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Chapter Eight, Lecture One Female Olympians The Female Olympians • Mostly reducible to some aspect of fertility • Greek myth told by and for Greek males • With the exception of Aphrodite and Athena, they never do very much Demeter • “Wheat” mother? • Connection with foundation myth of the Eleusinian Mysteries Hestia • Goddess of the house • Few stories (she’s inside all the time) • No love affairs • Had suitors briefly: Apollo and Poseidon • Given honor instead of marriage Aphrodite Aphrodite • Goddess of sexuality • Her lineage – As Aphrodite – Zeus and Dione • Connections with Eastern deities – Istarte, Ishtar, Inanna Aphrodite • One of her epithets is “Cytherea” • Where she came ashore as the “foam” goddess. • The story of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus King of Cyprus • Disgusted by the profligate women of Cyprus • Aphrodite gives his statue (Galatea?) life • Their son is Paphos, name for a city sacred to Aphrodite Cinyras and Myrrha Paphos Eponymous hero of the capital of Cyprus Cinyras Myrrha Aphrodite • Cinyras’s wife boasts that Myrrha is more beautiful than Aphrodite herself. • Aphrodite inflicts Myrrha with a passion for her father, Cinyras. • Cinyras lured into sex with her • Chases her until she turns into the myrrh tree Aphrodite • Her tears are myrrh resin, burned on Aphrodite’s altar – an etiological myth • From the myrrh tree, Adonis is born • Semitic name: “lord,” cf. Adonai, another name for YHWH in the Old Testament Aphrodite • Children by various male deities or associated powers Aphrodite • Eros – Original being or son of Aphrodite and Ares, Hermes, or Zeus – Not originally the Roman cupid, but ideal male beauty Aphrodite • Priapus – Aphrodite and Dionysus or Hermes – Asian garden deity – “priapism” Aphrodite • • • • • • Anchises Prince of Troy Aphrodite “punished” by Zeus Made to fall in love with a mortal man “Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite” His “reward” will be to have a famous son, Aeneas Aphrodite • But he reveals the secret – that Aphrodite is Aeneas’s mother – and Zeus strikes him with a thunderbolt • After that, he is lame • Aeneas goes on to become the legendary founder of the Roman people after his escape from Troy. Next Lecture Artemis Athena
