Aphrodite: Lust or Bust, She’s not who you think she is.
The down and dirty on the Greek Goddess of Love
Aphrodite, like many people, isn’t what She appears to be. She has been portrayed as everyone from a ditzy surfer girl, (Thanks to Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert) to an absentee mother in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter Series; the popular opinion of this member of the Olympian twelve isn’t a deep one. Her parentage may be up for debate, but she’s much stronger than Western culture give her credit for.
Her image has been used in popular media to sell everything from pop music to insane shoes and tasty fruit juice.
These casual mentions of her name border on blasphemy when you consider her original Powers. Love is just the tip of the iceberg, beauty, the arts and sexuality as a whole, (after all, her extra-marital dalliance with Hermes gave life to a child showing both sides of their parentage, Hermaphroditus the first Hermaphrodite.) are among her attributes. Make no mistake though, if people are made in the image of the Gods, it stands to reason that Gods can have flaws as well.
In the case of Aphrodite, the flaw is twofold. First our changing language and understanding of words makes it hard to understand where the definition of LOVE is coming from. The Greeks have MANY words for different types of love. Agápe is unconditional love, and not usually something people associate with Aphrodite. Philia is the familial or friendly love, and where Philadelphia gets its name and “brotherly love” moniker. Secondly, face it, Aphrodite was chosen as “Fairest of them all” and no bee attends to only one flower.
Aphrodite is the goddess of love more in the physical sense, of lust. Erotic love, is the domain of Eros, but for the hot and heavy “wam, bam, thank you Ma’am” Aphrodite is your goddess.
It isn’t uncommon to attend a Pagan gathering and hear someone lamenting their love life. “Suzy” just can’t understand why she can’t find the right guy. After all, she’s been praying and lighting incense to Aphrodite for months. All Suzy can find are hot, sexy, bikers with no mailing address and a convenient memory lapse in the morning. When will she ever meet a nice boy to settle down with? Never, if it’s only Aphrodite you’re going to Offer to.
Aphrodite was described by a Hellenic Priestess I know (we’ll call her Agrotera) as “all the bad decisions that women can make with their bodies”. Rather than lumping her in with the hearts and flowers Hallmark set, think of her as the girlfriend who wants you to find a good lay before settling down. Her idea of a good time will physically make you happy, but devotionals to Her aren’t going to find you a safe, stable, faithful relationship. After all, She wasn’t faithful to Hephaestus in the least.
This isn’t to say I don’t work with her. I do, but I’m not asking her to find me Mr. Right. I’ve already found him. That’s not to say offerings of Apples, Honey (and honey wine), flowers and perfumes don’t decorate her altar. I’m just honoring Her (and the divine lover within myself), by asking for the occasional lustful boost in my life.
More information:
Abouthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Theoi
References:
* Buxton, Richard. The Complete World of Greek Mythology. Thames & Hudson, 2004. ISBN 978-0500251218
* Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion (John Raffan, trans.). Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1985. ISBN 0631112413
* Jones, W.S. (trans.) Pausianas: Descriptions of Greece. London, 1931.
* Pfister, Friedrich. Greek Gods and Heroes (Mervyn Savill, trans.). London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1961.
* Rose, H. J. A Handbook of Greek Mythology. Routledge, 1990. ISBN 978-0415046015
* Rosenzweig, R. Worshipping Aphrodite: Art and Cult in Classical Athens. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2004. ISBN 0-472-11332-1
*Don’t mistake my mention of these amazing people and their work as criticism! I adore both “Xena” and the Dark Hunters. Public Pagans and appreciative mundanes are always welcome. Even if their work isn’t intended to be a scholarly examination on their persona, having attention directed toward them will help point people in the right direction.
1 comment:
By the late 5th century BC, certain philosophers had begun to draw a distinction between two separate "Aphrodites" (as opposed to a single Aphrodite whose characteristics varied slightly in different local cults of the goddess): Aphrodite Ourania, the celestial Aphrodite, born from the sea foam after Cronus castrated Uranus, and Aphrodite Pandemos, the common Aphrodite "of all the folk", born from the union of Zeus and Dione.[24] Among the neo-Platonists and, later, their Christian interpreters, Aphrodite Ourania is associated with spiritual love, and Aphrodite Pandemos with physical love (desire). A representation of Aphrodite Ourania with her foot resting on a tortoise came to be seen as emblematic of discretion in conjugal love. (We know of this representation, said to have been a chryselephantine sculpture made by Phidias for Elis, only from a parenthetical comment by the geographer Pausanias). Plato , in his Symposium, has one of his characters, an Athenian named Pausanias (no relation to the geographer Pausanias), describe Aphrodite as two goddesses, one older, the other younger. The older one, Urania, is the daughter of Uranus, and inspires homosexual male (and more specifically, ephebic) love/eros; the younger is named Pandemos, the daughter of Zeus and Dione, and all love for women comes from her. The speech of Pausanias distinguishes two manifestations of Aphrodite, represented by the two stories: Aphrodite Ourania ("heavenly" Aphrodite), and Aphrodite Pandemos ("Common" Aphrodite).
Post a Comment