The theo-eroticism of mythmaking about Aphrodite’s love for boys like Adonis The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Nagy, Gregory. 2021.01.09. "The theo-eroticism of mythmaking about Aphrodite’s love for boys like Adonis." 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Please refer to captions for information about copyright of individual images. Citing Articles from Classical Inquiries To cite an article from Classical Inquiries, use the author’s name, the date, the title of the article, and the following persistent identifer: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:Classical_Inquiries. For example: Nagy, G. 2019.01.31. “Homo Ludens at Play with the Songs of Sappho: Experiments in Comparative Reception Teory, Part Four.” Classical Inquiries. http://nrs.harvard.edu/ urn-3:hul.eresource:Classical_Inquiries. The theo-eroticism of mythmaking about Aphrodite’s love for boys like Adonis Gregory Nagy JANUARY 9, 2021 | By Gregory Nagy 2021.01.09 | By Gregory Nagy §0. In a previous study, I used the term theo-eroticism as a way of describing a kind of sexuality that gets transformed into something sublime by way of blending eroticism with divinity. In line with terminology used by exegetes of the Bible in their interpretations of some intensely erotic situations pictured in the Song of Songs, I experimented with applying the terms of such biblical exegesis to ancient Greek myths. And, following the biblical model, my experimentation in that study concentrated on the sexuality of “divinity” as a male principle. But what about sexuality as a divinely female principle? In the present study, I will attempt to make up for neglecting, in my previous study, the most obvious exemplar of a sexually active female divinity, who is none other than the goddess Aphrodite herself. I will concentrate, however, on only one of the many surviving aspects of myth-making about Aphrodite’s sexuality, which is, the passionate love of this adult female immortal for a pre-adult male mortal, the boy Adonis. The mythical world of this divine love, as I hope to show, was quite real for real people in the real world of pre-modern times, ancient times. When I say “real people” here, I mean people who, back then, actually worshipped Aphrodite as the goddess of love and who would therefore actually think that the various dierent myths centering on such a divine love were relevant to the various dierent ritual practices that were intimately connected to their own life-experiences, especially when it comes to love, death, and, possibly, a coming back to life after death—since the ancient myths were telling them about a yearly resurrection of Adonis through the agency of Aphrodite’s love. For them, the boy Adonis could thus be gured as a vital part of an overall model for thinking about their own lives in terms of love, death, and a possible afterlife. In the spirit of such a frame of mind, I start my essay here by showing a modern painting that illustrates, in its own romanticizing way, the theo-erotic power of Aphrodite in bringing Adonis back to life and love. Such power, I must add most emphatically, was already verbalized in the songs of Sappho. And, as we will see, it was also visualized in vase paintings, some of which date back to the Classical era of Athens. John William Waterhouse (1849–1917), The Awakening of Adonis. Andrew Lloyd Webber collection. Image via Wikimedia Commons. §1. Following up on the modern picture I just showed, I now turn to a comparably erotic ancient visualization that rearms, I think, the idea that Aphrodite did indeed bring Adonis back to life—or, to say it more accurately in terms of ritual practices that re-enact myth—that the goddess must bring her boy-love back to life again and again, every recurrent year, since Adonis must die every year, again and again. I will focus on a reference to such a visualization in a Classical Athenian painting that was inspired, as I argued in a previous essay (Nagy 2020.10.30, linked here), by songs of Sappho about Aphrodite’s love for Adonis. It is a painting created in Athens by the so-called Meidias Painter, who lived in the fth century BCE. I have already shown, in the previous essay just cited (at §5 there), a line drawing of the central erotic scene that is pictured by the painter, and I now show it again here: Red-figure hydria. Florence, Museo Archeologico 81948. Line-drawing by Noel Spencer, aided by Natasha Bershadsky. Featured in this close-up is Adonis at the center, attended by Aphrodite and by a winged Eros. Also attending is a lady who is teasing her pet sparrow. For the overall painting, I cite the Beazley Archive, here. But now I also show, by way of two side-by-side line drawings, a closer look at some salient details featured in this erotic scene: Red-figure hydria by the Meidias Painter. Florence, Museo Archeologico 81948. Details: lady teasing bird; Aphrodite with Adonis, who gazes, dazed, at Eros and his magic wheel (now mostly lost). Line drawings by Jill Robbins. In the left frame we see a female beauty teasing a small bird that is perched on her index nger, and I have already argued, in the previous essay I just cited, that the choreography of her gesture was inspired, as it were, by a poetic moment, now lost, in the songs of Sappho. And then, in the right frame, we see Adonis being caressed from behind by a female beauty who is Aphrodite herself, while a winged Eros is spinning a magic wheel to arouse the love of the languid boy for the goddess. We have seen it all before, in the previous essay. But I draw special attention, this time around, to the attempt of Eros at arousing Adonis with the magic wheel of love, called a iunx, which may be correlated with the kind of little bird that is perched on the other female beauty’s nger—a bird that art historians are tempted to identify with the wryneck, likewise called a iunx. Here too, we have seen it all before—in the essay preceding this one (§5 in Nagy 2020.12.31, linked here). For good measure, however, since the painting of the magic wheel of love is in this case fragmented, I now show a more visible attestation of such a iunx, and we see it being spun here again by a winged Eros: Photo and cast of gilded copper ring: Eros playing with a iunx/iynx (magical wheel on a string). From Egypt, probably of Greek manufacture, ca. 300 BCE. British Museum #1888,0601.1. Image via British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). §2. Having taken a closer look at these details featured in the erotic scene painted by the Meidias Painter, I have by now come to the conclusion that Adonis here is being brought back to life by way of concerted attempts to bring back his sexual desire for the goddess. To put it another way, Adonis is not about to die in this picture. He has already died, and I have in fact already analyzed in previous essays the mourning for Adonis by Aphrodite and by her cupids and by all the female beauties who attend the goddess (I refer especially to §§8–10 in Nagy 2020.11,13, linked here). This is not to say, however, that Adonis will not die again. He will, next year, only to be brought back to life again, next year, and I will have more to say later about the cyclical death and resurrection of this boy-love of Aphrodite. Also, the same can be said for the little bird that is perched on the index nger of the female beauty in this same painting by the Meidias Painter: it too, like Adonis, can die and be mourned and then get resurrected every recurring year.