
Aphrodite/Venus
Greek and Roman goddess The ideal of feminine charm
The poets celebrated the perfect shape of her face, the sparkle of her eyes, her smiling mouth and the beauty of her breasts. A proud and cruel goddess, she haunted animal nature and reigned over the hearts and senses of men. Her worship was assimilated by the Romans with that of Venus, a goddess of ancient Italy.
Her origin According to Homer, she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione (Iliad, V, 312). According to Hesiod, she was born from the foam impregnated by the sexual organs of Uranus, which Cronos had severed and thrown into the sea. ‘The woman born of the waves’ was thus one of the first goddesses (Theogo1!}, 188 ff.). As soon as she came out of the water she was transported by the Zephyrs, first to Cythera and then to the shores of Cyprus. There she was dressed, covered in jewels, perfumed and taken to the immortals. From these two different origins, Plato identified two Aphrodites.
One, the daughter of Uranus, also called Urania, was the noble goddess of pure love. The other, the daughter of Dione, also called Pandemos, was the goddess of ‘common’ love. (The Banquet, VIII, 180) Her loves She married Hephaestus, the lame god (Otfyssey, VIII, 266–366), but outrageously deceived him with Ares, the god of war.
The two lovers were discovered by Phoebus, who rushed to inform Hephaestus. Hephaestus set a trap for them in the form of a net with invisible mesh and invited all the gods from Olympus to witness his misfortune. Surprised like this, Aphrodite fled in shame to Cyprus, and Ares to Thrace. From their union were born Eros (Love), Anteros (Love in return), Deimos and Phobos (Terror and Fear).
The frivolous Aphrodite, however, did not have only. one lover. Her passion for Adonis was well-known (Apollodorus, III, 14, 3). She also loved the shepherd, Anchises, whom she met on Mount Ida. Aeneas was their son (Iliad, II, 819). She had relationships with Hermes and with Dionysus, by whom she had Priapus.
Her favorites were Phaethon (Theogo1!}, 988), Cinyras (Iliad, XI, 20), Butes and Paris. She was jealous and made Eos (Dawn) conceive an impossible love for Orion because she had seduced Ares. Her weapons were varied and cruel, and she punished all those who would not succumb to her. She led the daughters of Cinyras into prostitution and inflicted a foul smell on the Lemnians who had neglected to worship
her. These women, abandoned by their husbands, killed all the men on the island and founded a society of women.
Her power was immense. She made Pasiphae fall in love with the bull of Minos. Her victims included Helen, Medea, Ariadne, Phaedra, and Hippodameia, to name but a few. The beauty competition Who was the most beautiful of the three goddesses: Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite?
This was the question posed by Eris (Discord), and the prize for whoever won the contest was a golden apple (the apple of strife). The contest itself has organized Zeus and took place on Mount Ida, and: here was only one judge, Paris. The three goddesses each knew how to make the best =l certain advantages which did not necessarily have any bearing on the subject of the contest.
Thus Hera offered Paris kingship the universe, Athena offered him invincibility in war, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful mortal, Helen. In this way, Aphrodite won the prize and also became the cause of the Trojan War. Eros and Aphrodite
One was the god, the other the goddess, of .JOVe. Their functions, however, were not the same. Eros was often considered as a primordial god and was the power of mstinct. When Aphrodite appeared, he adapted himself to her and joined forces with her. Aphrodite marked the moment when the sexes became distinct. Along with Aphrodite ‘ere born the chatter of young girls, smiles, deception, charm and seduction.
marriage was one of the boundaries which separated the domains of Artemis and Aphrodite. The former was the chaste goddess who preferred hunting to seducing men. Her kingdom was that of the young girl. However, for the young girl, it was only a place through which she must pass; she could not stay there and leaving it would cost her her toys and dolls. The rhetorician Libanus said, ‘Girls go from Artemis to Aphrodite.’.
Aphrodite’s kingdom was elsewhere. It was the place of desire. No one could escape. Remember Atalanta who tried to flee from ‘Aphrodite’s gifts’ and keep her virginity? She had dedicated her life to the hunt, even turning her relationships with men into a manhunt, a game of chess. But when she was unable to keep her virginity any longer, Atalanta was trapped by Aphrodite’s wiles and turned into a lion.
Sometimes Aphrodite consumed women with violent and ungovernable passions. Think of the story of Diomedes, king of Thrace, who sent his mares to devour passersby. Those horrible animals were Charm, beauty, seduction, and sensuality were all qualities of Aphrodite. Here we can see the even .features of her face, the penetrating gaze, and the flowing drapery which both reveals and hides her perfect body.
Terracotta figurine from Myrina or Pergamon end of the 11th century. BCE.
The Romans were particularly religious. Their religion consisted essentially of making agreements with the gods. However, they also knew that they could not force their ‘partners’ in the same way.
From this comes the prime importance of the Venia, the grace, the free benevolence which they expected more specifically from Venus, hence her name. Venus was the goddess that they particularly ‘venerated’.or had great respect.