Quick viewing(Text Mode)

Classical Myth

Classical Myth

Global Global edition edition Global edition Classical Myth For these Global Editions, the editorial team at Pearson has Classical Myth collaborated with educators across the world to address a EIGHTH edition wide range of subjects and requirements, equipping students with the best possible learning tools. This Global Edition preserves the cutting-edge approach and pedagogy of the original, but also features alterations, customization, and adaptation from the North American version. EI GH T H edition Powell

This is a special edition of an established title widely used by colleges and universities throughout the world. Pearson published this exclusive edition for the benefit of students outside the United States and Canada. If you purchased this book within the United States or Canada you should be aware that it has been imported without the approval of the Publisher or Author. Barry B. Powell

Pearson Global Edition

Powell_1292066148_mech.indd 1 19/12/14 9:39 AM A01_POWE6141_08_GE_FM.indd 2 20/12/14 12:41 AM Chapter 9 , , and 223

Demeter, Mistress of Wheat

Whereas Gaea/Earth was the female power who presided over the birth of the world, (de-m e¯ -ter) was the mother-goddess who oversaw the fruitfulness of agriculture, especially wheat. The -meter part of her name means “mother,” but the De- has eluded convincing explanation. We wish it could mean “wheat” or “earth” so that Demeter is the “wheat-mother” or the “earth-mother” but the etymology seems unlikely. Surely wherever wheat was grown, Demeter’s religion was strong, especially at the town of Eleusis near and in Sicily. Both in myth and in cult Demeter was closely linked to her daughter Persephonê; the two were called simply “the ­goddesses.” We devote all of Chapter 10 to discussing the important myths of Demeter and Persephonê and related stories.

Hestia, The Hearth

Hestia was the eldest child of and , the first swallowed and the last regurgitated. Her name means “hearth.” She is the Roman and the most col- orless of the Olympians, being nothing more than the fireplace in every house: There was her shrine and her presence, protectress of the home. She defined the internal space of the female world, for it was the duty of the women in the family to tend the domestic fire. By extension Hestia was also protectress of the city, the enlarged family, which sometimes kept a central hearth. In Athens, she was associ- ated with a special building where the magistrates of the city dined together as members of the civic family. Few stories are told about her, and according to many accounts, ­ took her place among the . She was always virgin and never left Olympus, as did the other . There she was the center of the divine household, even as the hearth was the center of the human family. Her Roman counterpart, Vesta, was treated as the chief symbol of the city of Rome. Vesta’s shrine, tended by six virgins, contained an undying flame.

Aphrodite, Goddess of Sexual Love

Aphrodite (later identified with the Roman ) embodies the overwhelming power of human sexual attraction. Her constant companion, or child by , is , “sexual desire” (the Roman ). In art he is a winged boy with bow and arrows or a flaming torch (a figure still familiar on Valentine’s Day; see ­Figure 5.3), a mischievous, irresponsible child, showering his arrows randomly and without regard for the harm born from the sexual passion he arouses. derives Aphrodite by a folk etymology from aphros, “foam,” but the goddess is certainly not Greek in origin, nor is her name. Most scholars think that the name must somehow be a distortion of that of the Eastern goddess of fertility variously known as Inanna, Ishtar, or Astartê (which themselves appear to be distor- tions of a single name). The goddess evidently came to Greece through Cyprus, a frequent point of transmission of Eastern culture to the West. At Paphos, in south- western Cyprus, she was worshiped as early as the twelfth century bc in the form

# 151248 Cust: Pearson Au: Powell Pg. No. 223 K DESIGN SERVICES OF M09_POWE6141_08_GE_CH09.indd 223 S4carli19/12/14sle 4:58 PM Title: Classical Myth 8/e Server: Short / Normal Publishing Services 224 Part II Divine Myth

of a polished conical stone (which has survived, displayed today in the museum at Paphos on Cyprus). There the Greeks may first have learned about her. Her cult was also important on the island of Cythera, south of the Peloponnesus, where ­Phoenicians had a settlement. Other important temples were built to her in Sicily, where there were also Phoenician colonies, and in Corinth, a gathering place for seafarers of various nationalities. Greek myth preserves a clear sense of Aphrodite’s connection with Cyprus and Cythera, both places said to be where the goddess first came to land after rising from the sea foam, and she was often referred to in litera- ture as Cypris (si-pris) or Cytherea (sith-er-e¯ -a). A striking feature of the worship of Aphrodite and Inanna/Ishtar/Astartê was temple prostitution. Women, often of good birth, voluntarily served in her temples, where they had intercourse with men who paid in the form of offerings to the - dess. Such service was a kind of ransom paid to the fecundating power of the god- dess and ensured large families to the woman, once she married. Actual prehistoric maiden sacrifice may stand behind the practice: Rather than giving up her life, the girl surrendered her virginity “in honor of the goddess.” The sometimes prudish Greeks had no taste for the practice, but temple prostitution did occur in temples to Aphrodite at Corinth and Cythera. , who lived in the late seventh or early sixth century bc on the island of Lesbos and who was celebrated as “the tenth Muse,” wrote one of the prettiest poems about Aphrodite. Nothing certain is known about Sappho’s life or about the audience for her poetry. She is famous for her erotic celebration of women, but the social environment in which such poetry was performed has been the topic of con- troversy since ancient times. Not until after classical times was her poetry considered to be homoerotic (hence our word lesbian). We have no information how or where her poetry was first performed, except we can be sure that it was in a public context. Some of her poetry must have been performed at weddings, the one occasion in which it was possible to celebrate pub- licly a young woman’s erotic appeal. In her “Hymn to Aphrodite,” she declares the love-goddess’s power to sway the hearts even of the unwilling, while, ironically, leav- ing no doubt that the present situation has occurred many times before:

Fancy-throned deathless Aphrodite, deceitful child of , I entreat you, do not overwhelm my heart with pains and anguish, O lady,

come to me, if ever in the past you heard my voice and came acquiescing, leaving your father’s golden house,

yoking your car. Beautiful swift sparrows, with wings whirring brought you over the dark earth down from heaven, through

# 151248 Cust: Pearson Au: Powell Pg. No. 224 K DESIGN SERVICES OF M09_POWE6141_08_GE_CH09.indd 224 S4carli19/12/14sle 4:58 PM Title: Classical Myth 8/e Server: Short / Normal Publishing Services Chapter 9 Aphrodite, Artemis, and Athena 225

the middle air, and soon they arrived. You, with a smile on your immortal face asked what was it now and why did I call,

and what, especially, in my mad heart did I want to happen this time. “Whom do I persuade to return again to your love? Who, O Sappho,

brings you harm? If she runs soon she will pursue. If she will not take your gifts, soon she shall give. If she does not love,

soon she shall love against her will.” Come to me, me free from anguish! Give me my desire! Be yourself my companion in arms! Sappho, fragment 1 (Diehl)

At Sappho’s request Aphrodite comes swooping down in her chariot drawn by ­sparrows—often it is doves or swans. And Aphrodite launches her powers on ­Sappho’s behalf, drawing to her her beloved.

Hermaphroditus and

In addition to her affair with Ares, Aphrodite had an affair with the messenger- god , by whom she gave birth to (her--fro-d ı¯ -tus), a boy of remarkable beauty. tells a famous story about him: One day a , (sal-ma-sis), noticed him wandering in the woods, fell hope- lessly in love, and urged that they sleep together. Innocent Hermaphroditus ran away in confusion. Later, when Hermaphroditus dipped into a spring for a bath, ­Salmacis leaped in and clung to him tightly, praying that they never be separated. They were fused into one being with a woman’s breasts but a man’s genitals. The slightly titillating bisexual Hermaphroditus was a common subject of art in late antiquity. Another child of Aphrodite, whose father was reputedly Dionysus or Hermes, was Priapus (prı¯-a¯ -pus), an amusing Asiatic garden-deity and fertility fetish with an enormous erect , who warded off the (as did a herm’s phallus and the phalli on the processional way at ). His name is not Greek, and he does not appear until late Hellenistic times. He was especially popular among the Romans, who suspended little tablets with clever, highly obscene poetry from the god’s phallus, warning of the most unpleasant sexual consequences to any ­unwelcome intruder (Figure 9.1).

# 151248 Cust: Pearson Au: Powell Pg. No. 225 K DESIGN SERVICES OF M09_POWE6141_08_GE_CH09.indd 225 S4carli19/12/14sle 4:58 PM Title: Classical Myth 8/e Server: Short / Normal Publishing Services 226 Part II Divine Myth

FIGURE 9.1 Priapus, the garden-god, weighs his phallus against a bag of gold (it seems an even contest!), c. ad 70. Priapus wears a Phrygian cap (Phrygia is home to fertility cults) and Phrygian boots. His as- sociation with Dionysus is indicated by the wand (thyrsus) to his left, his power over gardens by the bowl of fruit at his feet. He seems to hold a pruning hook (?) in the crook of his left arm. (, ; Scala / Art Resource, New York)

Pygmalion

Except for the affair between Aphrodite and Ares, all important stories about ­Aphrodite are set outside Greece, reflecting her Eastern origins. Her strong ­connections with Cyprus and with Eastern myth appear in traditions about the Cypriote royal house, best known through Ovid’s story of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, who had become disgusted with the profligate and immoral behavior of Cypriote women. In many respects, the story is a recasting of Hesiod’s story of Pandora, set not in the early days of the world, but now in the age of heroes:

[243] Pygmalion observed these women leading their shameful lives. horrified by the vices of which nature has planted such plenty 245 in the mind of their sex, he started by living a celibate life, sharing his bed with no one. He presently carved himself a statue with delicate skill, of ivory, pure white, possessing a beauty greater than any mortal woman could ever hope to attain— and promptly conceived a passion for the product of his own hand. 250 The figure was that of a maiden so real you might think it alive [Figure 9.2].

# 151248 Cust: Pearson Au: Powell Pg. No. 226 K DESIGN SERVICES OF M09_POWE6141_08_GE_CH09.indd 226 S4carli19/12/14sle 4:58 PM Title: Classical Myth 8/e Server: Short / Normal Publishing Services Chapter 9 Aphrodite, Artemis, and Athena 227

FIGURE 9.2 Aphrodite Anadyomenê, “rising from the bath,” of Cyrene in Libya. By 1912 northern Libya was wrested from the Ottoman Turks and became a colony of Italy. The Venus of Cyrene was discovered in 1913, when rains washed away the soil in the sanctuary of in the ruins of the colony of Cyrene. The statue was then taken to Rome. Such statues are all inspired by a celebrated work by Praxiteles, fourth century bc, made as the cult statue of Aphrodite for her temple at Cnidus in southwest Minor. Such statues stand behind Ovid’s story. They were so popular that about 360 survive. Whereas the earliest Greek sculpture, from the eighth century bc, represented males naked, women were represented clothed. About Prax- iteles’ radical original nude, Aphrodite reportedly asked, “When did Praxiteles­ see me naked?” The soft, languorous, sensuous style of Praxiteles, with the S-curve of the body, continued to influence sculptural styles for hundreds of years. The nudity of the goddess is explained by her having just arisen from a bath, taken in antiquity by pouring water over the body from a jug, here one in the shape of a dolphin. She probably covered her pelvis with one hand, the other held across her breasts, a pos- ture taken from ancient Eastern sculpture. (Roman copy of a Greek original from the third century bc, c. 100 bc. Formerly exhibited at the Museo Nazionale Romano [Terme di Diocleziano], Rome, and returned to Libya in 2008, where its fate is unknown. Alinari / Art Resource, New York)

Perhaps she wanted to move, and only decorum restrained her; the skillful sculptor employed his skill in concealing his skill. Pygmalion gazed at his work, his heart inflamed with love for the counterfeit girl he had made. Again and again his hands 255 uncertainly fondled the work—is it ivory, or is it real flesh? At last he persuaded himself that the statue was ivory no longer. Pressing his kisses upon it, he was sure each kiss was returned. Whispering, he hugged closer—did his fingers sink in the flesh?

# 151248 Cust: Pearson Au: Powell Pg. No. 227 K DESIGN SERVICES OF M09_POWE6141_08_GE_CH09.indd 227 S4carli19/12/14sle 4:58 PM Title: Classical Myth 8/e Server: Short / Normal Publishing Services

Top View