Download Aphrodite/Venus Assignment

1. Aphrodite/Venus
Aphrodite at a Glance
name | Aphrodite
role | goddess of love and beauty
symbols | sceptre, myrtle, dove
Aphrodite in Greek Mythology
As the Greek goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite holds great power over both mortals and
immortals. While several legends of Aphrodite emphasize themes of love and desire, some of most
compelling myths deal with the consequences that the goddess herself suffers as a result of being the
victim of love. The story of Aphrodite and her interlude with the human Adonis makes for an
interesting study of the double-edged sword that passion can be. In this myth, the vulnerability of the
goddess is poignant. This vulnerability points to the fact that in Greek mythology even the gods could
suffer and were certainly not immune to the pains and passions that we, as humans, experience.
Birth of Aphrodite
There are a couple of versions of the birth of Aphrodite, which, although they differ, are not necessarily
contradictory. According to Homer (Iliad, Book V, 370), the goddess is simply the daughter of Zeus and
Dione (a name that is merely the feminine form of Zeus in Greek). However, the poet Hesiod (Theogony,
188-198) provides a much more elaborate explanation for her birth: he claims that the name Aphrodite
is derived from aphros or foam, and thus the goddess was born of this substance. The tale states that the
Titan Kronos castrated his father Ouranos, and then cast the severed genitals into the sea. From the
foam that gathered around the member, Aphrodite emerged, fully formed. Hesiod's description,
however gruesome it may seem, does have the advantage of attaching a certain meaning to the birth of
the goddess, which I leave to the reader to ascertain. At any rate, this version also lends a poetic quality
to Aphrodite's creation, in that as Anadyomene ("she who emerges"), she was depicted by countless
artists.
Legends of Aphrodite
As we have seen, Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and desire. Therefore, it should come as no
surprise that there are abundant examples of Aphrodite's intimate relationships with both gods and
men. Perhaps the most notorious of these legends is of her affair with the war god Ares. According to
the myth, Aphrodite was married to the god of smiths, Hephaistos. However, the golden goddess
apparently tended to abandon poor Hephaistos as soon as his burly back was turned, for on many
occasions she was to be found in the arms of her lover (one consequence of this illicit affair is included
in the Odyssey…. As a result of these romantic interludes, Aphrodite bore three children to Ares:
Deimos ("terror"), Phobos ("fear"), and a daughter named Harmonia ("concord").
In addition, the goddess of love also engaged in other fruitful unions with male deities,
including flings with Dionysos and Hermes.
It was even suggested in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite that there were only three deities who
could resist the passions that Aphrodite aroused, and they were Athena, Artemis, and Hestia. Note that
all three were goddesses, and all were also virgins by choice. With the exception of these goddesses,
however, anyone foolish enough to ignore Aphrodite was courting disaster, as the following myth will
demonstrate.
According to one legend, Aphrodite used her powers to punish Eos, the goddess of the dawn.
You see, Eos made the mistake of engaging in a tryst with Ares. The result of this unfortunate choice on
the part of poor Eos was that the jealous Aphrodite punished the dawn goddess with an insatiable
appetite for love. This punishment had a profound effect on Eos, for she was compelled to take a series
of lovers, including Cephalus, Tithonus, and Orion (Eos seemed to prefer abducting her paramours,
much to their dismay). The outcome of these unions was often disastrous to the man involved, and so
Aphrodite's revenge was complete.
http://www.loggia.com/myth/aphrodite.html
Aphrodite (ăfrudī'tē), in Greek religion and mythology, goddess of fertility, love, and beauty. Homer
designated her the child of Zeus and Dione. Hesiod's account of her birth is more popular: she
supposedly rose from the foam of the sea where Uranus' genitals had fallen after he had been mutilated
by Kronos. Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus. She loved Ares, by whom she bore Harmonia and,
in some myths, Eros and Anteros. She was the mother of Hermaphroditus by Hermes and of Priapus
by Dionysus. Zeus caused her to love the shepherd Anchises, by whom she bore Aeneas. Adonis, in
whose legend Aphrodite appears as a goddess of fertility, also won her favors. It was to Aphrodite that
Paris awarded the apple of discord, which caused the dispute leading ultimately to the Trojan War.
Worshiped throughout Greece, she was the goddess of love, marriage, and family life; she was also
worshiped as a war goddess, as at Sparta, and as a sea goddess and patroness of sailors. Aphrodite had
important cults at Cythera on Crete, at Paphos and Amathas on Cyprus, at Corinth, and at Mt. Eryx in
Sicily. Probably of Eastern origin, she was similar in many of her attributes to the ancient Middle
Eastern goddesses Astarte and Ishtar. The Romans identified Aphrodite with Venus.
Venus, in Roman religion and mythology, goddess of vegetation. Later, she became identified (3d cent.
B.C.) with the Greek Aphrodite. In imperial times she was worshiped as Venus Genetrix, mother of
Aeneas; Venus Felix, the bringer of good fortune; Venus Victrix, bringer of victory; and Venus
Verticordia, protector of feminine chastity. The most famous representations of Aphrodite or Venus in
sculpture are the Venus of Milo or Melos (Louvre); the Venus of Medici or Medicean Aphrodite (Uffizi); the
Venus of Capua (national museum, Naples); and the Capitoline Venus (Capitoline Mus., Rome). The
Venus of Milo is a Greek statue in marble, generally dated to the 2d or 1st cent. B.C. Found (1820) on the
island of Melos, it was taken by the French ambassador to Turkey and was eventually presented by
Louis XVIII to the Louvre. The Venus of Medici belongs to the 3d cent. B.C. It is probably derived from
Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Cnidus, which was destroyed.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights
reserved.
Adonis and Aphrodite in Myth
Aphrodite, playing one day with her boy Eros, wounded her bosom with one of his arrows. She
pushed him away, but the wound was deeper than she thought. Before it healed she beheld Adonis,
and was captivated with him. She no longer took any interest in her favorite resorts - Paphos, and
Cnidos, and Amanthos, rich in metals. She absented herself even from heaven [Olympus], for Adonis
was dearer to her than heaven. Him she followed and bore him company. She who used to love to
recline in the shade, with no care but to cultivate her charms, now rambles through the woods and over
the hills, dressed like the huntress Artemis; and calls her dogs, and chases hares and stags, or other
game that it is safe to hunt, but keeps clear of the wolves and bears, reeking with the slaughter of the
herd. She charged Adonis, too, to beware of such dangerous animals. "Be brave towards the timid,"
said she; "courage against the courageous is not safe. Beware how you expose yourself to danger and
put my happiness to risk. Attack not the beasts that Nature has armed with weapons. I do not value
your glory so high as to consent to purchase it by such exposure. Your youth, and the beauty that
charms Aphrodite, will not touch the hearts of lions and bristly boars. Think of their terrible claws and
prodigious strength! I hate the whole race of them. Do you ask me why?" Then she told him the story of
Atalanta and Hippomenes, who were changed into lions for their ingratitude to her.
Having given him this warning, she mounted her chariot drawn by swans, and drove away through
the air. But Adonis was too noble to heed such counsels. The dogs had roused a wild boar from his lair,
and the youth threw his spear and wounded the animal with a sidelong stroke. The beast drew out the
weapon with his jaws, and rushed after Adonis, who turned and ran; but the boar overtook him, and
buried his tusks in his side, and stretched him dying upon the plain.
Aphrodite, in her swan-drawn chariot, had not yet reached Cyprus, when she heard coming up
through mid-air the groans of her beloved, and turned her white-winged coursers back to earth. As she
drew near and saw from on high his lifeless body bathed in blood, she alighted and, bending over it,
beat her breast and tore her hair. Reproaching the Fates, she said, "Yet theirs shall be but a partial
triumph; memorials of my grief shall endure, and the spectacle of your death, my Adonis, and of my
lamentations shall be annually renewed. Your blood shall be changed into a flower; that consolation
none can envy me." Thus speaking, she sprinkled nectar on the blood; and as they mingled, bubbles
rose as in a pool on which raindrops fall, and in an hour's time there sprang up a flower of bloody hue
like that of the pomegranate. But it is short-lived. It is said that the wind blows the blossoms open, and
afterwards blows the petals away; so it is called Anemone, or Wind Flower, from the cause which
assists equally in its production and its decay.
from Bulfinch's Mythology
You need to find evidence for this allusion in the novel. List your evidence (quotations) followed by
commentary/analysis of its significance. Be sure to cite correctly.
Evidence
Commentary