Aphrodite urania and Aphrodite pandemos
-Hesiod links the goddess closely with Cythera and with Cyprus so she is called both Cytherea and Cypris. Another version over her birth gives her parents as Zeus and Dione, which is the feminine form of the name Zeus. -The double tradition of Aphrodite's birth suggests a basic duality in her character or the existence of two separate goddesses of love: Aphrodite Urania or Celestial Aphrodite, sprung from Uranus alone, ethereal and sublime; Aphrodite Pandermos, sprung from Zeus and Dione, is essentially physical in nature. The Aphrodite who sprang from Uranus becomes for philosophy and religion, the celestial goddess of pure and spiritual love and the antithesis of Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus and Dione, the goddess of physical attraction and procreation. The distinction between sacred and profane love is one of the most profound archetypes in the history of civilization.
The nature and appearance of Aphrodite
-In general, she is the goddess of beauty, love and marriage. She possessed a magic girdle with irresistible powers of enticement. She is a beautiful, irresistible woman.
Attendants of Aphrodite
-The Graces (charites) and the hours or seasons (horae) are often associated with Aphrodite as decorative and appropriate attendants. The Graces, generally three are personifications of aspects of loveliness. The Horae, daughters of Zeus and Themis are sometimes difficult to distinguish from the Graces but they eventually emerge with clearer identity as the seasons; so they are usually thought of as a group of two, three or four.
The phallic priapus
-The more elemental and physical aspects of Aphrodite's nature are seen in her son, Priapus. His father may be Hermes, Dionysus, Pan, Adonis or even Zeus. Priapus is a fertility god, depicted as deformed. He is found in gardens and at the doors of houses. He is part scarecrow, part bringer of luck and part guardian against thieves so he has something in common with Hermes. He also resembles Dionysus and Pan. Stories about him usually come to be comic and obscene.
Pygmalion
-Ovid tells how Aphrodite was enraged with the women of Cyprus because they dared to deny her divinity so the goddess caused them to be the first women to prostitute themselves and as they lost all their sense of shame, it was easy to turn them into stone. Ovid relates the story of Pygmalion and the result of his disgust for these women. Pygmalion, seeing these women was disgusted and decided not to take a wife however, he made a statue of ivory of a beautiful woman and he fell in love with it. He made a prayer to transform the statue intop a real woman. Aphrodite granted his wish and he and the maiden had a son, Paphos and from him the place got its name. Galatea is the name given to Pygmalion's beloved in later versions of the tale.
Aphrodite and Adonis
-In the most famous of her myths, Aphrodite is confused with the great Phoenician goddess Astarte; they have in common as their love a young and handsome youth name by the Greeks Adonis. Paphos had a son, Cinyras. Myrrha, the daughter of Cinyras fell in love with her own father. It was arranged that she went to bed with her father without him knowing her identity. Cinyras found out and Myrrha escaped and was changed into a Myrrh tree which continually drips with her tears. She had become pregnant by her father and she gave birth to Adonis. At the sight of him, Aphrodite fell in love. Adonis however died hunting and Aphrodite transformed him into a flower. -Another myth tells that when Adonis was an infant, Aphrodite put him in a chest and gave it to Persephone to keep but once she saw his beauty, she refused to give him back. Zeus decided that Adonis would stay with Persephone below one part of the year and with Aphrodite in the upper world for the other part.
Cybele and Attis
-Cybele was sprung from the earth, originally a bisexual deity but then reduced to a female, From the severed organ , an almond tree arose, Nana, the daughter of the god of the river Sangarios, picked a blossom from the tree and put it in her bosom; the blossom disappeared and Nana found out she was pregnant. When a son Attis was born, he was left to die but a goat raised him. Cybele fell in love with him but he loved another so Cybele drove him mad. He castrated himself and died. Cybele felt remorse and obtained Zeus' promise that his body would never decay. Like Adonis, Attis is another resurrection god who comes back to life with the rebirth of vegetation.
Aphrodite and Anchises
-Zeus caused Aphrodite herself to fall in love with a man because he did not want her to continue her boasts that she in her power had joined the immortal gods and goddesses in love with mortals to to beget mortal children but had no such experience herself. Out of their union was born Aeneas who will rule among the Trojans.
Eros
-Eros, the male counterpart of Aphrodite shares many of her characteristics. He may be the early cosmic deity in the creation myths of Hesiod and the Orphics or the son of Aphrodite and Ares. He is closely associated with her as her attendant. He is often the god of male homosexuality.
-The symposium of Plato provides a most profound analysis of the manifold nature and power of love, especially in terms of a conception of Eros. The dialogue tells of a select gathering at the house of Agathon, a poet and each guest in turn is asked to expound on the subject of love. Those of Socrates and Aristophanes are the most rewarding.
Aristophanes' speech in the Symposium
-Before launching his speech, Aristophanes warns the group that his eulogy to love may be more absurd than funny. His speech is an explanation of why people in love say they feel "whole" when they have found their love partner. It is, he says, because in primal times people were globular spheres who wheeled around like clowns doing cartwheels. There were three sexes: the all male, the all female, and the "androgynous," who was half man, half woman. The creatures tried to scale the heights of heaven and planned to set upon the gods.. Zeus thought about just blasting them to death with thunderbolts, but did not want to deprive himself of their devotions and offerings, so he decided to cripple them by chopping them in half. After chopping the people in half, Zeus turned half their faces around and pulled the skin tight and stitched it up to form the belly button. Ever since that time, people run around saying they are looking for their other half because they are really trying to recover their primal nature. He says some people think homosexuals are shameless, but he thinks they are the bravest, most manly of all, and that heterosexuals are mostly adulterous men and unfaithful wives. Aristophanes ends on a cautionary note. He says that men should fear the gods, and not neglect to worship them, lest they wield the axe again and we have to go about with our noses split apart.
Socrates' speech in the Symposium
-He says that love is a sublime elucidation of the highest spiritual attainments that Eros can inspire. -Socrates describes what he has learned about Love from the Matinean woman, Diotima. Apparently it was she who put right Socrates¶ own misguided belief that Love was a great god, and was of beautiful things. The true nature of Eros is neither good and beautiful not bad and ugly, but in nature lies somewhere between the two, therefore he is not a god. Diotima answers Socrates question about the origin of Eros with the story of his birth. He is the son of Poverty and Resource who met at the celebrations for the birth of Aphrodite. His attachment to Aphrodite and all things beautiful springs from this, and he also shares his mothers neediness and his father¶s resourcefulness. He oscillates between flourishing and dying and also stands between wisdom and ignorance. Love does seek wisdom because he stands between ignorance and wisdom. Discussion proceeds into the usefulness of Love to mankind and it leads to the conclusion that Love has many forms which are encompassed in the desire for good things and being happy. Apparently, pursuing love is all about the begetting of beautiful things, either with the body or through the soul. Fortunately, Socrates doesn¶t follow this so we get the explanation that at a certain age, men yearn to beget things to win themselves a sort of immortality. Beauty is a necessary addition as they only want to beget beautiful things, and draw back from ugliness. So, after all, love is not love of the beautiful, but love of engendering and begetting upon the beautiful. Love is love of immortality as well as of good because µlove is of permanent possession of the good¶. So now Diotima take us on to discover the cause of love and desire. Love makes people beget and nurture and protect the things they bring to birth, even if it costs their own lives. This desire is obviously caused by the wish to brings themselves as close as possible to immortality by leaving behind a new creature. Even as men age, they constantly renew themselves. We also lose knowledge through forgetfulness and re-grow it by study giving the impression we keep it the same all the time. This losing and growing lets a mortal taste immortality. The most divine men will seek beauty not only of body but of soul upon which to beget and also lead that which they beget upon in education. So «. men who take younger men as lovers have a very strong relationship because their children are children of the soul rather than human children.
Cupid and Psyche
-Once upon a time, a certain king and queen had three daughters, of whom Psyche, the youngest was the most beautiful. Many believed that she was Venus reincarnated that the goddess became outraged and sent her son Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with him. Instead, Cupid himself fell in love with her. She stayed unmarried because she was admired so her father suspected that a god's wrath was responsible He consulted Apollo who demanded that she be decked out like a corpse and placed on a mountaintop to be wed by a terrifying serpent. Once there, she fell asleep and the gentle breezes wafted her down to a valley, into a palace. At a night a stranger would come to her but depart in the morning. Her sisters went to search for her but her unknown husband told her not to respond to them. However, she finally got his permission to see them. Her sisters became jealous and her husband told her that she was pregnant and that if she told her sisters his identity, the child would be mortal and if she didn't, the child would be divine. Her sisters, out of jealously told Psyche that her husband was actually a monster and that he would kill her after she gave birth. However, the night she decided to kill him, she saw his real identity. She by accident, hurt her finger on one of his arrows and fell in love with him. Cupid, angered that she saw his identity, left her and punished the sisters. Venus, angered by her son's sorrow denounced and abused her and imposed upon her a series of impossible tasks. First, she was ordered to sort out before nightfall a variety of grains but ants came to her help. The next day, venus ordered her to get wool from dangerous sheep but this time, a reed helped her. Venus then ordered her to descend into the realm of Hades. Psyche was told her to take a box to Persephone and ask her to send back in it a fragment of her own beauty. In despair, Psyche tried to commit suicide by jumping off a tower but the tower told her the instructions into the underworld and told her never to look into the box. Psyche however could not resist and she was enveloped by the deathlike sleep that was actually in the box. Cupid, flew to Psyche's rescue and Psyche was made into a immortal.
Sappho's Aphrodite
-We do not know much about Sappho's life and career. She was devoted to Aphrodite and to the young women with whom she was associated. From Sappho comes the term lesbian and lesbian love. In a fervent poem she calls on Aphrodite for help to win back the love of a young woman with who she has been involved.