[1] Hom. 1-22 begin with the letters of the Syriac alphabet in
succession. Their present order in the Syriac MSS. is therefore
right. The ancient Armenian version, published by Antonelli in 1756,
has only 19 of the homilies, and those in a somewhat different order.
APHRODITE,[1] the Greek goddess of love and beauty, counterpart of the
Roman Venus. Although her myth and cult were essentially Semitic, she
soon became Hellenized and was admitted to a place among the deities of
Olympus. Some mythologists hold that there already existed in the Greek
system an earlier goddess of love, of similar attributes, who was
absorbed by the Asiatic importation; and one writer (A. Enmann) goes so
far as to deny the oriental origin of Aphrodite altogether. It is
therefore necessary first to examine the nature and characteristics of
her Eastern prototype, and then to see how far they reappear in the
Greek Aphrodite.
Among the Semitic peoples (with the notable exception of the Hebrews) a
supreme female deity was worshipped under different names--the Assyrian
Ishtar, the Phoenician Ashtoreth (Astarte), the Syrian Atargatis
(Derketo), the Babylonian Belit (Mylitta), the Arabian Ilat (Al-ilat).
The article "Aphrodite" in Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_ is based
upon the theory that all these were originally moon-goddesses, on which
assumption all their functions are explained. This view, however, has
not met with general acceptance, on the ground that, in Semitic
mythology, the moon is always a male divinity; and that the full moon
and crescent, found as attributes of Astarte, are due to a
misinterpretation of the sun's disk and cow's horns of Isis, the result
of the dependence of Syrian religious art upon Egypt. On the other hand,
there is some evidence in ancient authorities (Herodian v. 6, 10;
Lucian, _De Dea Syria_, 4) that Astarte and the moon were considered
identical.
This oriental Aphrodite was worshipped as the bestower of all animal and
vegetable fruitfulness, and under this aspect especially as a goddess of
women. This worship was degraded by repulsive practices (e.g. religious
prostitution, self-mutilation), which subsequently made their way to
centres of Phoenician influence, such as Corinth and Mount Eryx in
Sicily. In this connexion may be mentioned the idea of a divinity, half
male, half female, uniting in itself the active and passive functions of
creation, a symbol of luxuriant growth and productivity. Such was the
bearded Aphrodite of Cyprus, called Aphrodites by Aristophanes according
to Macrobius, who mentions a statue of the androgynous divinity in his
_Saturnalia_ (iii. 8. 2; see also HERMAPHRODITUS). The moon, by its
connexion with menstruation, and as the cause of the fertilizing dew,
was regarded as exercising an influence over the entire animal and
vegetable creation.
The Eastern Aphrodite was closely related to the sea and the element of
moisture; in fact, some consider that she made her first appearance on
Greek soil rather as a marine divinity than as a nature goddess.
According to Syrian ideas, as a fish goddess, she represented the
fructifying power of water. At Ascalon there was a lake full of fish
near the temple of Atargatis-Derketo, into which she was said to have
been thrown together with her son Ichthys (fish) as a punishment for her
arrogance, and to have been devoured by fishes; according to another
version, ashamed of her amour with a beautiful youth, which resulted in
the birth of Semiramis, she attempted to drown herself, but was changed
into a fish with human face (see ATARGATIS). At Hierapolis (Bambyce)
there was a pool with an altar in the middle, sacred to the goddess,
where a festival was held, at which her images were carried into the
water. Her connexion with the sea is explained by the influence of the
moon on the tides, and the idea that the moon, like the sun and the
stars, came up from the ocean.
The oriental Aphrodite is connected with the lower world, and came to be
looked upon as one of its divinities. Thus, Ishtar descends to the
kingdom of Ilat the queen of the dead, to find the means of restoring
her favourite Tammuz (Adon, Adonis) to life. During her stay all animal
and vegetable productivity ceases, to begin again with her return to
earth--a clear indication of the conception of her as a goddess of
fertility. This legend, which strikingly resembles that of Persephone,
probably refers to the decay of vegetation in winter, and the
reawakening of nature in spring (cf. HYACINTHUS). The lunar theory
connects it with the disappearance of the moon at the time of change or
during an eclipse.
Another aspect of her character is that of a warlike goddess, armed with
spear or bow, sometimes wearing a mural crown, as sovereign lady and
protectress of the locality where she was worshipped. The spear and
arrows are identified with the beams of the sun and moon.
The attributes of the goddess were the ram, the he-goat, the dove,
certain fish, the cypress, myrtle and pomegranate, the animals being
symbolical of fertility, the plants remedies against sterility.
The worship of Aphrodite at an early date was introduced into Cyprus,
Cythera and Crete by Phoenician colonists, whence it spread over the
whole of Greece, and as far west as Italy and Sicily. In Crete she has
been identified with Ariadne, who, according to one version of her
story, was put ashore in Cyprus, where she died and was buried in a
grove called after the name of Ariadne-Aphrodite (L.R. Farnell, _Cults
of the Greek States_, ii. p. 663). Cyprus was regarded as her true home
by the Greeks, and Cythera was one of the oldest seats of her worship
(cf. her titles Cytherea, Cypris, Paphia, Amathusia, Idalia--the last
three from places in Cyprus). In both these islands there lingered a
definite tradition of a connexion with the cult of the oriental
Aphrodite Urania, an epithet which will be referred to later. The
oriental features of her worship as practised at Corinth are due to its
early commercial relations with Asia Minor; the fame of her temple
worship on Mount Eryx spread to Carthage, Rome and Latium.
In the _Iliad_, Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione, a name by
which she herself is sometimes called. This has been supposed to point
to a confusion between Aphrodite and Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and
Hera, Dione being an Epirot name for the last-named goddess. In the
_Odyssey_, she is the wife of Hephaestus, her place being taken in the
_Iliad_ by Charis, the personification of grace and divine skill,
possibly supplanted by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Her
amour with Ares, by whom she became the mother of Harmonia, the wife of
Cadmus, is famous (_Od._ viii. 266). From her relations with these
acknowledged Hellenic divinites it is argued that there once existed a
primitive Greek goddess of love. This view is examined in detail and
rejected by Farnell (_Cults_, ii. pp. 619-626).
It is admitted that few traces remain of direct relations of the Greek
goddess to the moon, although such possibly survive in the epithets
[Greek: pasiphes, asteria, ourania]. It is suggested that this is due to
the fact that, at the time of the adoption of the oriental goddess, the
Greeks already possessed lunar divinities in Hecate, Selene, Artemis.
But, although her connexion with the moon has practically disappeared,
in all other aspects a development from the Semitic divinity is clearly
manifest.
Aphrodite as the goddess of all fruitfulness in the animal and vegetable
world is especially prominent. In the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite she is
described as ruling over all living things on earth, in the air, and in
the water, even the gods being subject to her influence. She is the
goddess of gardens, especially worshipped in spring and near lowlands
and marshes, favourable to the growth of vegetation. As such in Crete
she is called Antheia ("the flower-goddess"), at Athens [Greek: en
kepois] ("in the gardens"), and [Greek: en kalamois] ("in the
reed-beds") or [Greek: en elei] ("in the marsh") at Samos. Her character
as a goddess of vegetation is clearly shown in the cult and ritual of
Adonis (q.v.; also Farnell, ii. p. 644) and Attis (q.v.). In the animal
world she is the goddess of sexual impulse; amongst men, of birth,
marriage, and family life. To this aspect may be referred the names
Genetyllis ("bringing about birth"), Arma ([Greek: aro], "to join,"
i.e., in marriage, cf. Harmonia), Nymphia ("bridal goddess"),
Kourotrophos ("rearer of boys"). Aphrodite Apaturus (see G.M. Hirst in
_Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxiii., 1903) refers to her connexion
with the clan and the festival Apaturia, at which children were admitted
to the _phratria_. It is pointed out by Farnell that this cult of
Aphrodite, as the patroness of married life, is probably a native
development of the Greek religion, the oriental legends representing her
by no means as an upholder of the purer relations of man and woman. As
the goddess of the grosser form of love she inspires both men and women
with passion ([Greek: epistrophia], "turning them to" thoughts of love),
or the reverse ([Greek: apostrophia], "turning them away"). Upon her
male favourites (Paris, Theseus) she bestows the fatal gift of seductive
beauty, which generally leads to disastrous results in the case of the
woman (Helen, Ariadne). As [Greek: mechanitis] ("contriver") she acts as
an intermediary for bringing lovers together, a similar idea being
expressed in [Greek: preis] (of "success" in love, or=_creatrix_). The
two epithets [Greek: androphonos] ("man-slayer") and [Greek: sosandra]
("man-preserver") find an illustration in the pseudo-Plautine (in the
_Mercator_) address to Astarte, who is described as the life and death,
the saviour and destroyer of men and gods. It was natural that a
personality invested with such charms should be regarded as the ideal of
womanly beauty, but it is remarkable that the only probable instance in
which she appears as such is as Aphrodite [Greek: morpho] ("form") at
Sparta (O. Gruppe suggests the meaning "ghost," C. Tumpel the "dark
one," referring to Aphrodite's connexion with the lower world). The
function of Aphrodite as the patroness of courtesans represents the most
degraded form of her worship as the goddess of love, and is certainly of
Phoenician or Eastern origin. In Corinth there were more than a thousand
of these [Greek: ierodouloi] ("temple slaves"), and wealthy men made it
a point of honour to dedicate their most beautiful slaves to the service
of the goddess.
Like her oriental prototype, the Greek Aphrodite was closely connected
with the sea. Thus, in the Hesiodic account of her birth, she is
represented as sprung from the foam which gathered round the mutilated
member of Uranus, and her name has been explained by reference to this.
Further proof may be found in many of her titles--[Greek: anaduomene]
("rising from the sea"), [Greek: enploia] ("giver of prosperous
voyages"), [Greek: galenaia] ("goddess of fair weather"), [Greek:
kataskopia] ("she who keeps a look-out from the heights")--in the
attribute of the dolphin, and the veneration in which she was held by
seafarers. Aphrodite Aineias, the protectress of the Trojan hero, is
probably also another form of the maritime goddess of the East (see E.
Worner, article "Aineias" in Roscher's _Lexikon_, and Farnell, ii. p.
638), which originated in the Troad, where Aphrodite Aineias may have
been identical with the earth-goddess Cybele. The title [Greek:
ephippos] is connected with the legend of Aeneas, who is said to have
dedicated to his mother a statue that represented her on horseback.
Remembering the importance of the horse in the cult of the sea-god
Poseidon, it is natural to associate it with Aphrodite as the
sea-goddess, although it may be explained with reference to her
character as a goddess of vegetation, the horse being an embodiment of
the corn-spirit (see J.G. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, ii., 1900, p.
281).
Like Ishtar, Aphrodite was connected with the lower world. Thus, at
Delphi there was an image of Aphrodite [Greek: epitumbia] ("Aphrodite of
the tomb"), to which the dead were summoned to receive libations; the
epithets [Greek: tumboruchos] ("grave-digger"), [Greek: muchia]
("goddess of the depths"), [Greek: melainis] ("the dark one"), the grave
of Ariadne-Aphrodite at Amathus, and the myth of Adonis, point in the
same direction.
The cult of the armed Aphrodite probably belongs to the earlier period
of her worship in Greece, and down to the latest period of Greek history
she retained this character in some of the Greek states. The cult is
found not only where oriental influence was strongest, but in places
remote from it, such as Sparta, where she was known by the name of Areia
("the warlike"), and there are numerous references in the _Anthology_ to
an Aphrodite armed with helmet and spear. It is possible that the
frequent association of Aphrodite with Ares is to be explained by an
armed Aphrodite early worshipped at Thebes, the most ancient seat of the
worship of Ares.
The most distinctively oriental title of the Greek Aphrodite is Urania,
the Semitic "queen of the heavens." It has been explained by reference
to the lunar character of the goddess, but more probably signifies "she
whose seat is in heaven," whence she exercises her sway over the whole
world--earth, sea, and air alike. Her cult was first established in
Cythera, probably in connexion with the purple trade, and at Athens it
is associated with the legendary Porphyrion, the purple king. At Thebes,
Harmonia (who has been identified with Aphrodite herself) dedicated
three statues, of Aphrodite Urania, Pandemos, and Apostrophia. A few
words must be added on the second of these titles. There is no doubt
that Pandemos was originally an extension of the idea of the goddess of
family and city life to include the whole people, the political
community. Hence the name was supposed to go back to the time of
Theseus, the reputed author of the reorganization of Attica and its
demes. Aphrodite Pandemos was held in equal regard with Urania; she was
called [Greek: semue] ("holy"), and was served by priestesses upon whom
strict chastity was enjoined. In time, however, the meaning of the term
underwent a change, probably due to the philosophers and moralists, by
whom a radical distinction was drawn between Aphrodite Urania and
Pandemos. According to Plato (_Symposium_, 180), there are two
Aphrodites, "the elder, having no mother, who is called the heavenly
Aphrodite--she is the daughter of Uranus; the younger, who is the
daughter of Zeus and Dione--her we call common." The same distinction is
found in Xenophon's _Symposium_ (viii. 9), although the author is
doubtful whether there are two goddesses, or whether Urania and Pandemos
are two names for the same goddess, just as Zeus, although one and the
same, has many titles; but in any case, he says, the ritual of Urania is
purer, more serious, than that of Pandemos. The same idea is expressed
in the statement (quoted by Athenaeus, 569d, from Nicander of Colophon)
that after Solon's time courtesans were put under the protection of
Aphrodite Pandemos. But there is no doubt that the cult of Aphrodite was
on the whole as pure as that of any other divinities, and although a
distinction may have existed in later times between the goddess of legal
marriage and the goddess of free love, these titles do not express the
idea. Aphrodite Urania was represented in Greek art on a swan, a
tortoise or a globe; Aphrodite Pandemos as riding on a goat, symbolical
of wantonness. (For the legend of Theseus and Aphrodite hepitagia, "on
the goat," see Farnell, _Cults_, ii. p. 633.)
To her oriental attributes the following may be added: the sparrow and
hare (productivity), the wry-neck (as a love-charm, of which Aphrodite
was considered the inventor), the swan and dolphin (as a marine
divinity), the tortoise (explained by Plutarch as a symbol of
domesticity, but connected by Gruppe with the marine deity), the rose,
the poppy, and the lime tree.
In ancient art Aphrodite was at first represented clothed, sometimes
seated, but more frequently standing; then naked, rising from the sea,
or after the bath. Finally, all idea of the divine vanished, and the
artists merely presented her as the type of a beautiful woman, with oval
face, full of grace and charm, languishing eyes, and laughing mouth,
which replaced the dignified severity and repose of the older forms. The
most famous of her statues in ancient times was that at Cnidus, the work
of Praxiteles, which was imitated on the coins of that town, and
subsequently reproduced in various copies, such as the Vatican and
Munich. Of existing statues the most famous is the Aphrodite of Melos
(Venus of Milo), now in the Louvre, which was found on the island in
1820 amongst the ruins of the theatre; the Capitoline Venus at Rome and
the Venus of Capua, represented as a goddess of victory (these two
exhibit a lofty conception of the goddess); the Medicean Venus at
Florence, found in the porticus of Octavia at Rome and (probably
wrongly) attributed to Cleomenes; the Venus stooping in the bath, in the
Vatican; and the Callipygos at Naples, a specimen of the most sensual
type.
For the oriental Aphrodite, see E. Meyer, article "Astarte" in W.H.
Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_, and Wolf Baudissin, articles
"Astarte" and "Atargatis" in Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyklopadie fur
protestantische Theologie_; for the Greek, articles m Roscher's
_Lexikon_ and Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_; L. Preller,
_Griechische Mythologie_ (4th ed. by C. Robert); L.R. Farnell, _Cults
of the Greek States_, ii. (1896); O. Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie
und Religionsgeschichte_, ii. (1906); L. Dyer, _The Gods in Greece_
(1891); A. Enmann, _Kypros und der Ursprung des Aphrodite-Kults_
(1886). W.H. Engel, _Kypros_, ii. (1841), and J.B. Lajard, _Recherches
sur le culte de Venus_ (1837), may still be consulted with advantage.
For Aphrodite in art see J.J. Bernoulli, _Aphrodite_ (1873); W.J.
Stillman, _Venus and Apollo in Painting and Sculpture_ (1897). In the
article GREEK ART, figs. 71 (pl. v.) and 77 (pi. vi.) represent
Aphrodite of Cridus and Melos respectively. (J. H. F.)