by Ingres Image of an Epoch New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art ISBN 0 87099 891 9 Walcot P April 1977 The Judgement of Paris Greece amp Rome Cambridge Cambridge University Press 24 1 31 39 doi 10 1017 S0017383500019616 JSTOR 642687 S2CID 162573370 Wasson R Gordon 1968 Soma Divine Mushroom of Immortality San Diego California Harcourt Brace Jovanovich p 128 ISBN 0 15 683800 1 West M L 2008 1993 Greek Lyric Poetry A New Translation by M L West Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 954039 6 West M L 1997 The East Face of Helicon West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth Oxford England Clarendon Press p 57 ISBN 0 19 815221 3 West M L 2000 The Name of Aphrodite Glotta Gottingen Germany Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht GmbH amp Co KG 76 1 2 H 134 38 JSTOR 40267103 Witczak Krzysztof Tomasz in Polish 1993 Lambert Isebaert ed Greek Aphrodite and her Indo European origins Miscellanea Linguistica Graeco Latina Namur Societe des etudes classiques 115 23 ISBN missing Witt Reginald Eldred 1997 Isis in the Ancient World Baltimore Maryland Johns Hopkins University Press ISBN 0 8018 5642 6 Wunderlich Hans Georg 1987 The Secret of Crete translated by Winston R p 134 ISBN missing External links n, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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