Aphrodite
by CTCWeb Editors
The Many Faces of Aphrodite
As the goddess of Love, Aphrodite has a reputation in ancient Greek texts as both a positive and a negative force. The anthropomorphic version of Aphrodite possesses all manner of allurements that can be both good and bad. Aphrodite could represent purity and what the Greeks considered the common act of sexual intercourse. Students should look at following primary text entries for Aphrodite and investigate the many aspects of Aphrodite’s “personality.”
Positive
Euripides, Alcestis line 790 - In this play, Herakles refers to Aphrodite as the “sweetest gods to mortals.”
Euripides, Bacchae line 774 - A messenger says that without wine there is no pleasure for men. These pleasures include the act of “Aphrodite,” or love making.
Homer, Iliad Book 5.313-316 - Here she is the maternal figure as she shelters Aeneas, her son, against the throws of the Greeks.
Homer, Iliad Book 5.370 - Aphrodite acts as a child when Diomedes wounds her in battle and she runs to her mother for support.
Homer, Iliad Book 14.215 - Aphrodite passed the broidered zone that holds all allurements on to Hera so that Hera can seduce Zeus.
Homer, Iliad Book 23.185 - Aphrodite protects Hektor’s body from the tearing of dogs and Achilles wrath.
Pausanias, Guide to Greece 2.32.7 - Aphrodite Nymphia (Bridal), made by Theseus when he took Helen as his wife.
Pausanias, Guide to Greece 9.16.4 - “Harmonia gave to Aphrodite the surname of Heavenly to signify a love pure and free from bodily lust; that of Common, to denote sexual intercourse; the third, that of Rejecter, that mankind might reject unlawful passion and sinful acts.”
Negative
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1149b - Aristotle refers to Aphrodite and the crafty desire she puts in the hearts of men as disgraceful. The unrestraint she causes is a vice.
Bacchylides, Ode 17 line 115 - Bacchylides attaches the epitaph of “Deceptive” to the name of Aphrodite.
Euripides, Andromache line 288 - The chorus calls the words of Aphrodite destructive since they lead to the destruction of Troy.
Euripides, Hippolytus lines 10-15 - Aphrodite denounces Hippolytus who shuns her and believes her to be the basest of the gods.
Hesiod, Works and Days 65 - Hesiod describes the making of Pandora at which Aphrodite gives grace and “cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs” to Pandora.
Homer, Odyssey Book 4.260 - Aphrodite blinded Helen so that she left behind her child, husband and homeland for the love of another man.
Homer, Odyssey Book 8.266 - This is the story of Ares and Aphrodite's affair.
Pausanias, Guide to Greece 1.40.6 - Known as Aphrodite Epistrophia (She who turns men to love).
Pausanias, Guide to Greece 9.16.4 - “Harmonia gave to Aphrodite the surname of Heavenly to signify a love pure and free from bodily lust; that of Common, to denote sexual intercourse; the third, that of Rejecter, that mankind might reject unlawful passion and sinful acts.”
